O'Neil via The Athletic: "What's next for you UConn? 'Put Another Banner Up'" | The Boneyard

O'Neil via The Athletic: "What's next for you UConn? 'Put Another Banner Up'"

“My desire to experience it all again is probably greater than my initial desire to win it,’’ Hurley says. “You experience it, you can see how guys like Jay Wright and Nick Saban, the ones who strive for it every year like maniacs, you can see how addictive it is. It’s not just what you experience; it’s the way you feel about your team, that love and admiration for them. This isn’t going to be a one-hit wonder for UConn. It’s just not.’’


The risk, in hindsight, was more than calculated; it was flat-out dangerous. In between the national semifinal win over Miami and tipoff for the championship game, brazen UConn athletic staffers pre-ordered the 2023 championship banner for the practice court, a big No. 5 to replace the four on the wall of accomplishments that runs from the weight room to the locker room and a five for the sign along Interstate 84. They had the best of intentions; they wanted it all ready to be overnighted so that by the time the Huskies arrived home from Houston, signs of their success would already be in place. Fortunately, their superstitious head coach never got wind of the plan. “If I knew, I would have gone nuts,’’ Hurley says. “I probably would have killed someone. Totally flipped out.’’
 
UConnKev said:
“My desire to experience it all again is probably greater than my initial desire to win it,’’ Hurley says. “You experience it, you can see how guys like Jay Wright and Nick Saban, the ones who strive for it every year like maniacs, you can see how addictive it is. It’s not just what you experience; it’s the way you feel about your team, that love and admiration for them. This isn’t going to be a one-hit wonder for UConn. It’s just not.’’


The risk, in hindsight, was more than calculated; it was flat-out dangerous. In between the national semifinal win over Miami and tipoff for the championship game, brazen UConn athletic staffers pre-ordered the 2023 championship banner for the practice court, a big No. 5 to replace the four on the wall of accomplishments that runs from the weight room to the locker room and a five for the sign along Interstate 84. They had the best of intentions; they wanted it all ready to be overnighted so that by the time the Huskies arrived home from Houston, signs of their success would already be in place. Fortunately, their superstitious head coach never got wind of the plan. “If I knew, I would have gone nuts,’’ Hurley says. “I probably would have killed someone. Totally flipped out.’’
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Staffers tempted the mojo big time, but fortunately we were on too strong of a run to be overcome.
 
Interesting…

Things aren’t dire at UConn. The Werth Center is a gleaming testimony to men’s and women’s basketball success, offering more than enough bells and whistles to compete in college basketball’s facilities wars. But Gampel, which opened in 1990, could use some elbow grease. There are no suites, the concourses are narrow and the concession areas congested.

More cumbersome is the school’s relationship with the XL Center in Hartford. A typical 1970s generic build, it’s in desperate need of a makeover. Designed as a multipurpose building, it’s now so outdated it fails to draw the inventory to fill out a calendar. From June through September, for example, there are currently four events on tap — a bridal and wedding expo, WWE Raw, monster trucks and a horror fest. That leaves UConn to fill the gaps, and the Huskies currently split their home games between Gampel and XL. But the school, already feeling the crunch from state budget cutbacks, pays $40,500 per hoops game and yet receives nothing from the concession revenue or parking.

. “We absolutely look forward to hearing more about plans to renovate XL,’’ Benedict says. “We also need to turn our attention to Gampel. It’s just more difficult for us to make those types of investments when you’re playing in two venues. It does spread you thin.’’

Worse, Hartford is a 30-minute commute for students, and it puts UConn in the difficult quandary of trying to figure out what games to play where. If the Huskies play guarantee games off-site, they’re essentially paying twice; if they bring their tougher opponents to Hartford, they sacrifice the on-campus homecourt advantage that Gampel provides.

Hurley admits he wasn’t an initial fan of playing in Hartford, but that was as much a byproduct of his team’s failing as the building’s atmosphere. “Full disclosure: I dreaded going there,’’ he says. “We were playing in front of eight or nine thousand in a 17,000 arena. Now when we sell out, I understand. My feelings are much different than they were.’’

(Oh, by the way, the cost for leasing the XL is $40,500 +3 dollars per seat so $91,500 for sell out assuming the 17,000 Hurley lists above. I believe actual capacity is lower)
 
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The joys of being a college coach!

