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This thread needs more STFU bill !
New and improved XL
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MattMang23
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Apparently this Bill fellow is not aware that Tampa's crime index dropped below DOUBLE the national average for the first time in 2006...
Dann
#4hunnid
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nope.
take that $105mil and put it on the table but don't touch it. tell the XL guy he ain't getting it. tell him he has to revamp to xl on his own and he can bring back the nhl and also bring in d-league bball. tell him uconn will play all its home games from 2015-2020 in xl. then uconn is leaving. gampel from this minute on is just a practice facility for now. good enough for a little while. call up the mls and sell the rent to a owner looking to put a team in ct. tell them ct will only have nhl as a pro sport, no other. part of the deal is we play there until 2017, we rent the rent. btw we have talked to the ppl who donated it and figured it out some how thru a small payment of $5mil...take that $ from selling the rent and the $105mil and goto fuucking town in the storrs area. make uconn a top school like others we aim to be. invest in some real estate up there and turn the surrounding towns into fairfield/glastonbury type towns. 30kish population in each. that will eventually over time become the backbone of uconn. do a connector highway from 84 to campus, be a bully and get it done, building for the future not trying to save uncle jacks 90 year old house in the woods.
build a 60k big time fball stadium that the rest of the college fball world will shit pants about. do it up. build the practice facility into it and another turf indoor place etc. do it up. thats gotta be $160mil at the most. thats fine. take $10mil and do enough in gampel where its a nice practice facility for the next 10 years post JC..Take $5mil and rip up a couple of the burton complex lockerrooms. nothing to much, just paint the walls etc. put soccer/baseball/field hockey teams etc in there. thats a way above average home building for practice for those sports. that turf is a huge selling points for recruits in those sports. great practice facility for those sports and more intramural time for students. win win. thats $175mil.
i asume the rent was sold for $100mil. thats about what we built it for. so lets say we have $30 mil left over. i was also very safe on the new fball stadium/facility. take that $ and build a couple nice fields on the other side of the plot closer to campus(just imagining what it looks like). a 3k seat baseball stadium. come postseason you can jam another 2k somehow... now thats regionals respected by the ncaa. also build a nice soccer stadium and some other stuff as needed......all this is done by 2020. thats probally $20mil tops, check the pitt build not to long ago.
bball is playing in XL until 2020. nowits basketball/hockey time. take $10mil to put a ice rink in gampel. do the locker rooms nice etc. i imagine that becomes a 8k ish hockey rink. cool beans, hoin HE in mens. so thats $205mil. thats the $ we have. but we are playing home games in xl and we now have no practice facility.so now its been years since we have done anything big but we spent alot 5+ years ago. we have to find a big sponsor like the yum center. build a 15k arena somewhere connecting it to the parking lot of the fball stadium. 15k is a perfect size. it allows 5k+ students and enough public seats to make $$...that arena has a practice facility buult into it. check out OKST's set up one day when u get a chance on youtube. i don't know the cost of this but a sponsor will make it happen along with donations from all the nba talent and big fans etc... in 2025 UConn is the !!!!!!
well that was a messy post, enjoy. so how would you spend that $105 mil?
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I'm too tired right now to respond to all of that, so I'll just address one point, there is a 0% chance the Hockey East tournament comes to Hartford, and their reference to it in the video is laughable. That's not leaving Boston. 30% of the league can take a subway to the garden, and 50% more of it can take a train directly into the basement of the garden, it ain't leaving. Notre Dame didn't join the league to go to, and Versus ain't broadcasting it from Hartford.
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YearoftheHusky
Three in Four.
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Tampa is no utopia either. Trust me. Like anywhere there are nice places, but, like anywhere, there are also very bad ones. Bill, tell me you are going to walk down parts of Dale Mabry or further west at night when not going to the stadium. Or, try deviating away from Ybor after hours. Still love Tampa?
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You mean, other than the fact that any of those restaurants, as well as countless others in New Haven, are monumentally better than anything you'll find in Tampa?
You've got weather, great. Makes it a nice place to visit. Don't much care for the Gulf and the -brown water, myself.
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Thanks for reminding me how much I hate the Krafts again. They have found more ways to screw Hartford than would even seem possible. I definitely hope that Baldwin can get his plan implemented and am glad that they are saying that UConn and Aetna are both on board. Hartford aint perfect by a long shot but has way more potential than its current state, which by the way, is better than a decade ago. With more housing and the rail line coming to fruition things are moving in a positive direction.
"November til April" Prime hunting and skiing time. The best time of the year. Give me that year round and it would be utopia.
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Mr. Hand
Whistleblower
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Saudi Arabia has lots of sand, if that's your thing. So does Lybia.
No Spring and Fall either. Just sweating balls nine months out of the year.
You would be the type to hang out at beach bars. It fits the creepy vibe that seems to stick to you like a bad smell.
It was 64 here yesterday. Just sayin'...
Plenty of drought, interrupted by torrential downpours.
Question is, do you ever change them?
My mother lives in Florida. Have you ever seen my mother?
The snakes are green too. And the alligators. And some of the insects. And the water.
And thank God for that little blessing...
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In fairness, I don't think it's hard to block a professional team from moving to Connecticut.
People in Connecticut seem to think the state has some great, untapped market that would thrive with a pro team, when the reality is it doesn't.
sammydabiz
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Hey Hey Hey, hold off on the Danbury bashing we have a lovely Stew Leonards, not to mention the Danbury Trashers....errrrrrr......i mean Whalers, lol
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Watched the video. At the end, Baldwin says: "A lot of this is beyond economics. It's feeling good about your community."
