Key tweets, and it's all gone to Hell.

[How Sway?!]

They'll drive in bad weather when the team is good. When the team is bad it can be sunny and 70 degrees and the tickets practically given away by the AD and the place will still be half empty.

So like any other sports fan?

 

[John]

So like any other sports fan?

this fan base is worse.

 

[JMick]

this fan base is worse.

Our fanbase is pretty average in this respect. It's just a culture thing and it's not worth reading much into it. If we were really bad then attendance in the AAC would have fallen off much harder than it did.

College sports are worshipped to a pretty unhealthy degree in parts of the country (the ones I assume you're comparing us to). It's not something you'd want to emulate.

 

[Drew]

You can’t even make a direct comparison to hoops playing games in Hartford as basketball at least also plays half their games on campus every year.

 

[CL82]

Do they have the space to build a stadium on the school campus?

Huge number of places with easy access to local roads.

I would say probably four leading places:
1. The athletic campus behind Toscano.
2. Off of Discovery Drive.
3. On or behind Horse Barn Hill, near the "UConn forest.
4. On the Mansfield Depot campus.

The one that makes the most sense to me is the athletic campus. There's plenty of room in the parking lots can provide parking for all of our athletic events including games at Gampel. When they built Toscano they did an environmental impact statement which shows no environmental issues. it is not on land that requires any approvals by Mansfield.

Horse Barn Hill is a visually significant part of campus. It isn't historic, as we found out when Pfizer proposed a co-venture with the university. If that were the only location on campus, I could think about it, but there's no need to put it there.

The depot campus really is slightly off-campus, or at least slightly off what most people think of is the campus. Again, if it were the only alternative it would be a viable one, but there are better choices.

Discovery Drive isn't a bad option and it has the easiest access on Route 44. That alone makes it worth considering, but I prefer having all the athletics in a single campus aesthetically and because it allows us to utilize things like the parking lot in more than one season. For what it's worth you could channel traffic one way on Hillside Road two get it from the athletic campus to Discovery Drive pretty easily.

 

[UConnJim]

I would say probably four leading places:
1. The athletic campus behind Toscano.
2. Off of Discovery Drive.
3. On or behind Horse Barn Hill, near the "UConn forest.
4. On the Mansfield Depot campus.

The one that makes the most sense to me is the athletic campus. There's plenty of room in the parking lots can provide parking for all of our athletic events including games at Gampel. When they built Toscano they did an environmental impact statement which shows no environmental issues. it is not on land that requires any approvals by Mansfield.

Horse Barn Hill is a visually significant part of campus. It isn't historic, as we found out when Pfizer proposed a co-venture with the university. If that were the only location on campus, I could think about it, but there's no need to put it there.

The depot campus really is slightly off-campus, or at least slightly off what most people think of is the campus. Again, if it were the only alternative it would be a viable one, but there are better choices.

Discovery Drive isn't a bad option and it has the easiest access on Route 44. That alone makes it worth considering, but I prefer having all the athletics in a single campus aesthetically and because it allows us to utilize things like the parking lot in more than one season. For what it's worth you could channel traffic one way on Hillside Road two get it from the athletic campus to Discovery Drive pretty easily.

Best option is at EO Smith HS for an on campus stadium.

 

[JMick]

if we had a P* opportunity that required an on-campus stadium, I have no doubt that it would happen.

Yeah if it's a condition to join then we'd do it. Personally I think it's the only way we'd do it. That's why we should get another feasibility study done asap.

 

[CL82]

Best option is at EO Smith HS for an on campus stadium.

That would be a cool option. I'm not sure that it's big enough, but I've never looked at it with that in mind. Keep in mind though that the university wanted to use that site for the hockey rink and offered to build a brand new high school on the Mansfield depot campus. Amazingly Mansfield turned that down.

 

[JMick]

That would be a cool option. I'm not sure that it's big enough, but I've never looked at it with that in mind. Keep in mind though that the university wanted to use that site for the hockey rink and offered to build a brand new high school on the Mansfield depot campus. Amazingly Mansfield turned that down.

Mansfield doesn't know what's good for themselves. The town has held back the school for it's entire history.

 

[CL82]

Mansfield doesn't know what's good for themselves. The town has held back the school for it's entire history.

It is what it is. Fortunately, we don't need approvals from Mansfield to build on the athletic campus. I'm not sure about other sites but I would guess that we would need approval on the depot campus.

 

[CL82]

For what it's worth these are three of the four sites that I mentioned:

 

[Storrs South]

The Rent was pretty awesome at it's peak from 2007-2011 and that's coming from someone that was making the bus trip. The atmosphere in and outside the stadium was fantastic for students, alums, and fans.

The only negatives were 1) the bus ride itself was a time suck for students, but the student section was still full anyway so hardly a negative other than people's time, but 2) because of the bus, students left after the 3rd quarter most of the time to get back to campus and beat the bus line.

The problems are obvious and have already been stated here: the team needs to win, and not just win, but be good, which hasn't been the case in 13 years, and beat recognizable opponents (separate discussion that's been litigated 1,000x).

