Manuel comment on expanding the Rent

[Rumrunner]

xl will be phased out when new contract negotiated, the building will be a morgue
playing usf,ucf,smu,houston,seton hall,depaul, tulane. losing syracuse,pitt,nd,louisville,wvu takes a bite. don't be surprised if only 3 or 4 games are at xl.

the harvard game-9k at gampel-that was nice.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

I hope that UConn Hockey’s permanent home is not in Hartford, even if the XL is renovated. Hockey needs to be on campus where they can draw about 1,000 students a game to a 5K to 6K seat arena. Simply add a 5K/6K arena next to the current arena and use the current rink as a practice rink & a place to rent out to the community.

No major collegiate program is off-campus (BC, Michigan, Michigan St, Wisconsin, Minnesota, etc.). Only 3 programs average over 9K a game (N Dakota, Minn & Wisconsin). BC, arguably the best program in the last 5 or so years, only averages 6,500 a game.

As a sidebar, UConn currently ranks #54 of 58 teams with an average attendance of 750. At least it is better than when I was on-campus for a D-III hockey program and about 100 drunks in attendance as it was the only way to stay warm in an open-air rink.
http://www.uscho.com/stats/attendance/division-i-men/2011-2012/

 

[uconNYC]

xl will be phased out when new contract negotiated, the building will be a morgue
playing usf,ucf,smu,houston,seton hall,depaul, tulane. losing syracuse,pitt,nd,louisville,wvu takes a bite. don't be surprised if only 3 or 4 games are at xl.

the harvard game-9k at gampel-that was nice.

We normally have 16 home games a year. In the NNBE we will need to upgrade our schedule so we might have to sacrifice an extra home game to add a top 15 opponent on our schedule. So if we play 15 home games, I'd like to see us do a 12-2-1 schedule (12 games at Gampel, 2 games at Hartford and 1 game at Bridgeport). I believe the AD is more than justified to move games from Hartford on the premise that fans are just not showing up. Besides we're replacing the basketball games with Hockey East games.

 

[rich1122]

For all the pluses of having an on campus stadium there are plenty of minuses in leaving the Rent. Plenty of empty seats at Gampel these days. It's not like an on campus stadium will cure all our current ills.

The nobody should complain when we are a basketball only school.

 

[FDNY99]

I have posted this here before and someone backed up my info...a friend of mine works for the CT Dept of Public Works managing building projects. He told me that there are plans filed to expand Rentschler by 30,000 seats.

 

[Dann]

I have posted this here before and someone backed up my info...a friend of mine works for the CT Dept of Public Works managing building projects. He told me that there are plans filed to expand Rentschler by 30,000 seats.

may i please have tyhe address of this DPW building. thank you, hfd.

 

[FDNY99]

may i please have tyhe address of this DPW building. thank you, hfd.

The plans are filed and awaiting funding. When that is released the project will be completed.

 

[Whale22]

I agree with every thing above and don't think it's worth anyone's time at Uconn to figure out how to build a stadium in Storrs.

The part of your post where you mention the location within the state as being a factor (ie Storrs vice E Hartford) is laughable to the rest of the country.

You can get from Point A to Point B anywhere in the state of Ct in under 2 1/2 hours. Saying Storrs vs E Hartford matters for whether a fan from Fairfield County would attend is very sad.

Sad but true. I grew up in Newington and now live in Fairfield. I grew up going to Memorial Stadium with my old and man now bring my daughter to the Rent. I have 4 kids and they're all playing hockey. Time is now a major commodity. I missed 2 games since the Rent opened until this year when I only made 2. We have a crew of 9 that used to be 12. As we have all had kids, our ability to make the games on a regular basis has diminished. The growth of our families coinciding with a declining product on the field has unfortunately made the decision to stay and coach the kids much easier. I wish it were not that way. I was originally crushed the field was not on campus. I always hoped to take my kids their to sort of keep the tradition going. I now realize that the E Hartford location is ideal in terms of ease and unfortunately have not been on campus in over 10 years. "Saying Storrs vs E Hartford matters for whether a fan from Fairfield County would attend is very sad," (but unfortunately very true). To 80% of the people down this way Hartford might as well be Quebec City, but an even sadder fact is that Storrs to people in Fairfield County might as well be Winnipeg.

