OT (but UConn mentions): What might Connecticut look like if the New England Patriots had actually moved to Hartford?

[billybud]

Connecticuts average state employee pension last year was $38,212.

Florida's average state employee pension...$18,625

 

[Bubba1957]

The Pats hired Parcells a season before the proposed move. My memory is the Boston market was ready to let them go until that move. It provided the extra juice that made it politically ok. How things have changed. I remember morning DJ Sebastian referring to the Pats as the Red Sox with helmets. That was NOT a compliment. Both organizations were a mess. And now, they both dominate. As a Giant and Yankees fan I feel like I'm in bizzaro land.

 

[huskyrob1]

Seriously - imagine having the best sports franchise of the last 20 or so years calling Hartford it's home...and having UConn football play in the same stadium. Every fall/winter there would be what 15-20 football games on the weekends. The NFL playoffs would be insane here. The entire city would look different.

Losing the Whale and the Pats within 2 years - hard to have a bigger gutpunch than that for a city.

I'm a Giants fan but I never hated the Pats back then and I'm sure I would have morphed into a Pats fan. I had put my 100 buck deposit down for 4 tix, I was ready to go.

I think they would have played a couple games in the Patriots stadium and the rest of the home games in a huge bowl right across from Gampel. Probably paid for by Kraft and his other UCONN bot's cronies.

 

[huskyrob1]

Connecticuts average state employee pension last year was $38,212.

Florida's average state employee pension...$18,625

Connecticut....tax, tax, tax.

Florida......no income tax, low property taxes, moderate sales taxes.

 

[lanieer]

Connecticut be the same but I would still hate Kraft for using the state and his friend the criminal Rowland. Kraft should have been investigated. Cheater.

 

[lanieer]

Kraft and Rowland should be making oatmeal in jail. That’s another reason that people hate those cheaters

 

[uconnfan68]

Connecticuts average state employee pension last year was $38,212.

Florida's average state employee pension...$18,625

Hard to believe CT employees worth 2x Florida. But numbers don’t lie.

 

[Devland]

I honestly don't even hate the Pats for all the SBs. They screwed over CT. That cannot be forgiven to me.

Actually it was the state of Connecticut that screwed up the deal. The only way the Patriots could legally get out of the deal was if the state missed the deadlines laid out in the deal. The state missed the first couple of deadlines and the Patriots stayed in. It was after deadlines continued to be missed that the Patriots began to look into other options. There was starting to be doubts whether a Hartford stadium would ever get done.

 

[husky8273]

Actually it was the state of Connecticut that screwed up the deal. The only way the Patriots could legally get out of the deal was if the state missed the deadlines laid out in the deal. The state missed the first couple of deadlines and the Patriots stayed in. It was after deadlines continued to be missed that the Patriots began to look into other options. There was starting to be doubts whether a Hartford stadium would ever get done.

The NFL was never going to let the Pats leave that TV market. Kraft played CT from the start.

 

[Chief00]

Ha. I wouldn’t say homeless but definitely confused about where I want my home to be in the long run. My wife and I debate it daily as we get closer to cashing out and living simpler somewhere else. I’m tired of the rat race and dream of a more relaxed life but can’t figure out where to go. I always wanted to go back to CT, get my season tickets and spend time with old friends. With the sports programs floundering and the state economy collapsing it is a confusing proposition. CT can’t even get recreational weed right so they can capitalize on it. Every opportunity is missed or blown it seems.

As I’ve said before, due to location, CT is probably a good long term play. Houses are cheap now and I like that aspect. I’m just becoming concerned recently that quality of life is beginning to degrade exponentially. I’m noticing things that are different than they used to be. For instance, there is a lot of litter on the roads in CT, particularly in busier areas. 20-25 years ago I used to visit friends in Northern NJ and be appalled by the litter in parking lots and along busy roads. Now, CT looks like that to me. I also notice many areas where road medians are full of litter and weeds and have no landscaping. Where I live those areas are immaculate and groomed. When you drive up I-91 there are just weeds and scrub everywhere in CT. When you get into Mass and VT they mow it all and make it look nice and lush. Last summer my wife and mother-in-law commented on it as we travelled and I felt almost embarrassed by it because its “my state”.

