Rentschler Stadium expansion

[Waquoit]

I don't buy that MLS will overtake MLB and/or the NBA, most definitely not in the northeast, but building a MLS stadium in the Hartford area would be a great idea. But aren't the Revolution owned by Kraft? No chance he's moving a team out of Foxboro.

The Rent was built for soccer.

 

[UCFBfan]

The Rent was built for soccer.

Legit or just in your opinion? I really think that Hartford should act before NY and Boston get big teams. It's why they'll never get a NHL team. The Revolution don't play in Boston and Red Bulls play in NJ. Time act! Haha! Pipe dream......

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

 

[FrostyNuggets]

MLS wants soccer specific stadiums, sized 20-25k, with the soccer team as the main tennant. They dont want August/September/October games (end of season and playoffs) played on fields with football grids and 10k peeps in a 50k seat facility. That would seem to make The Rent a non-starter for the MLS

I really haven't followed closely because I really dont give much of a fuck about anything anymore, but the Krafts were exploring sommerville and marlboro a while back to build such a facility.

 

[Dann]

Sell the rent to a mls owner for 100mil. Take that and build a 60k on campus stadium that will forever take this school to the next level. It may take another 10 years to fill it but so what. Think and go big or go home. Play all bball games the next 8 years in hartford while gampel turns into a great 6k rink and the baseball soccer stuff and bball pf is all done. In 2020 with all these things well over with and being used, put a 15k bball arena in dt storrs and for ever remember the greatest 20 years in uconn history.

 

[businesslawyer]

The difference, in your argument that 40K in 2000 was speculative, is that in 2000 we were markedly upgrading the product on the field to D1 football, from the previous irrelevant 1AA crap we played. Now, short of a major conference jump, there's no increase in the product on the field that would allow for any reasonable expectation that those extra 15K seats are going to be sold. You all can banter all you want about a B1G invite, but it's not happening. Putting in 15K new seats is not gong to suddenly draw 15K more people to the same OOC games against Buffalo and Ohio, combined with a weakened Big East. In fact, it's more appealing to other conferences to see a stadium at 100% capacity all season, a demand for more tickets, and the ability to expand if necessary, than it is to see 41,000 people in 55,000 seats. If for no other reason, it creates the perception that the program is in demand, that everyone loves it, tickets are gone like hot cakes, and that it's something everyone else should see. Smart business is to keep supply just behind demand, not increase supply when there isn't the demand. Currently, short of the Michigan game and maybe Tennessee, there's not a single game on our schedule I see us selling 55K tickets to. And "marketing more" is not going to accomplish that. When you have to market a program so much just to get a sellout, it reeks of desperation and that tickets are easy to come by. You won't see any big time football program marketing their tickets like crazy, it's because they don't have to. When you don't have to market to sellout, you're a big program. When you're marketing like hell just to make it up to a sellout, likely accomplished through day of game walk up sales, you're akin to a minor league baseball team.

There is a critical point in there. Expanding to 55k before the fanbase is ready to fill the seats (or at least most of them) consistently leads to less excitement at the games, and ultimately less demand. It is not critical that you sell out every game, but it is critical that your stadium doesn't look like -- say -- Pitt's.

 

[jbdphi]

CT regularly refinances bond debt

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-...bonds-after-boosting-top-income-tax-rate.html

Connecticut, plans to offer $600 million in tax-exempt bonds next week.
The offering will be split, with $200 million for capital improvements and $400 million to refinance existing debt, and save the state $16 million without extending maturities, Moody’s Investors Service said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The state Treasury will begin selling $715 million in general obligation bonds Friday. Bonds from the sale will be used for a variety of new projects, according to the statement.

Nappier said $335.7 million will be used for school construction grants; $54.6 million will fund improvements to state community technical colleges and $30 million will be used to replenish the Capitol Improvement Fund. About $79.7 million will go to other building projects, the statement said.