 

[upstater]

Before they can even think of a campus stadium, they have to build out Storrs. You need hotel rooms, restaurants, etc. Turn Storrs into Aspen with rolling hills. That's how the other rural campuses do it. Half the people come in the day before and stay after the game.

 

[Dann]

The plans are filed and awaiting funding. When that is released the project will be completed.

i understand that, but whats the adress of where they are being stored?

 

[uconnfan68]

I agree with every thing above and don't think it's worth anyone's time at Uconn to figure out how to build a stadium in Storrs.

The part of your post where you mention the location within the state as being a factor (ie Storrs vice E Hartford) is laughable to the rest of the country.

You can get from Point A to Point B anywhere in the state of Ct in under 2 1/2 hours. Saying Storrs vs E Hartford matters for whether a fan from Fairfield County would attend is very sad.

It's all in what you're used to. Living in Florida you must understand why the native are wearing winter coats while the tourists are in t-shirts.

 

[FDNY99]

i understand that, but whats the adress of where they are being stored?

Dept of Construction Services
165 Capital Ave
RM 460
Hartford

 

[ZooCougar]

Susan has been selling a vision these past few days - Research, Tech Lab etc.

This quote from Warde still feels like monitoring. Warde needs to be selling his vision. "We will have a championship football program and expanded stadium by 2015". There. Done. Now put the strategy and tactics in place to make that happen Warde. I took care of the vision thing for you since you will not articulate one.

Strategy is what needs to be done. The Strategy should be to position ourselves and act like a champion. Tactics are how you do it.

Right now we are woefully short on both.

 

[minidarren]

While a stadium on-campus in Storrs sounds great, it will not happen because 1) the land targeted for the stadium is now part of the Tech Center development, 2) the roads around Storrs cannot handle traffic to/from Gampel, which holds roughly 10,000, never mind a 50K stadium, 3) the state pumped millions into the rent less than 15 years ago, 4) the state is really bad financial shape and will continue to be so for a while, 5) and an on-campus stadium may draw less non-students due to #2 and because it if 30 minutes farther from Fairfield County.
I honestly do not think a 40K stadium is a major road block to joining the ACC or (praying to whatever deity works) the BiG. As long as UConn has passion, i.e. can sell it out, which is not the case today, and focus on football (practice facility good, PP as coach bad), The Rent can be expanded down the road when sell-outs become an issue.

Not for nothing, but Michigan puts 100k into a small college town much like UConn would do, except at half that number.

Its an all day affair for those people. They come early to tailgate on the golf course or to eat at one of the many small restaurants in the area. The streets are lined with people. After the game they do the same thing.

The mind set needs to change here. Until it does we are going to just continue with the status quo. People in other parts of the country live and breath this . Here we come to the game and go immediately back home.

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[SAMCRO]

Dept of Construction Services
165 Capital Ave
RM 460
Hartford

FDNY, you just became an accessory. I fully expect either those plans or Dan's mug shot for B&E to be blasted all over the internet by weeks end.

 

[UConnJim]

Not for nothing, but Michigan puts 100k into a small college town much like UConn would do, except at half that number.

Its an all day affair for those people. They come early to tailgate on the golf course or to eat at one of the many small restaurants in the area. The streets are lined with people. After the game they do the same thing.

The mind set needs to change here. Until it does we are going to just continue with the status quo. People in other parts of the country live and breath this . Here we come to the game and go immediately back home.

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Ann Arbor is a small town? Have you ever been? There are > 100k living in Ann Arbor and almost 350k in the metro area.

 

[upstater]

Ann Arbor is a small town? Have you ever been? There are > 100k living in Ann Arbor and almost 350k in the metro area.

I take his point however. Football all over the region largely consists of alumni returning to campus for at least 1 night and going to restaurants/events, etc. I lived in Ann Arbor and also State College, PA. While Ann Arbor has infrastructure (I94), State College did not until recently. They had a one lane rural road running to the stadium (12 miles) off of I80 and it was just as bad coming from the south. The point is, traffic doesn't matter when fans are there to do more than watch a football game.

 

[minidarren]

Ann Arbor is a small town? Have you ever been? There are > 100k living in Ann Arbor and almost 350k in the metro area.

Yes I have been there. Nothing screamed of massive infrastructure to handle 100k people at one time.

