Oh yeah you’re absolutely right Kraft was all in on putting a stadium in Hartford end it turned out beautifully right on the Connecticut River… Oh wait that never happened. So maybe he wasn’t “all that in?”
UConn definitely would have gotten a stadium on campus. Look at all the development that has happened on campus since then. The problem in the university’s original pitch was that it over estimated the legislature’s zeal for all things UConn and included the equivalent of both the Burton and Shankman buildings in with the stadium request. It was a huge nut and appropriately turned down. Had they just asked for the funding for the stadium it would’ve been approved. Remember it was no more expensive to build the rent on UConn owned land in Storrs instead of on the airway donated by Pratt and Whitney.
Where we can find agreement is that Rentschler field was a reaction to the failure of the Patriots deal going through. If those “negotiations” had never taken place, we have a stadium in Storrs right now. As I often say, I like Rentschler field. There’s not a bad seat in the house and the tailgating scene is pretty good. It’s also 30 minutes closer to my home, not that that matters to me one way or the other.