I agree with the comment about the lack of mowing along major highways. There has been such neglect that very little is still mowable due to brush and trees taking over. What is mowable gets mowed so infrequently that it’s like cutting hay.

 

[Chief00]

Connecticut....tax, tax, tax.

Florida.no income tax, low property taxes, moderate sales taxes.

There’s some relatively fair and simple solutions to the Pension problem, if you left corrupt CT politics out of the room:
1) Use the 10 highest years of salary , rather than the 3 highest years of compensation
2) Remove overtime from the formula
3) Cap pensions at $75,000. This is twice the average.
4). Add a 3% employee pension contribution surcharge
5) Mandate an additional $1 billion a year to go to pension until the 36% funding of the pension goes to at least 80% of fully funded.
6) Make some marginal age changes to retirement age pension eligibility. A couple of years makes a significant difference.
7) Impose the CT state income tax on pension recipients who move out of state.

These steps would actually help most state employees, since currently their pensions are only 36% funded.

 

[huskyrob1]

There’s some relatively fair and simple solutions to the Pension problem, if you left corrupt CT politics out of the room:
1) Use the 10 highest years of salary , rather than the 3 highest years of compensation
2) Remove overtime from the formula
3) Cap pensions at $75,000. This is twice the average.
4). Add a 3% employee pension contribution surcharge
5) Mandate an additional $1 billion a year to go to pension until the 36% funding of the pension goes to at least 80% of fully funded.
6) Make some marginal age changes to retirement age pension eligibility. A couple of years makes a significant difference.

These steps would actually help most state employees, since currently their pensions are only 36% funded.

A couple of things. A civil service job in Connecticut is a much more glamourous job than in the state of Florida. If you're a civil servant in Florida you are looked down on. If you're next door neighbor in CT "WORKS FOR THE STATE", you're like wow, he's got it made. Secondly, not sure about my facts here, but I see many many many CT civil servants retiring and drawing on their pensions who are only in their early fifties, after 30 years of service, which is a huge drain on the pension fund, and are allowed to work again. I'm not sure if the pension and 401k rules limit back to work hours though. I know a guy, former state employee, who retired at 52, drives an Audi SUV, and his job from 10pm to 6am before he retired, was to pickup highway roadkill. Maybe not that glamourous lol, but him and his wife put two kids through college, and you'll never guess what he's doing now. I've done ok in the private sector but still I can't see the pension fund problem getting under control unless painful changes are made. At the same time you can't take 30 years of hard work and trivialize it and tell those retirees they have to live with less than what they were promised.

 

[Chief00]

A couple of things. A civil service job in Connecticut is a much more glamourous job than in the state of Florida. If you're a civil servant in Florida you are looked down on. If you're next door neighbor in CT "WORKS FOR THE STATE", you're like wow, he's got it made. Secondly, not sure about my facts here, but I see many many many CT civil servants retiring and drawing on their pensions who are only in their early fifties, after 30 years of service, which is a huge drain on the pension fund, and are allowed to work again. I'm not sure if the pension and 401k rules limit back to work hours though. I know a guy, former state employee, who retired at 52, drives an Audi SUV, and his job from 10pm to 6am before he retired, was to pickup highway roadkill. Maybe not that glamourous lol, but him and his wife put two kids through college, and you'll never guess what he's doing now. I've done ok in the private sector but still I can't see the pension fund problem getting under control unless painful changes are made. At the same time you can't take 30 years of hard work and trivialize it and tell those retirees they have to live with less than what they were promised.

Agree, just remember current state it’s 36% funded - so it's only glamourous as a mirage. Similar to someone living high on credit cards. It’s not a worry free future, as people think it is. In contrast the Social Security system is 77% funded. Twice as safe and secure. I can’t understand why retirees aren’t more concerned?

