Latest Hockey Arena Update (Approved) | Page 4 | The Boneyard

Latest Hockey Arena Update (Approved)

Chin Diesel said:
No skin in the fight and it's way too late for changes, but make the scoreboard smaller to save some $$$$, boost the wifi inside the building and add 3-4 more rows of seats on second level to get you to 4k seats.

I get the big huge scoreboard thing is a thing nowadays but most people spend more time on their phone socializing than they do staring at a big scoreboard. There's a huge difference between AT&T in Texas where there are 100k+ fans at a game and your seat may be 70 yards from the field. A big scoreboard with video enhances the game experience. A hockey rink this size? You can watch action quite nicely with you eyes.

I mentioned in another thread I was up in Fairbanks back in March. The hockey rink for Alaska-Fairbanks hockey team was used for a vaccination site. It was a perfect size for a hockey rink.

4600 seats for hockey, a few hundred more for hoops and over 6300 for indoor events needing floor seating.

This reeks of the same issues when Gampel was originally built. I'd say it is also like the Rent but at least the Rent is outside and was designed for expansion. Expanding an outdoor stadium is much easier than adding seating to a building which is walled in and has a roof.

Seems like baseball and soccer fields are the only two they did right.

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Nailed it - first thing I thought is that they "Gampeled" the plan.
 
Been a harpy about it but the lounge should be replaced with bench seating for a net gain of about 300 seats.
 
Duncan Idaho said:
Been a harpy about it but the lounge should be replaced with bench seating for a net gain of about 300 seats.
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If they did people would still complain about the size, but they would add to it complaints about the concessions.

Benedict needs to be able to answer the question why the facility seems to cost so much more for what’s been put in than other venues. I’m sure there’s an answer, but he needs to know what it is and explain it publicly.
 
Have we gotten any write-ups about the new arena from the CT sports guys? Jacobs, Anthony? I'd assume they would talk to Cavanaugh and Benedict if they wanted to cover it from all angles.
 
The Viking said:
Have we gotten any write-ups about the new arena from the CT sports guys? Jacobs, Anthony? I'd assume they would talk to Cavanaugh and Benedict if they wanted to cover it from all angles.
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Don't know if they read the hockey threads. You'd think they be all over this. It is a good offseason story.
 
CL82 said:
Benedict needs to be able to answer the question why the facility seems to cost so much more for what’s been put in than other venues. I’m sure there’s an answer, but he needs to know what it is and explain it publicly.
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This is 97% of why I have such a bug up my butt about it. Can they try explaining it to us like adults, please?
 
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zls44 said:
The price tag for the size just absolutely does not pass the smell test, union labor or not.
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My guess is UConn will probably cite this as the reason why. No idea if this truly explains what happened hear but that would be my guess (supposedly lumber costs have increased 180% in the last 12 months):

Sky-high construction costs force developers to get creative​

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston...h-construction-costs-developers-creative.html

EDIT: Didn't realize Sacred Heart facility hasn't been built yet. That's a head scratcher then. As someone else noted and the article below it says the issue is public v. private schools but I dunno how much I buy that...
 
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Storrs South said:
My guess is UConn will probably cite this as the reason why. No idea if this truly explains what happened hear but that would be my guess (supposedly lumber costs have increased 180% in the last 12 months):

Sky-high construction costs force developers to get creative​

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston...h-construction-costs-developers-creative.html
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There isn’t much of a “supposedly” about it. The big box store I work at was selling OSB plywood at about $10 a sheet last year, and now it’s about $40. Same goes for almost any lumber in store.
 
The Viking said:
Have we gotten any write-ups about the new arena from the CT sports guys? Jacobs, Anthony? I'd assume they would talk to Cavanaugh and Benedict if they wanted to cover it from all angles.
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CL82 said:
Don't know if they read the hockey threads. You'd think they be all over this. It is a good offseason story.
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One would say they do...