- Yet even as he and his team basked in the joy of the moment, Hurley could sense, beneath the surface, the inevitable shift. “The we season to the me season,’’ as he calls it. He hoped to keep it at bay, but then at the post-championship celebration at the Houston hotel, an agent grabbed the coach to discuss one of the Huskies’ draft possibilities. A day after the pep rally, a parent phoned to discuss their son’s future role.
 
CL82 said:
Interesting…

Things aren’t dire at UConn. The Werth Center is a gleaming testimony to men’s and women’s basketball success, offering more than enough bells and whistles to compete in college basketball’s facilities wars. But Gampel, which opened in 1990, could use some elbow grease. There are no suites, the concourses are narrow and the concession areas congested.

More cumbersome is the school’s relationship with the XL Center in Hartford. A typical 1970s generic build, it’s in desperate need of a makeover. Designed as a multipurpose building, it’s now so outdated it fails to draw the inventory to fill out a calendar. From June through September, for example, there are currently four events on tap — a bridal and wedding expo, WWE Raw, monster trucks and a horror fest. That leaves UConn to fill the gaps, and the Huskies currently split their home games between Gampel and XL. But the school, already feeling the crunch from state budget cutbacks, pays $40,500 per hoops game and yet receives nothing from the concession revenue or parking.

. “We absolutely look forward to hearing more about plans to renovate XL,’’ Benedict says. “We also need to turn our attention to Gampel. It’s just more difficult for us to make those types of investments when you’re playing in two venues. It does spread you thin.’’

Worse, Hartford is a 30-minute commute for students, and it puts UConn in the difficult quandary of trying to figure out what games to play where. If the Huskies play guarantee games off-site, they’re essentially paying twice; if they bring their tougher opponents to Hartford, they sacrifice the on-campus homecourt advantage that Gampel provides.

Hurley admits he wasn’t an initial fan of playing in Hartford, but that was as much a byproduct of his team’s failing as the building’s atmosphere. “Full disclosure: I dreaded going there,’’ he says. “We were playing in front of eight or nine thousand in a 17,000 arena. Now when we sell out, I understand. My feelings are much different than they were.’’

(Oh, by the way, the cost for leasing the XL is $40,500 +3 dollars per seat so $91,500 for sell out assuming the 17,000 Hurley lists above. I believe actual capacity is lower)
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The comment about splitting venues hurting business case for investments in Gampel I find a little odd. Sure it's true, but UConn is one of like 5 schools in the country that has two well attended basketball teams, effectively having 30-35 well attended games a year. That's more than most institutions.
 
While I'm sure it would be great if we had a brand spanking new 12k-13k seat arena on campus I doubt the idea could ever get off the ground as there are too many competing interests.

If we are to do comparisons, I want to see how Gampel stands up to Cameron as it is similar in capacity and decades older yet there is never any outcry that Duke needs a more modern facility.

XL is a problem on many levels, including the fact that it is not really capable of fielding the quantity or types of events that could sustain it (a wedding expo and horror fest are two of the three events they will hold over four months? What this does is provide more pressure on the school to provide content in an attempt to save the building.

Hartford (perhaps the entire state) needs to determine if a new venue is feasible and if not, then determine if continuing with the current venue makes any sense (or us possible for any real length of time).

This needs to be fixed but it shouldn't be the school's responsibility to provide entertainment content to save the venue.
 
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Storrs South said:
The comment about splitting venues hurting business case for investments in Gampel I find a little odd. Sure it's true, but UConn is one of like 5 schools in the country that has two well attended basketball teams, effectively having 30-35 well attended games a year. That's more than most institutions.
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Maybe, but it is making little to nothing off of half those games. For an athletic department that is deeply underwater, that seems problematic.
 
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I’m guilty of this too but UConn might have the worst fanbase in the country. We lucked into the best program builder in the sport’s history and have continued to hit the lottery ever since, yet we act like winning a championship once every 5 years is our preordained destiny.

Rather than just being thankful we have developed the greedy expectations of a blue blood while simultaneously refusing to put our money where our mouths are. The other blue bloods make our NIL collectives look like a joke yet When we lose a recruit we criticize the staff. Unless we are donating we have no right to criticize.

So Unless we want to chase Hurley away let’s all just take his advice. the next time we start questioning whether the roster is good enough to repeat, put on a replay of the finals and just be thankful for once rather than complain.
 
CL82 said:
Maybe, but it is making little to nothing off of half those games. For an athletic department that is deeply underwater, that seems problematic.
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I know for accounting purposes we're deeply underwater, but believe it's way too deceptive for those who hate athletics to claim that when a good portion of the loss is attributable to scholarships. And I don't mean you!
It's an old point, but we're not adding a professor, or grad assistant for a class because a basketball player enrolls that semester. Now, if we create a class for athletes that's another story but I think that's prohibited. It's the same in business. A hotel doesn't add another housekeeper because they have 1 or 5 more guests one night.
 
