OT: Hard Rock Hartford

[alexd]

Great guy, great player . Have shared stage with him

Well....that sorta tops having gone to school with his cousin 30+ years ago.

 

[HartbeatHusky]

http://www.courant.com/real-estate/property-line/hc-hard-rock-no-casino-hartford-20151221-story.html

No casino planned from hard rock
In order for CT to keep getting 25% of slot revenue, another casino must be on tribal land or ran by the existing tribes. So with the deal that they have, the 3rd casino must be run by a tribe beginning with the letter "M".

I think the tribes should partner up and re-do the HCC and build the casino in the old mall / convention area in the basement of XL. This way it will
Make $ and they can attract the acts to fill the place, compete with Springfield, and hopefully attract an NHL team back to Hartford.

I agree very strongly with this general concept of having the Greater Hartford Casino be downtown and having the tribes assist in the XL Center renovation. It makes too much sense to happen here in CT though. A casino would turn Hartford into Atlantic City don't you know?

 

[August_West]

I agree very strongly with this general concept of having the Greater Hartford Casino be downtown and having the tribes assist in the XL Center renovation. It makes too much sense to happen here in CT though. A casino would turn Hartford into Atlantic City don't you know?

Avatar/Handle/Post


also I agree

 

[Deepster]

Steve Wynn wanted to build a casino in 1993. Lowell Weicker slammed the door on it.

March 1992: Hartford Democratic state Sen. William A. DiBella unmasks his alliance with Las Vegas gambling entrepreneur Steve Wynn, who offers to build a $350 million casino, convention center and hotel complex in Hartford with his own money.

March 11, 1992: Backed by DiBella, Wynn testifies at the Capitol about the casino/convention center proposal. "If you can bring in an operation that will be large enough to create a destination in Hartford coupled with a convention center, coupled with a major-league hotel, you create something that when the other wave of states come in, they're going to have to compete with that," DiBella says. But Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. vows to veto any bill that expands gambling in Connecticut.

March 26, 1992: Saying that planning for a convention center has "gotten out of hand," Weicker puts the work of the state authority on hold, and decides to study the health of the financially ailing Hartford Civic Center instead. "People are scrambling around, [saying] we ought to stick something here or stick something there, we ought to have gambling here or no gambling there. I mean, the thing was totally disorganized," Weicker says.

December 1992: Hartford's mayor, Carrie Saxon Perry, joins Weicker in vowing to oppose a combined casino/convention center.

May 1993: Plans for a casino/convention center in Hartford die after Weicker cuts a deal with the Mashantucket Pequots to allow slot machines at Foxwoods, with the state getting a 25 percent cut in the revenue. But the money stops if slot machines go anywhere else. Bill authorizing Hartford casino never comes up for a vote in the General Assembly.

June 1993: Weicker and the legislature pull the plug on the convention center authority after the authority spent more than $1.3 million without even choosing a site. The authority spent more than $640,000 on legal fees to three well-connected law firms, including $594,043 in payments to the firm of its principal lawyer, Richard H. Goldstein. At Weicker's request, the legislature cancels $18 million in remaining bond authorizations for the Hartford convention center.

 

[TRest]

Rivers Cuomo from Weezer is from Enfield, I believe.

I thought he was an EO Smith grad.

 

[Hoophound]

Yep. Moved to LA right after he graduated E.O.

 

[Gurleyman]

We've got Peter Tork and some of the guys from Toto. (Sounds like a lyric in an Adam Sandler Hannukah song).

I took my own challenge. Pre-Christmas boredom...

Hartford should be
A Hard Rock Cafe site
Instead of fleeing for the burbs
There'd be stuff to do at night

But if we feel like the only US state
without a music scene
Here's a list of musicians from Connecticut
Taken from my Google screen...

MGMT
Is from the Nutmeg State
So is Sugar Ray's Mark McGrath
And old garage band Fifth Estate

Guess who's eaten pizza
At Pepe's and Sally's plenty?
Ed Toth from the Doobie Brothers
And Brian Yale of Matchbox 20

We've got Daryl Hall
And Paul Simon lives in New Canaan
Oates and Garfunkel don't live here
But where they are its likely rainin'

Put on your Whalers jock
Here comes Our Hard Rock
There's no Biggie or Tupac
But there's enough for a Hard Rock

The best musician in the Monkees
Was Windham's Peter Tork
Karen Carpenter owned the mike
But not so much the fork

Michael Bolton is a Nutmegger
Although not sure he's a dude
John Mayer may be a
But just look at who he's screwed

Techno is a genre
That Moby might be best in
Keith Richards is British of course
But hey, now he lives in Weston

Our Hard Rock museum might not have as much as other places
But you can look at Jeff Porcaro's drums and Doug Wimbish's basses

Put on your Whalers jock
Here comes Our Hard Rock
It might be up before Dunkin Donuts Park (note: sing with Boston accent)
But at least we'll have a Hard Rock

Sonic Youth is a classic band
Led by Bethel's Thurston Moore
The '83 Grammy Awards
Were owned by Toto IV

You could liven any party
With a little NRBQ
Or clear out any party
With a little Hoochie Koo

New Haven's known for pizza
But it' also boasts Liz Phair
A vintage singer/songwriter
With a vintage derrière

If it doesn't seem to you like our museum's a crowd pleaser
Just loop the Buddy Holly vid with the lead singer of Weezer

Put on your Whalers jock
Here comes Our Hard Rock
If you're a Yankee or a Red Sock
You can still enjoy our Hard Rock
So put your yachts back on the dock
And have some shots of Maker's Mark (note: maybe going to the Boston accent well too often)
Like El-Amin, the world we'll shock
When we have a really, really, really awesome Hard Rock

 

[FartMan69]

I took my own challenge. Pre-Christmas boredom...