Alternate access reading link here:

->“There’s a lot of people saying, ‘Why is it costing so much to build a small arena?’” said Dan Toscano, Board of Trustees chair. “I'm sure there are people out there who would say, ‘Why are they spending all this money?’ … The union situation in New England construction makes it expensive. As a public university we have all sorts of requirements we have to live by. If UConn were a private university, this project would not cost as much. That's a reality of life. It's embedded in all the construction that that state of Connecticut does and, frankly, most states.” <-

->Sacred Heart’s arena capacity will be 4,000. Some wonder why UConn’s isn’t, also. “I promise you, you can walk into a lot of athletic departments and find a lot of plans that have been designed but never been built,” athletic director David Benedict said. “If you design pie in the sky, it never gets done. This is a project where we needed to hit a budget target, which in this case was $70 million, and it's going to be a fantastic facility. We had to design a project where we could get everything that we wanted out of it for the amount of money we could afford. There are a lot of people who want a bigger house, but if you can't afford it, you can't buy it.” <-

-> Benedict said UConn consulted most other Hockey East members during the building planning phases. “Nobody told me we should be building something bigger,” Benedict said. “Nobody said, ‘Dave, you're crazy, you have to build something at 4,000 seats.’ Everyone said, ‘Dave, we can't fill our arenas every game.’ We'd much rather have a sold-out arena every game. And most of the people that sit on the side of the desk I’m on would tell you [they would] much rather walk into a facility that is jam-packed and you can't get a ticket than walk into one that's got 1,000 extra seats so you can say, 'Look how big we built this.' It doesn't matter if you can't fill. Filing them once out of 10 games versus filing them every night is different. If you can say this is sold-out every single night, that creates something. And hopefully that is what we'll have.” <-

->“It was probably May [2020] when one of our trustees asked if we should really be going through this construction process in the middle of a pandemic,” Toscano said. “But the translation in construction to waiting is higher cost. If we wait, the cost is going to go up. We had sort of worn out our welcome with Hockey East on getting this thing done, and it may well end up being quite a bit cheaper. … I'm excited to unlock potential and excited to have a home for our hockey programs that reflect who we are as a university and reflect our programming in athletics.” Costs and timelines have, “changed based on going through the public/private [options] and doing it as a university project, and ultimately what we thought we could really build it for and what the university and the [athletic department] thought we could fund,” Benedict said. <-

-> “This puts forward our best and most talented people,” Toscano said of athletic facility construction. “I'm totally good with it and I think it's good for the state. If you want to sit down with sharp pencil and calculator and try to figure it out, I think you’re looking at it the wrong way. If you look at public universities around the country and some of the crazy things they have going on in athletics, we run a spartan ship, comparatively. I can stand in front of any legislative committee or governor or staff and talk about how this all makes sense, and I feel really good about it.” <-
 
Storrs South said:
My guess is UConn will probably cite this as the reason why. No idea if this truly explains what happened hear but that would be my guess (supposedly lumber costs have increased 180% in the last 12 months):

Sky-high construction costs force developers to get creative​

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston...h-construction-costs-developers-creative.html

EDIT: Didn't realize Sacred Heart facility hasn't been built yet. That's a head scratcher then. As someone else noted and the article below it says the issue is public v. private schools but I dunno how much I buy that...
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The cost for all construction materials across the board are up. Concrete, reinforcing bars, structural steel, lumber. Just because SHU has an OPC (opinion of probable cost) that says they can build their arena for “X” amount of dollars doesn’t mean the project will come in at that price.
 
3000 is even reasonable to pack the building. The Ivies themselves draw very well when their teams play well. Smallest rink for D1 college men's hockey in the state, compared to private schools?

Whatever they say. Maybe they should have moved quicker to build the damn facilities.
 
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Butch said:
Maybe they should have moved quicker to build the damn facilities.
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Exactly.

Did COVID make them drag this on for a decade? That is on THEM.
 
“Everyone said, Dave, we can’t fill our arenas every game.”

It’s nice to get confirmation of something I’ve been saying this whole time about the project.
 
zls44 said:
Exactly.