 

[uconnbill]

If the Patriots were in Connecticut UConn would have been in the ACC by now, that is a fact as they would have went in with Syracuse.

 

[huskyrob1]

If the Patriots were in Connecticut UConn would have been in the ACC by now, that is a fact as they would have went in with Syracuse.

That's probably true with Kraft trumping any objections by Flipper.

 

[billybud]

That's probably true with Kraft trumping any objections by Flipper.

Now...finally....after years of blame being cast everywhere for not receiving an invite, it has come to this.

It is Kraft's fault.

 

[TJT]

It is no given that UConn football would have benefited. The Patriots might well have sapped all the energy from CT residents leaving little left over for Huskies football. There is only so much money, time, attention, etc... that people can give.

 

[FartMan69]

It is no given that UConn football would have benefited. The Patriots might well have sapped all the energy from CT residents leaving little left over for Huskies football. There is only so much money, time, attention, etc... that people can give.

Probably true even if they didn't have the dynasty here in CT. New England is a pro sport dominated area with UConn basketball being the huge outlier and that's because they've been unbelievably successful since the 90's.

 

[huskyrob1]

It is no given that UConn football would have benefited. The Patriots might well have sapped all the energy from CT residents leaving little left over for Huskies football. There is only so much money, time, attention, etc... that people can give.

I don't give a crap about Connecticut residents or Boneyard posters for that matter. I do care that the Patriots in Hartford would have been huge for UConn recruiting, especially in state. The great in state players like AJ Dillon, Ben Mason, Zach Allen, Andrew Steuber, and many others that left Connecticut might have thought twice about doing that.

 

[jdb50]

The proposed stadium should never have been placed in Hartford. It should have been where the Rent was built. The traffic getting to that site as well as no parking for 68,000 plus no tailgating was just so clueless it could have only come from Connecticut powerbrokers. Pats fans at Gillette are not in restaurants etc pregame. I would like to know who really was the one who got this put up as the final site proposal.

 

[billybud]

I wonder...whether having the Jets close by in the Meadowlands brought better players to Rutgers...

 

[DarthGrumpy]

The proposed stadium should never have been placed in Hartford. It should have been where the Rent was built. The traffic getting to that site as well as no parking for 68,000 plus no tailgating was just so clueless it could have only come from Connecticut powerbrokers. Pats fans at Gillette are not in restaurants etc pregame. I would like to know who really was the one who got this put up as the final site proposal.

If I recall correctly, putting the Pat's football stadium where the Convention Center is today was the second choice location. The first choice was roughly where the Yards Goats field is now and the third choice was to close Brainard and put it there. After the Pats ripped-up their signed contract with Rowland, East Hartford became the 4th and final lcoation.

What I can't remeber was if the story to move the Pats to a downtown stadium in Providence happened before or after the Hartford deal.

 

[huskyrob1]

I wonder...whether having the Jets close by in the Meadowlands brought better players to Rutgers...

Most idiotic attempt at trying to draw a parallel award goes to BUDDY!!!! Like Rex Ryan and Herm Edwards top priority was spending their Saturdays going to Rutgers, to watch Michigan win by 40. On the other hand UConn and the Patriots would have shared the same stadium during the season, and mabey New England would have had their summer training camp in Storrs, much like the Giants did at Fairfield University for years and New England did at Bryant.

 

[billybud]

LOL...so I guess you are saying that having the NFL near by did not help Rutgers...

Just asked the question....and yes...I knew you would run to the end of your chain, barking and slobbering.

But it is only your opinion that UConn would be in a far better football place with the Pats in house.

But who knows...maybeTemple is far better off sharing with the Philadelphia Eagles...and Pitt, Miami, and San Diego State who also play at NFL stadiums.

 

[CL82]

Now...finally....after years of blame being cast everywhere for not receiving an invite, it has come to this.

It is Kraft's fault.

Mmm not what he said. Reading comprehension issue?