The On-Campus Stadium Debate

[Marty Jackson]

it needs to be a state overhaul

roads:
-build super 7 from norwalk to danbury
-rt 25 from monroe to newtown
-384 needs to continue right down 44 to the cross with 195. 195 to 84 needs to be built up.
-44 from 195 cross all the way to providence needs to be built up. u could add in 44 north of hartford getting beefed up also.

towns and business
-195 in storrs needs to become a downtown post rd type deal. 4 lane, 25mph bars, eats, apts, bookstore and all that jazz. it needs to have a parade with the band 7 saturdays a year packed with ppl and be host to about 40ish nights a winter to post game partying between puck and bball. it needs to become the town life.
-mansfield, willimantic, coventry, tolland and bolton need to all be developed into little 40k population small towns. build that population on the back of hartford coming back to life bringing in big business and uconn sports being the entertainment draw.
-manchester over time will follow the above towns

facilities and sports:
-knock down the xl. build a big office building setup.
-knock down the rent. build a big trump tower there like in stamford. the name is nothing more than a name rights for flash...build the mall and more apts around it until a great community on that land. get the states money back what ever they are still owed if anything at that point.
-do not let another minor league sport into the state north of bridgeport. nothing. NH-Hart needs to be uconn only. current baseball teams stay until they move, then done with that.
-put some type of sport in stamford and thats it.
-build 60k stadium on campus. 15k bball arena for bball only. 5k puck barn. 3k baseball and 1k softball. other sports same deal.....
-with a 30kish uconn storrs population and a 200k immediate town surrounding population you now have the draw. the only show in town.
-stamford at 150k should be a goal, norwalk at 100k, bpt at 150k and clean it up. danbury at 85k and waterbury at 100k should be goals population wise to clean up and grow.

thats how you build a monster. its a lot fo $ and a lot more then some crap i just typed. but a go getter gets it. vision. leadership. planning. we lack it all. no balls.

imagine 7 football games a year 60k sold out. 195 packed. 20k students and 30 season tix 10k open tix. house rocking. 40ish home bballa nd puck gmes a year. constant draws. baseball being the only show in town gets crowds for saturday dh's and how about tuesday night games? and so on.

its all possible. but this state needs to stop being puss ies and stop making crappy decisions.

yea i know, this is fantasy land. im just a drunk and i dont understand english.

it's sad when reality for some is blurred with Sim City...

 

[Marty Jackson]

It's a good post.

I think the piece you are missing is towards the bottom. You think people are lazy and make excuses if they don't travel to Storrs? They don't really care what you think, they just aren't making that trip as long as UConn is in the AAC. People and cars start streaming out of Rentschler in the second quarter. That sound like a fanbase willing to add another 90-120 minutes to the process of attending a game?

Maybe it happens other places but there comes a point in the second quarter where the people trickling in are equal to the people tricking out. Maybe someday if we sell enough season tickets they could market mini plans that aren't three games, but rather you have tickets for the first or second half.

so now people are leaving in the 2nd quarter? I thought the biggest complaint was that people don't show up until the 2nd quarter.

 

[whaler11]

so now people are leaving in the 2nd quarter? I thought the biggest complaint was that people don't show up until the 2nd quarter.

You should open your eyes at a game. They do both in the second quarter. Walking past each other at the gates two ships passing in the night.

 

[Dann]

it's sad when reality for some is blurred with Sim City...

Good one, I haven't seen that joke on here before 3 other times.

 

[Marty Jackson]

Good one, I haven't seen that joke on here before 3 other times.

sucks when people keep beating the same drum over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

 

[Dann]

sucks when people keep beating the same drum over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

Sometimes that drum sucks and sometimes its right

 

[HobokenHusky]

For some reason I was torturing myself with looking at the original plans for the UConn/Pats stadium in Downtown Hartford earlier this week. A fully realized Adriean's Landing would make my 20s so much better. Imagine if they could set up tailgating alongside the Connecticut river and walking to downtown bars after games?

Wow, that rendering really makes me depressed. That would have been so cool. I love going to games at the rent, but also understand why other fans don't like it. Not only is it not on campus, but it's in the middle of a residential neighborhood. At least most other off campus stadiums are close to a downtown/city. Oh well.

 

[John Greene]

I have stayed away from these endless on/off campus stadium debates because I have not lived in CT for almost 30 years and have never gone to the Rent. Well three weeks ago I was back for my annual summer family visit and decided I would stop by EH to see what all the fuss was about. There were some maintenance people there at the time so I was able to talk my way in explaining I was a UConn alum living in AL. Showed my Alumni Assoc credit card and AL drivers license. For what its worth here are a first timers impressions:

It looks smaller than I expected and much more sterile.
I now understand why so many love the concourse rather than their seats, standing there with a beer on a nice Fall day with an unobstructed view of the field.
Seats appear much closer to the field than I am used to,which should provide a continuing home field advantage. Full second level would magnify this.
Should have put in a lot more chair backs.
Walked around outside trying to imagine what it would feel like on game day with tailgating going on and decided it would feel more like a pro stadium than a college stadium.
I have read all of the political reasons why it is in EH but still could not get the question "what the heck is this facility doing here?" out of my mind.

 

[Srqhusky]

You should open your eyes at a game. They do both in the second quarter. Walking past each other at the gates two ships passing in the night.

That's on the fans not the team. The team was in every game this year No reason to leave early

 

[specialisthusky]

I was over there last well and drive by depot campus. Level that down throw a stadium there filter traffic out 44 to 195 44 to route 6 44 to 384 or 32 to 84. I think that would work better than horse barn hill. I'd love to see the tailgate parties on hunting lodge road with thousands of students walking down the street to the stadium. Its fun to dream.

 

[Waquoit]

Walked around outside trying to imagine what it would feel like on game day with tailgating going on and decided it would feel more like a pro stadium than a college stadium.

Why don't you actually come on a game day so you can add some real "first-timer" commentary?

 

[Coach Flood]

For some reason I was torturing myself with looking at the original plans for the UConn/Pats stadium in Downtown Hartford earlier this week. A fully realized Adriean's Landing would make my 20s so much better. Imagine if they could set up tailgating alongside the Connecticut river and walking to downtown bars after games?

That's a pretty badass setup....what year was this proposed in?

 

[whaler11]

That's on the fans not the team. The team was in every game this year No reason to leave early

I've never said it wasn't on the fans.

 

[BoatShow]

.
-manchester over time will follow the above towns

You realize Manchester already has about a 60k population, attractions on Main St., attractions in the mall area, and a few other spots around town right?

 

[BoatShow]

That's a pretty badass setup....what year was this proposed in?

98-99

 

[Coach Flood]

98-99

Shame it didn't go through.....I'd love to go see the Patriots play, especially being that I live in CT.

 

[John Greene]

Why don't you actually come on a game day so you can add some real "first-timer" commentary?

Would like to but unfortunately my schedule has never worked for a home game. I have seen the team 5 times on the road. Vandy, GT, twice at USF and of course against South Carolina here in Birmingham. This year is out for a Fall trip to CT but next year who knows.