Did COVID make them drag this on for a decade? That is on THEM.
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Uh, no. BS. They had to wait because the PRM wouldn't let them build where they wanted to. Ironic, isn't it? The size was impacted by you!
 
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kingdobbs said:
There isn’t much of a “supposedly” about it. The big box store I work at was selling OSB plywood at about $10 a sheet last year, and now it’s about $40. Same goes for almost any lumber in store.
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We are building 3 modest single family houses that have increased by about 20,000 each since first proposed in January. The sad joke is if you pick out a sheet of plywood at the lumberyard by the time you get to the cash register the price has increased 25%. I don’t know what the issue is specifically with the costs of the rink but guessing that they have support facilities, locker rooms, training facilities, study areas etc that will exceed anything SHU will have. You won’t see it and I won’t see it.WE’ll see 200x85 ice sheet.
 
freescooter said:
We are building 3 modest single family houses that have increased by about 20,000 each since first proposed in January. The sad joke is if you pick out a sheet of plywood at the lumberyard by the time you get to the cash register the price has increased 25%. I don’t know what the issue is specifically with the costs of the rink but guessing that they have support facilities, locker rooms, training facilities, study areas etc that will exceed anything SHU will have. You won’t see it and I won’t see it.WE’ll see 200x85 ice sheet.
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I'm having some work done at my home and had the contractor buy and store the materials to lock in the price even though he was 30-60 days away from being able to do the work.
 
Mansfield residents are against UConn being a global destination...

They should be bought out using eminent domain.
 
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Butch said:
Mansfield residents are against UConn being a global destination...

They should be bought out using eminent domain.
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Yes, expedite my retirement relocation!
 
The New York-based pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. proposed building a $35 million animal vaccine laboratory on Horsebarn Hill, according to The Day. The Day said in 1998, the UConn administration extolled a new partnership with Pfizer that then Gov. John G. Rowland said would help “transform the state almost overnight” into a leader in biomedical research.However, ground was never broken because disputes over the site escalated.

The New York Times said Pfizer backed down after facing two lawsuits, the outrage of students and faculty and community opposition from a group called the Coalition to Save Horsebarn Hill, choosing to build a lab elsewhere rather than wait for the courts to decide.

this is probably the biggest screwup by the PRM. That lab site would have stimulated economic development in the eastern half of the state.
 
CL82 said:
The New York-based pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. proposed building a $35 million animal vaccine laboratory on Horsebarn Hill, according to The Day. The Day said in 1998, the UConn administration extolled a new partnership with Pfizer that then Gov. John G. Rowland said would help “transform the state almost overnight” into a leader in biomedical research.However, ground was never broken because disputes over the site escalated.

The New York Times said Pfizer backed down after facing two lawsuits, the outrage of students and faculty and community opposition from a group called the Coalition to Save Horsebarn Hill, choosing to build a lab elsewhere rather than wait for the courts to decide.

this is probably the biggest screwup by the PRM. That lab site would have stimulated economic development in the eastern half of the state.
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didn't this failure lead to a change in the law that would prevent PRM from having this ability again
 
husky8273 said:
didn't this failure lead to a change in the law that would prevent PRM from having this ability again
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Don’t know
 
Michigan State’s Munn Arena is a perfect design for a hockey rink. BU and UML are very similar. No need to reinvent the wheel, keep it simple and copy what works.
 
Mansfield really can’t stop UConn legally in the sense that as a state institution it doesn’t have to get local approvals. Municipalities are creatures of the state and have no authority over state (or federal) institutions. In fact, if it chose to do so, the state could eliminate all town government in an afternoon. But PRM can gum up the works, cause delays, get students all riled up, get legislators all riled up...so it’s better to work with them...the public-private thing also gums up the works. Towns might have mor authority in that case. Depends on the specific situation. Those can get complicated. Groton, I think, for example won a case about reviewing a Credit union built on the sub base because it was a private entity who would own it not the Navy. Had the Navy built it and leased it to the Bank, Groton is out.
 
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