Scrutiner said:
I know for accounting purposes we're deeply underwater, but believe it's way too deceptive for those who hate athletics to claim that when a good portion of the loss is attributable to scholarships. And I don't mean you!
It's an old point, but we're not adding a professor, or grad assistant for a class because a basketball player enrolls that semester. Now, if we create a class for athletes that's another story but I think that's prohibited. It's the same in business. A hotel doesn't add another housekeeper because they have 1 or 5 more guests one night.
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I guess the alternative argument is that every seat that goes to an athlete isn’t available to another student. What I don’t like about it is that the school accounts for that scholarship as if the student athlete would otherwise be paying full freight which virtually no one does. It isn’t a true out-of-pocket cost, regardless, but what seems ridiculous to me is that it is an inflated “paper” expense. If we are going to “charge” the athletic department, the phantom costs of the full tuition for the student athletes, then we should also charge the school, the marketing value of having top-flight division I athletics. I suspect the marketing value generated by the athletic department, well exceeds the tuition cost of student athletes.
 
Storrs South said:
The comment about splitting venues hurting business case for investments in Gampel I find a little odd. Sure it's true, but UConn is one of like 5 schools in the country that has two well attended basketball teams, effectively having 30-35 well attended games a year. That's more than most institutions.
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Doesn't UCONN pay to play at XL and loses money?
 
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@CL82 is our Chief ROI Estimator. I believe he has tabulated that a game at XL needs to surpass 11k or so in attendance to break even. Please correct me if I'm wrong, counselor.
 
tcf15 said:
Ok we have to land that 24 recruit that Hurley ignored the President for right?
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Aren't all phone calls made by the president archived and available publicly (except for national security calls)? I wonder if someone could find the voicemail
 
FfldCntyFan said:
including the fact that it is not really capable of fielding the quantity or types of events that could sustain it (a wedding expo and horror fest are two of the three events they will hold over four months? What this does is provide more pressure on the school to provide content in an attempt to save the building.
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You missed the upcoming playoff hockey games.
 
Waquoit said:
You missed the upcoming playoff hockey games.
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How often do they field these and what can be expected for attendance?

(I'm assuming you aren't speaking of the Hurricanes).
 
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CL82 said:
I guess the alternative argument is that every seat that goes to an athlete isn’t available to another student. What I don’t like about it is that the school accounts for that scholarship as if the student athlete would otherwise be paying full freight which virtually no one does. It isn’t a true out-of-pocket cost, regardless, but what seems ridiculous to me is that it is an inflated “paper” expense. If we are going to “charge” the athletic department, the phantom costs of the full tuition for the student athletes, then we should also charge the school, the marketing value of having top-flight division I athletics. I suspect the marketing value generated by the athletic department, well exceeds the tuition cost of student athletes.
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Absolutely, even though Upstater argues this point. UConn is going to want to admit a certain number of kids that are underprivileged or come from disadvantaged backgrounds or high schools. They'd likely provide generous scholarships to all of those kids. Athletics provides quite a few of them, and there is zero chance that most of those spots in the class would be taken by kids paying full tuition if they weren't there. It's nonsense accounting that doesn't reflect the cost of the AD accurately. If UConn was really losing $60m a year on athletics, things would be cut dramatically.

XL is a disaster and UConn needs to force the issue. Shouldn't be paying to play there, and I'm sure it does impact the budget they have to update Gampel.
 
Palatine said:
They do play at XL. They do not lose money at XL.
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Sure they do. The cost for the XL Center is so high that you would make more money having a game at Gampel for pretty much everything but a sellout. Keep in mind in addition to that that we get no share of either parking or concessions at the XL Center while we do for games played on campus. And a renovated Gampel, which had more concession choices and potential suite revenue would be an even more profitable alternative.
Get a Job said:
@CL82 is our Chief ROI Estimator. I believe he has tabulated that a game at XL needs to surpass 11k or so in attendance to break even. Please correct me if I'm wrong, counselor.
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I’d have to take a look at those very quick and dirty comp that I did, but my recollection is, it would have to be pretty much a sell out.

(By the way, I do not claim to be an attorney on The Boneyard or claim any particular expertise in this area, other than the fact that I was willing to crunch the numbers.)
 
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