Another $165 million will be used to refinance the state’s debt at lower interest rates, the statement said.

http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/ctnj.php/archives/entry/connecticut_keeps_its_aa_bond_rating/

Just seeing this whole thread now (and why is expansion of the Rent a Conference Realignment topic??? Isn't it a football topic?) Some quick thoughts based on 10+ years in finance and banking (although not public / project financing like this):
- I doubt that the Rent financing was a general obligation bond of the State of CT - it sounds like it was a specific project financing which means that it has specific interest and revenues related to the project - it would not be part of any refinancing done generally by the State of CT
- These sorts of project specific financings aren't as easy to refinance as general obligation bonds - there are covenants involved which typically prevent such an action unless the investor in the financing is somehow "made whole" for their lost interest income - this can get really expensive depending on how close to maturity you want to do a refinancing - the further out you are from maturity, the more expensive it is
- In addition, there was a comment earlier from Pudge which implied that Debt Service Ratios should look much better than originally planned due to lower prevailing interest rates - from my experience, I'd be shocked if this project financing was not done on a FIXED interest rate. Almost all projects are done on a fixed interest rate as opposed to a floating interest rate so you have complete predictability in costs - with a floating loan, if interest rates went up (but revenue remained where you thought it would be) you would be screwed so I'd be shocked if this was done on a floating basis - as a result, the Ratios would only improve due to improvement in the numerator (revenue or EBITDA), not the denominator (Fixed Costs like Interest and Principal)
- Without seeing the offering documents, I have no idea if this is the case, but sometimes these deals have something called an accordion feature which means that under certain conditions and with investor agreement, you can add to the original bond. If an expansion was originally considered in the offering, there may be such a feature here.

Hope that is helpful to those who care.

 

[pj]

Sell the rent to a mls owner for 100mil. Take that and build a 60k on campus stadium that will forever take this school to the next level. It may take another 10 years to fill it but so what. Think and go big or go home.

Better: Sell the rent to an MLS owner. Move the whole university to a scenic site near the beach with better access to freeways - say, Hammonassett State Park; or maybe closer to the middle of the state, say on the site of that golf course in Cromwell. Build a 60k on campus stadium, a 16k on campus basketball stadium, a 5k ice rink, and a 20k near-campus soccer stadium that can serve UConn soccer and an MLS team. To help fill the seats, fold some of the other state universities and merge them into the new university. Plus build a scenic gothic campus that rivals Notre Dame and Boston College for looks.

Think and go big or go home!

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Take that and build a 60k on campus stadium that will forever take this school to the next level.

Have you ever been to Storrs via 195 on move in day in August?

Gonna go out on a limb and guess no.

 

[junglehusky]

Better: Sell the rent to an MLS owner. Move the whole university to a scenic site near the beach with better access to freeways - say, Hammonassett State Park; or maybe closer to the middle of the state, say on the site of that golf course in Cromwell. Build a 60k on campus stadium, a 16k on campus basketball stadium, a 5k ice rink, and a 20k near-campus soccer stadium that can serve UConn soccer and an MLS team. To help fill the seats, fold some of the other state universities and merge them into the new university. Plus build a scenic gothic campus that rivals Notre Dame and Boston College for looks.

Think and go big or go home!

University of Connecticut, Trump Tower campus. I guarantee you'll agree it's the classiest campus you ever stepped foot on. It'll make Oxford look like pile of puke.

 

[Dann]

Pj can i expand on that? Lol

Chb part of my dream project wouldbe to extend the highway right to storrs. A route 7 connector basically.

 

[UConnJim]

I hope they put in temporary seats at the open end of the stadium by the scoreboard for the Michigan and Tennessee games. It looks like you could increase the capacity by 2k for the games.

 

[Dann]

Band on the field also^. I want to set a rent record. Its good media and pumps the casual fans eyes a bit.

 

[UConnJim]

It would help demonstrate that the Rent should be expanded.

 

[CTMike]

It would help demonstrate that the Rent should be expanded.

Only if we fill them all up! I think we can though. Pretty good ideas.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

It would help demonstrate that the Rent should be expanded.

Not if they're filled with Michigan fans. It would demonstrate that we should expand if bleacher add-ons were full for San Diego State or Ohio.

 

[Jimdish255]

Pj can i expand on that? Lol

Chb part of my dream project wouldbe to extend the highway right to storrs. A route 7 connector basically.

Unfortunately the Rt 7 connector was blocked before it reached it's destination. That's the problem with small towns and big thinking. They don't mix well without big payoffs. I meant to say "incentives".

 

[Waquoit]

Legit or just in your opinion? I really think that Hartford should act before NY and Boston get big teams. It's why they'll never get a NHL team. The Revolution don't play in Boston and Red Bulls play in NJ. Time act! Haha! Pipe dream......

A field that conforms to international dimensions was part of the planning. I heard that from a UConn person when I toured The Rent late in the construction process. It's never going to get a MLS team but a game or two each summer should be doable goal. It practically sold out for that last pre-WC friendly. It has a comparable capacity to Stamford Bridge.

 

[HuskyBlue08]

I like the idea of selling the Rent to a MLL or MLS team for 1 trillion dollars.

