Manuel comment on expanding the Rent | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Manuel comment on expanding the Rent

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Oct. 14, 1997
The Courant reports that 100 acres on the north end of the UConn campus is emerging as the preferred stadium site. A public opinion poll indicates 48 percent of Connecticut residents want the stadium in Storrs, and 60 percent favor state funding.

Nov. 25, 1997
After virtually promising UConn it would have an on-campus stadium, Rowland announces he will not call a special session to approve finding for a $107 million stadium in Storrs. ``I'm sad for the university,'' Ritter says. ``This is going to be a day that we will regret for a very long time.'' Says Perkins: ``I think we've taken it as far as we can at this point. We've been talking about this thing five or six years now.''
 
and 15 years later, it's not too late.

uconn can raise the money itself.

it raised $70m for fb and bb practice facilities.

why not at least resurrect the feasability studies, get some numbers crunchers to project what numbers need to be raised, and say it will be done in 5 years? the state of ct will have 15 plus years of uconn rent. it can figure out how to market the rent without uconn.
 
Rumrunner said:
and 15 years later, it's not too late.

uconn can raise the money itself.

it raised $70m for fb and bb practice facilities.

why not at least resurrect the feasability studies, get some numbers crunchers to project what numbers need to be raised, and say it will be done in 5 years? the state of ct will have 15 plus years of uconn rent. it can figure out how to market the rent without uconn.
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... and is Ritter not still on the BOT?
 
Rumrunner said:
and 15 years later, it's not too late.

uconn can raise the money itself.

it raised $70m for fb and bb practice facilities.

why not at least resurrect the feasability studies, get some numbers crunchers to project what numbers need to be raised, and say it will be done in 5 years? the state of ct will have 15 plus years of uconn rent. it can figure out how to market the rent without uconn.
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IIRC, a huge chunk of what went to the Burton & Schenkman facilities (~2/3) came from UConn 2000.
 
$20m from donors went to burton/sh complex. courant art ommitted eqip/art gifts
$35-40m from donors for bb practice facility (final #'s seem to fluctuate depending upon who is talking)
$7m raised for baseball/soccer

$67m raised.

a stadium will sell luxury box/psl's, not available in the above fundraising. so if uconn can raise close to $70m for the above a stadium is not only doable, it's a must
 
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The idea of building an on-campus stadium when UConn currently rents a stadium 30 miles from its campus, where the idea needs to be planned, fundraised, and built- perhaps a 7-10 year timeframe-is so startingly a good representation of strategic long-range thinking, i'm sure warde won't pursue it. or perhaps when you wrote "we have a decade old stadium" you were using "we" as a collective noun for the citizens of connecticut. because uconn doesn't have a stadium.

ConnHuskBask said:
This idea of building an on-campus stadium when he have a decade old stadium already is so mind numbingly stupid I would have thought it came from Warde Manuel himself.
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Not going to happen anytime soon unless a Boone Pickett type steps up to fund a stadium on campus. The state is in dire needs financially and UConn is in the process of building a basketball facility, upgrade baseball, soccer and other things on campus.

I would love a 50 thousand seat on campus stadium but that won't happen in my lifetime more than likely
 
Rumrunner said:
$20m from donors went to burton/sh complex. courant art ommitted eqip/art gifts
I thought it was about $15mm (which would have been about 2/3 of the $45 mm cost).
$35-40m from donors for bb practice facility (final #'s seem to fluctuate depending upon who is talking)
We've raised that much already? I believe that you are looking at where we need to be.
$7m raised for baseball/soccer

$67m raised.

a stadium will sell luxury box/psl's, not available in the above fundraising. so if uconn can raise close to $70m for the above a stadium is not only doable, it's a must
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It took how long to raise the funds for the hoops facility (which hasn't yet been fully funded and is less than half the price of building the Rent a decade ago (when concrete was far cheaper than it is today)?

If all other items have been fully funded it would still take a decade to raise the money necessary to build an on campus football stadium. I would not be surprised if this happens somewhere in the future but it will not happen in my lifetime (I recently turned 52).

I see the tech center as a huge step towards what we will need. This (see the Palo Alto research center in the 1960's) will go a long way towards bringing business and industry to that part of the state, leading to considerable development (including transportation infrastructure) which will make transportation to and from the campus on football Saturdays somewhat feasible. One thing the state should have considered about a decade or so ago (when the economy was moving and this would not have drained the state's budget) was clean up Willimantic (similar to what Stamford is now doing with their old industrial south end), in the process giving businesses (preferably tech companies) some incentives to locate offices there. While not ideally located, Willimantic is close enough to the school where having businesses that could benefit the school (and benefit from our students), something Mansfield can never be.
 
rich1122 said:
A public opinion poll indicates 48 percent of Connecticut residents want the stadium in Storrs, and 60 percent favor state funding''
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Outside of the BY - I'm not sure this poll would end up the same, especially the 60% favoring state funding.
 
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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.
 
i hope this doesn't come across as a wise- remark, because i don't intend it to be so. if uconn won't show such an initiative-we're talking a feasability study-then uconn will be cemented further into being a mid-major. and don't delude yourselves, uconn is a mid-major right now, and while we have inordinate strengths, there is a much higher chance that uconn remains a mid major then gets rescued. if the acc survives, you think uconn's on deck? hello cincy,temple (philly),usf.ucf.

as for the big 10 look at what the big 10 did to practically force minnesota to build an on-campus stadium.

remember that minnesota was already a big 10 member. pretend uconn's folder makes its way to the big 10 presidents' table . it then gets to minnesota's president, what the do you think minnesota's vote will be? and could you blame them?



http://m.lvsun.com/news/2012/jul/15/minnesota-new--campus-stadium-proves-game-changer/

Sun, Jul 15, 2012 (2 a.m.)
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For 25 years, students at the University of Minnesota boarded shuttle buses on football game days and rode 15 minutes off campus to watch the Golden Gophers play at the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis.
 
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.
 
Mr. Conehead said:
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.
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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.
 
Chin Diesel said:
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.
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This will not be an issue once the football program has become entrenched in the mindset of the residents of the state (perhaps a decade or so from now if we are lucky) but today this is a huge deal.
 
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Chin Diesel said:
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.
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No argument from me that it is sad; but, somewhat true. Everybody I know complains about the drive from NYC to the Adirondacks (3 to 5 hours) or Boston (4 hours) or wherever while I have relatives in Minneapolis who think nothing of driving the 6 hours to Chicago for a weekend trip or driving all the way (18 hours) to NJ for the holidays.
The drive from NJ is OK with me, just tough on the games I bring my oldest son with me who is only 6 and hates the car and night games as there is no way to make it to E Hartford for an 8 PM game in traffic without having to take a ½ off from work.
I am looking forward to taking over the Rock in February when UConn takes in Hall in hoops.
 
The Rent's accessibility is amazing. Men's bball play half their games at the XL. Women's bball play at the XL. UConn hockey will soon play more at the XL.
 
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.
 
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/
 
Rumrunner said:
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.
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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.
 
uconNYC said:
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.
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The nobody should complain when we are a basketball only school.
 
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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.
 
FDNY99 said:
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.
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may i please have tyhe address of this DPW building. thank you, hfd.
 
HuskyfanDan said:
may i please have tyhe address of this DPW building. thank you, hfd.
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The plans are filed and awaiting funding. When that is released the project will be completed.
 
Chin Diesel said:
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.
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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.
 
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.
 
FDNY99 said:
The plans are filed and awaiting funding. When that is released the project will be completed.
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i understand that, but whats the adress of where they are being stored?
 
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