Secondarily, though, student habits around sports are not the same as they were a decade ago or even 5 years ago. Even if the team was just pretty good, I question how likely they'd actually go into the stadium.

I'm not going to act like I know the modern student that well, but anecdotally it feels like today's class of students at UConn are more studious and choosy of how to spend their time. "Why spend 6 hours in East Hartford to watch a 7-5 football team, when I can just spend 3 hours in a parking lot partying then go home." Then the supposed shutting down of much student tailgating post COVID doesn't help the situation either and further dissuades students from making the trip at all.

Anyway this is much ado about nothing in my opinion since I do not see a world where a stadium is built on campus unless something dramatically shifts and I'd give it like a <5% chance.

It took UConn Men's Basketball winning not 1, but 2 national championships back to back for the State and Athletic Department to get serious about renovating Gampel and I'm still unsure how substantial the changes will be. That's the type of mountain you are talking about climbing here.

 

[Vowelguy]

If we had a P* opportunity that required an on-campus stadium, I have no doubt that it would happen.

And if I had a ham sandwich, I'd have a ham sandwich.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

this fan base is worse.

I agree with this statement when it comes to some of the fans.

 

[CL82]

And if I had a ham sandwich, I'd have a ham sandwich.

Well, it's good that you are a hungry husky, I guess.

 

[Waquoit]

And that is part of the reason why when the team isn't doing well, attendance drops off dramatically. There is no attachment to the stadium, the team and the college experience. There is no going back to the ole stomping grounds.

After the Baylor game, I read a Baylor beat guy say our student section was "the equal of any in the Big 12". All this "losing the college atmosphere" is just more piffle. The place was rocking when we were in the Big East.

 

[huskymedic]

And if I had a ham sandwich, I'd have a ham sandwich.

Mora wants his ham sandwich w/ lettuce, tomato & onions:

 

[Vowelguy]

Mora wants his ham sandwich w/ lettuce, tomato & onions:

I want a winning lotto ticket.

 

[shizzle787]

Mora wants his ham sandwich w/ lettuce, tomato & onions:

He knew both of these things going in. Don't use them as crutches.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

He knew both of these things going in. Don't use them as crutches.

Especially as he spent a few years as UCLA's head football coach. Not only did he know what the situation was at UConn prior to accepting the position, he had prior first hand experience running a program that had to commute ~30 minutes from their campus to the stadium where they played home games

 

[huskymedic]

Mora wants his ham sandwich w/ lettuce, tomato & onions:

He knew both of these things going in. Don't use them as crutches.

Especially as he spent a few years as UCLA's head football coach. Not only did he know what the situation was at UConn prior to accepting the position, he had prior first hand experience running a program that had to commute ~30 minutes from their campus to the stadium where they played home games

From Graham Chamberlain’s Storrs Central UConn Coach’s Road Show Recap:

-> After the event, I was able to get some time with Coach Mora to talk about the upcoming season. When asked about if he was discouraged coming off last season, he disagreed, saying “we have a lot of challenges here. There’s only two teams that are independent, us and Notre Dame (UMass is independent for this season, but will be joining the MAC in 2025), we don’t have an on campus stadium, so it’s hard. I don’t get discouraged...recognize the challenges, but don’t get discouraged.” <-

 

[MKH2317]

From Graham Chamberlain’s Storrs Central UConn Coach’s Road Show Recap:

-> After the event, I was able to get some time with Coach Mora to talk about the upcoming season. When asked about if he was discouraged coming off last season, he disagreed, saying “we have a lot of challenges here. There’s only two teams that are independent, us and Notre Dame (UMass is independent for this season, but will be joining the MAC in 2025), we don’t have an on campus stadium, so it’s hard. I don’t get discouraged...recognize the challenges, but don’t get discouraged.” <-

He got loud about not having money to pay for players- he got money to pay for players. Now he’s getting loud about not having an on campus stadium. Let’s hope the trend continues

 

[Bonamassa]

Let's attack the coach for telling it like it is. That'll show him!

 

[baggerbob]

You just signed Geno to a 5 year extension, the state helps with millions to balance the Athletic budget.
Uconn should have an on campus stadium.
You need a dome to use as a multipurpose stadium, all year round.
40,000 for football, 25,000 for Men and Women's basketball, concerts, graduations, state football tournaments and other events, such as big name concerts.
That would show all the conferences you were serious about sitting at the final table.

 

[coachcap]

You just signed Geno to a 5 year extension, the state helps with millions to balance the Athletic budget.
Uconn should have an on campus stadium.
You need a dome to use as a multipurpose stadium, all year round.
40,000 for football, 25,000 for Men and Women's basketball, concerts, graduations, state football tournaments and other events, such as big name concerts.
That would show all the conferences you were serious about sitting at the final table.

Somewhere in the catacombs there is an archive of blueprints that are the original renderings for Rentschler Field. The pages show a 50,000 seat domed multi-use facility for football with modifiers for basketball. Maybe it's time to dust them off & update them for current building codes. Would be less expensive than going back to Square 1...