Hartford should be
A Hard Rock Cafe site
Instead of fleeing for the burbs
There'd be stuff to do at night

But if we feel like the only US state
without a music scene
Here's a list of musicians from Connecticut
Taken from my Google screen...

MGMT
Is from the Nutmeg State
So is Sugar Ray's Mark McGrath
And old garage band Fifth Estate

Guess who's eaten pizza
At Pepe's and Sally's plenty?
Ed Toth from the Doobie Brothers
And Brian Yale of Matchbox 20

We've got Daryl Hall
And Paul Simon lives in New Canaan
Oates and Garfunkel don't live here
But where they are its likely rainin'

Put on your Whalers jock
Here comes Our Hard Rock
There's no Biggie or Tupac
But there's enough for a Hard Rock

The best musician in the Monkees
Was Windham's Peter Tork
Karen Carpenter owned the mike
But not so much the fork

Michael Bolton is a Nutmegger
Although not sure he's a dude
John Mayer may be a
But just look at who he's screwed

Techno is a genre
That Moby might be best in
Keith Richards is British of course
But hey, now he lives in Weston

Our Hard Rock museum might not have as much as other places
But you can look at Jeff Porcaro's drums and Doug Wimbish's basses

Put on your Whalers jock
Here comes Our Hard Rock
It might be up before Dunkin Donuts Park (note: sing with Boston accent)
But at least we'll have a Hard Rock

Sonic Youth is a classic band
Led by Bethel's Thurston Moore
The '83 Grammy Awards
Were owned by Toto IV

You could liven any party
With a little NRBQ
Or clear out any party
With a little Hoochie Koo

New Haven's known for pizza
But it' also boasts Liz Phair
A vintage singer/songwriter
With a vintage derrière

If it doesn't seem to you like our museum's a crowd pleaser
Just loop the Buddy Holly vid with the lead singer of Weezer

Put on your Whalers jock
Here comes Our Hard Rock
If you're a Yankee or a Red Sock
You can still enjoy our Hard Rock
So put your yachts back on the dock
And have some shots of Maker's Mark (note: maybe going to the Boston accent well too often)
Like El-Amin, the world we'll shock
When we have a really, really, really awesome Hard Rock

 

[GemParty]

The crappy side of construction.
http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-yard-goats-stadium-1224-20151223-story.html

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

I haven't been to one for a while. I was in the Biloxi hotel and watched the UConn/USF snow game that we won on a last second FG. That place was hopping.

Even when visiting an unfamiliar city, it's challenging to rationalize visiting a Hard Rock. Then again, Biloxi's not exactly too inspiring. Advantage Hartford, but really a Hard Rock? Beauty's in the eyes of the beholders; if it works all the better.

 

[Hoophound]

Hard Rock San Juan is an oasis in an otherwise sweaty, somewhat dirty place. Same goes for Hard Rock Nassau.

Basically, anytime you are somewhere hot and stinky with a bad economy, look for Hard Rock. It will be super cold inside and mostly clean. It feels like stepping out of New Delhi and into New York. Suddenly, life is worth living. The fare is bar food done marginally well and the beer is 1/10 of a degree from frozen. There is lots of interesting memorabilia to look at, which is fun and helps make conversation.

I guess what I'm saying is, until the north end of Hartford is desirable, Hard Rock will be a bright spot. Once Hartford makes its triumphant return, Hard Rock will lose its luster.

 

[8893]

The crappy side of construction.
http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-yard-goats-stadium-1224-20151223-story.html

Sounds eerily similar to the dynamic and constraints that resulted in the clusterfark that was the New Haven Coliseum.

 

[Pudge]

Sounds eerily similar to the dynamic and constraints that resulted in the clusterfark that was the New Haven Coliseum.

Stay tuned ...

While most of you weren't looking, the infrastructure of the former Coliseum site has largely been underway & the demand driver (YALE New Haven Healthcare) has grown like crazy. Coming soon.

 

[8893]

Stay tuned ...

While most of you weren't looking, the infrastructure of the former Coliseum site has largely been underway & the demand driver (YALE New Haven Healthcare) has grown like crazy. Coming soon.

Oh, I see it almost every day. My point about the Coliseum is that the combination of cost constraints, legal battles between the developer/designer and the City, and the resulting design and construction compromises led to a butt-ugly and downright dangerous facility that was nothing close to what was envisioned. There was a fascinating documentary about it several years ago, and the conflict between Hartford and the Centerplan/DoNo people sounds almost identical.

I have tons and tons of great memories from the Coliseum, including everything from Nighthawks games, Harlem Globetrotters, Ice Capades and UConn games, to more concerts than I could possibly count, much less remember. But it was a terribly ugly building with an illogical and dangerous design and a parking garage that still gives me anxiety when I think about it. It's almost criminal that it was allowed to be built the way it was.

 

[imno1]

Stay tuned ...

While most of you weren't looking, the infrastructure of the former Coliseum site has largely been underway & the demand driver (YALE New Haven Healthcare) has grown like crazy. Coming soon.

excited for the 9th and hope it's much better than Blue Back Square

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

excited for the 9th and hope it's much better than Blue Back Square

Burying the Rt 34 divider helps? Major, multi-decade Mayor Lee fail, finally fixed? Who'da think?