I'm not pining for more games at XL. And I'm not talking about ticket sales. I'm talking about money donated to the school. I don't know what the data shows, and maybe all of the high roller $ comes from the Hartford area and so making it logistically impossible for anyone from FFLD county to attend any games wouldn't make any difference. But I doubt it.
And it isn't another 30 minutes. It's another 30 minutes on top of what can sometimes be an extra hour getting out of the parking lots.
I'm not saying it matters. I'm saying I think it matters. The actual data re: where do the donors / season ticket holders live, what is their attendance rate, etc. all of it matters.
As an example, I have 2 at XL and 4 at Gampel (which I split with someone) and I've been to 3 games this year - mostly because I work in NYC. Getting to a game in Hartford during the week is nearly impossible, but I don't even attempt to go to a Gampel game. I do my best to spread the tickets around, and if they went to 100% Gampel, I'd probably still get tickets, but only because I know someone who lives local and can always use the spares. Even when I try and give Gampel tickets away for free, I get the "no way - but keep me in mind for XL games" - and that is from people that live in the New Haven area and work near Hartford.
XL center sucks as an arena. I wouldn't suggest building one if it wasn't already there. And yes you would sell out Gampel if all of the games were there. And people would feel great about stuffing 6K students into a building on campus. But money is part of the equation. And I don't think it is in the overall best economic interest of the hoops program to abandon Hartford.