Translation: The economics suck. Please, oh please, do not look at the budget for this too closely.
Translation: The economics suck. Please, oh please, do not look at the budget for this too closely.
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I know this has been said numerous times already but this guy is a idiot.
STB,
How are you going to make a current judgment on any city, anywhere, based on your experience living I the suburbs almost 20 years ago? Nevermind an entire state. From 74-95 almost every urban center in the entire country was a shithole. That would include New York, Washington, Chicago, Los angles, San Francisco and just about every other top tier city our wonderful country boasts (notice that Tampa is not mentioned). Clearly you know nothing of the urban renewal that is going on around the country because youre too busy hiding in the utopia that is the south Tampa bay suburbs.You live in Tampa Florida and you have the nerve to call someone else's city crap??? You don't even live in the best city in FL. I'm pretty sure that Tampa's main claim to fame is something along the lines of having the worlds largest strip club or retirement home. Classy!
Quick comparison that has nothing to do with your seemingly pathetic life:
Number of world class institutions in CT cities - 3 (conn college in New London, wesleyan in middletown, and Yale in New Haven)
Number of world class institutions in FL cities - 0 (sorry can't even count UM)
I was born and raised in what you might refer to as a shithole but what most people with an IQ above 50 call New Haven. Besides being arguably the first planed city in America, New Haven gave us interchangeable parts, the first steamboat, the man who invented the modern submarine and the gun that won the west. Oh and it's a 4 time winner of the All American City Award. And that's just New Haven.
I guess im just not sure why youre a uconn fan if you hate such a large portion. It's a source off pride for everyone who comes from the state, urban and suburban. You might want to consider becoming a Duke fan, it seems to be more in line with your psych profile. I.e. someone who talks out of their ass.
Btw - i now live in Miami (a much better city than tampa) and while it's got beautiful beaches and I don't have to bundle up in the winter, it's full of problems as well.
willie99
Loving life & enjoying the ride, despite the bumps
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the XL center is embarrassingly bad. It is one of the worst facilities in the country, the worst I've ever been in to watch a major sporting event. From concessions to corridors to seating to restrooms, it's below standard for every standard there is. If it wasn't for Jim & Geno, it would probably be an apartment building already. Invest or destroy, no difference to me. Campus games are much more fun, although I do enjoy and would miss pregame dinners in Hartford.
as for the city itself, it's also substandard. But that's the case with CT in general, we are a suburbia community. West Hartford is great, and most cities have a decent neighborhood for restaurants, but we just don't compete with cities in other states. Never-mind our obvious big city neighbors, places like Providence & Albany & White Plains and just about every other municipality I've been to have more vibrant and fun downtown destinations. I've been so used to CT's cities, that I was initially astonished to see what other cities have.
as for the city itself, it's also substandard. But that's the case with CT in general, we are a suburbia community. West Hartford is great, and most cities have a decent neighborhood for restaurants, but we just don't compete with cities in other states. Never-mind our obvious big city neighbors, places like Providence & Albany & White Plains and just about every other municipality I've been to have more vibrant and fun downtown destinations. I've been so used to CT's cities, that I was initially astonished to see what other cities have.
tykurez
For Your Health
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Agreed ... and it's really a shame. Not only that, but Gampel is looking ratty. Started going back this year for the first time in over 6 years and it's showing its age (it was back then too). Parts of the roof are peeling off ... and they need to get rid of the benches that line 60% of the place.
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Well, Dan there are a couple of points to consider...first in case you weren't aware, the XL Center is owned by the public. The city of hartford, I bleieve under some kind of lease to CDA and an operating contract to Northland. So I think you could make an argument that it is the city and state which ultimately should spend money to maintain the quality of its facility. Now you can argue, I guess, that the City or state shouldn't be in the entertainment facility business, but that horse left the barn 30 years ago with respect to this facility. We got it. It needs to be repaired/upgraded. Who should do it if not the owner? Although I don't believe that Baldwin's plan calls for 100% public funding. As far as Gampel is concerned, there is an old theory in public administration that in a recession, the first thing to suffer is maintenance. People don't notice it when you only empty the trash 3 days/week instead of 5, or sweep the hallways once instead of twice a day, pick the weeds out of the planters once a year instead of 3 times or try to get an extra year or two out of a coat of paint, or put an out of order sign on one of the locker rooms rather than replace the broken shower heads. The impact is gradual, but at some point it takes its toll and you need to spend some money. My impression is that is what is happening to Gampel right now.
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frankly, if I have a knock on the XL Center I'd say it is probably a little too big for the market. Something closer to the size of Providence (13000 for basketball and 12000 for hockey), maybe even a bit smaller (10-12,000) is probably more reasonable. Of course then there is not too much incentive to play games there instead of Gampel. I grew up attending Bruins, Celtics and Beanpot games in the Boston Garden, so even the exisitng XL Center seems pretty nice to me. 
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Waquoit
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The worst thing about the XL Center is that it is 16,000 seat facility built in a 10,500 seat hole. As a result it gets too crowded in the walkways. But it's one of the best things that ever happened to Hartford. And the comment that it is "too big for the market" is belied by all of the sellouts at various events over the years. The Celtics played games in Hartford for years because they could make more money there than in the old Garden. I'm used to the place. I know when and where to get beer. I know where the secret private bathroom is. What other arena has a place where you can go outside during intermissions? It's easy in and easy out. Good bars close by. Parking is cheap. The glass is half full at the XL Center. I love the place.
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