1 Billion goes towards a new state of the art 60000 seat on-campus stadium.

1 Billion goes towards basketball practice facility/new 15000 seat Gampel

1 Billion to upgrade to Hockey East/new 8000 seat ice arena/8000 seat soccer stadium

200 billion towards the university's endowment

300 billion towards research to make us more attractive to AAU/Big Ten

500 billion towards creating a UConn satellite campus on Mars in 2023

 

[HuskyBlue08]

Oh crap UConn doesn't own the Rent. I guess it's on to plan B...

 

[Dann]

Mars jokes were so last year.

 

[Dann]

Oh crap UConn doesn't own the Rent. I guess it's on to plan B...

The state sells it. Then they reinvest it for a mew better stadium.... The big pitch is that the mls owner can sell naming rights in 2018. A mls team would easily find a redbull type hor that and make alot of dough in the long run.

 

[pj]

Don't forget to endow the new Victoria's Secret School of Fashion Design with scholarships for the Swedish bikini team. That might help recruiting.

 

[BlueMAB]

CT regularly refinances bond debt

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-...bonds-after-boosting-top-income-tax-rate.html

Connecticut, plans to offer $600 million in tax-exempt bonds next week.
The offering will be split, with $200 million for capital improvements and $400 million to refinance existing debt, and save the state $16 million without extending maturities, Moody’s Investors Service said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The state Treasury will begin selling $715 million in general obligation bonds Friday. Bonds from the sale will be used for a variety of new projects, according to the statement.

Nappier said $335.7 million will be used for school construction grants; $54.6 million will fund improvements to state community technical colleges and $30 million will be used to replenish the Capitol Improvement Fund. About $79.7 million will go to other building projects, the statement said.

Another $165 million will be used to refinance the state’s debt at lower interest rates, the statement said.

http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/ctnj.php/archives/entry/connecticut_keeps_its_aa_bond_rating/

How much is going to meet payroll, since our cash flow is an obvious problem to everyone who doesn't have a "D" after their name?

 

[RS9999X]

How much is going to meet payroll, since our cash flow is an obvious problem to everyone who doesn't have a "D" after their name?

The problem is that fixed costs for payroll, benefits, and debt service are climbing faster than inflation and productivity . As is Medicaid. I read somewhere that CT needs 5% more a year just to level fund everything in real dollar terms and that doesn't include pension and state employee health benefit arrears.

Then there's the Romney Recession when Mitt he cuts off much of CT's funding. By 2014 ........

 

[WestCoastHusky]

UCONN needs to expand the stadium. College football is all about perception. When you have a stadium that's over 50K, it gives the impression that the school is serious about football. UCONN might not fill it right away, but I believe UCONN will fill it eventually. Bigger stadium will help draw better opponents and as a result will help attendance.

 

[Chin Diesel]

UCONN needs to expand the stadium. College football is all about perception. When you have a stadium that's over 50K, it gives the impression that the school is serious about football. UCONN might not fill it right away, but I believe UCONN will fill it eventually. Bigger stadium will help draw better opponents and as a result will help attendance.

There are less than a dozen schools that fill out their stadium for every game regardless of the opponents. Even in the vaunted SEC you can get tickets at Bama, LSU, Georgia or Florida from scalpers or on stub hub for face value or less against the garbage teams.

I realize it'd be dumb and look horrible for Uconn to have a 75K stadium and only have 35K fans. But Uconn is at a point where we could put 50K in a stadium 2-3 times a year.

The dilemma with expanding the Rent is total revenues. If Uconn were to expand right now, there would be little incentive to pay the fee needed to reserve seats in certain sections above and beyond the ticket costs. Uconn could be put in a a position for several years of higher overall attendance and at the same time having lower overall revenue.

 

[Waquoit]

Then they reinvest it for a mew better stadium.... .

I don't get this line of thinking. The Rent is a great stadium.

 

[huskypantz]

Then there's the Romney Recession when Mitt he cuts off much of CT's funding. By 2014 ........

As opposed to the stellar unemployment rate and thriving economy over the past 3.5 years

 

[uconnfan68]

I don't get this line of thinking. The Rent is a great stadium.

but nothing a all-season bubble cover wouldn't fix. ;^)

 

[Dann]

I don't get this line of thinking. The Rent is a great stadium.

Its a good stadium. Its hella better than the erector set ucf built. But the rent is nothing special. It has some good features like sound and sightline type stuff and the tg setup is great right now. I mean look at what baylor or tcu or uh are building. I like on campus stuff also...