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[DarthGrumpy]

Storrs/Mansfield CT = Population 21,000
State College PA = Population 43,000
Ann Arbor MI = 115,000

I went to UConn as an undergrad and have been to Ann Arbor for a football game (Michigan versus Purdue) and have been to State College. Storrs should not be compared to Ann Arbor. It is a regional city that is surrounded by highways (I-94, US 23 and Route 14) and while traffic is tough inside the loop on football games, it clears out quickly. State College is a better comparison to Storrs, at least until I-99 was built through town. I would prefer an on-campus football stadium in Storrs; but, I just do not it is feasible in the foreseeable future based on the fact that the local roads cannot handle it and because of the money already spend on the Rent.

Storrshas potential to grow into a ‘true’ college town, especially with the new development off of Route 195; but it will take years. State College, Ann Arbor, etc. have had a 100 years to develop into what they are today.

 

[WestCoastHusky]

Cincy president and AD just approved a 60M to 70M upgrade to Nippert. Meanwhile, what are we doing? Still monitoring?

 

[Hoophound]

Cincy president and AD just approved a 60M to 70M upgrade to Nippert. Meanwhile, what are we doing? Still monitoring?

Cincy has every intention of beating us for the next seat at the table. It is blatantly obvious. Does our administration even pay attention to this ?

 

[WestCoastHusky]

Cincy has every intention of beating us for the next seat at the table. It is blatantly obvious. Does our administration even pay attention to this ?

It is pretty sad and disheartening to see UCONN now has to compete with Cincy for a conference spot. WTF has this thing down to? Is our admin really this lame? Why don't they at least announce some future plan to improve our football vs. staying with a horrible coach and zero plan to expand the Rent? I don't expect them to expand this minute, but at least have a plan in place to give fans some hope we are doing what we can to stay in this arms race.

 

[huskymedic]

It is pretty sad and disheartening to see UCONN now has to compete with Cincy for a conference spot. WTF has this thing down to? Is our admin really this lame? Why don't they at least announce some future plan to improve our football vs. staying with a horrible coach and zero plan to expand the Rent? I don't expect them to expand this minute, but at least have a plan in place to give fans some hope we are doing what we can to stay in this arms race.

From Sunday... Not everything is in the Courant (thank God).

Of course, winning breeds success and success means selling tickets. And the more tickets you sell, the bigger the stadium you need. When Rentschler Field was constructed, it was done with expansion in mind. Don't think Manuel isn't excited about seeing those blueprints. He is.

"The more games we win, the more tickets that we can sell, the quicker I'll expand it," Manuel said. "When we're at the point where we're having consistent sellouts in the next couple of years, then it'll increase the talk of expanding because of demand. I'm not looking to wait 10 years before we do it. It's all about ... we have to improve the team, we want to find ways to encourage people to come out and watch us play, we know we have to do better on the field.

"We want people from Bridgeport, people in New Haven and Stamford to buy season tickets and to come up, support the team and see us play great competition. If we can expand the number of fans and the demand to see us play, we'll look to expand the stadium, because it'll make economic sense for us to do so."

Read more: http://www.ctpost.com/uconn/article/UConn-football-program-fighting-recent-losing-4101018.php#ixzz2EmSgAZ31​

 

[upstater]

Storrs/Mansfield CT = Population 21,000
State College PA = Population 43,000
Ann Arbor MI = 115,000

I went to UConn as an undergrad and have been to Ann Arbor for a football game (Michigan versus Purdue) and have been to State College. Storrs should not be compared to Ann Arbor. It is a regional city that is surrounded by highways (I-94, US 23 and Route 14) and while traffic is tough inside the loop on football games, it clears out quickly. State College is a better comparison to Storrs, at least until I-99 was built through town. I would prefer an on-campus football stadium in Storrs; but, I just do not it is feasible in the foreseeable future based on the fact that the local roads cannot handle it and because of the money already spend on the Rent.

Storrshas potential to grow into a ‘true’ college town, especially with the new development off of Route 195; but it will take years. State College, Ann Arbor, etc. have had a 100 years to develop into what they are today.

State College grew to that in 25 years. it was Storrs in the mid-60s, and then grew to a small college town by the mid-1980s.

You're right about I-99, but prior to that getting built in the late 90s, we're talking one lane rural road from both directions, 110,000 fans.

On Friday nights though, people were already in hotels and RVs were already in the parking lots.

Storrs isn't so very far away. Not at all.

Given the acceptance rate at UConn and the SATs, the state should consider providing the funds to enlarge the student body by 10-15%.