Toscano Family Ice Forum Impressions | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Toscano Family Ice Forum Impressions

My girlfriend and I went to the Women’s hockey win last night against Holy Cross which was my first experience at Toscano.

I fully admit I am not a hockey guy whatsoever but.. the arena was MUCH better than Freitas was when I was in school. We sat in 102- great sight lines to watch the game from.

There are 2 additional concessions areas behind the goal in 107 and a drink concession area at the top of the stairs as soon as you walk up on your right. I’d suggest people keeping an eye out for those areas for future concessions needs as the lines were much shorter than the main concession area by the temporary table of gear “team shop” they had setup.

Overall it was a great experience. Girlfriend said it was the highlight of her trip so far, and we both would 100% go back again.
 
Drew said:
My girlfriend and I went to the Women’s hockey win last night against Holy Cross which was my first experience at Toscano.

I fully admit I am not a hockey guy whatsoever but.. the arena was MUCH better than Freitas was when I was in school. We sat in 102- great sight lines to watch the game from.

There are 2 additional concessions areas behind the goal in 107 and a drink concession area at the top of the stairs as soon as you walk up on your right. I’d suggest people keeping an eye out for those areas for future concessions needs as the lines were much shorter than the main concession area by the temporary table of gear “team shop” they had setup.

Overall it was a great experience. Girlfriend said it was the highlight of her trip so far, and we both would 100% go back again.
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attendance - 1354!
 
We sat in Section 111, Row F, seats 11 & 12 for the third period yesterday vs UNH (my seats are in 121, moved to see UConn shooting). Those are virtually identical to the XL seats I have.....and love). Great sight lines for that end, BUT you must look through the absurdly high glass behind the visitors' bench to view the opposing goal - and the view is distorted through the glass!

Sigh! Just add it to the growing list of shortcomings. Anybody else note the number of cracks in the stairs leading up to the concourse?
 
Those high glass walls are meant to protect the visiting team from you Viet Vet! Just kidding’
I’d love to seee modifications to that student section with the cinder block walls. First, get rid of the wall. Replace it with safe railing. Put risers up there and it’s a great place for the band. Second, the concession stands are woefully inadequate for a capacity crowd. There’s plenty of space for enlarged food service areas in both corners of the arena on the home team side. They are desperately needed. You can miss half a period waiting for a beer and a pretzel. By the way, the food choices at Toscano and XL are just horrible. The food at the Yard Goats games is so much better. Of course my cardiologist would kill me himself if he found me eating any of that stuff …..
I’m hoping to see improvements by next year. Any new venue has growing pains and I’m sure DB et al we’re in a hurry to get Toscano open this year. Anyway you look at it it’s a great place for UConn Hockey . Beat BC!
 
Brunoblue said:
… By the way, the food choices at Toscano and XL are just horrible. The food at the Yard Goats games is so much better. Of course my cardiologist would kill me himself if he found me eating any of that stuff … I’m hoping to see improvements by next year. Any new venue has growing pains and I’m sure DB et al we’re in a hurry to get Toscano open this year. Anyway you look at it it’s a great place for UConn Hockey . Beat BC!
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Brunoblue said:
Those high glass walls are meant to protect the visiting team from you Viet Vet! Just kidding’
I’d love to seee modifications to that student section with the cinder block walls. First, get rid of the wall. Replace it with safe railing. Put risers up there and it’s a great place for the band. Second, the concession stands are woefully inadequate for a capacity crowd. There’s plenty of space for enlarged food service areas in both corners of the arena on the home team side. They are desperately needed. You can miss half a period waiting for a beer and a pretzel. By the way, the food choices at Toscano and XL are just horrible. The food at the Yard Goats games is so much better. Of course my cardiologist would kill me himself if he found me eating any of that stuff …..
I’m hoping to see improvements by next year. Any new venue has growing pains and I’m sure DB et al we’re in a hurry to get Toscano open this year. Anyway you look at it it’s a great place for UConn Hockey . Beat BC!
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I'll at least take the options at XL vs a hotdog, pretzel, popcorn & candy at Toscano.
 
Brunoblue said:
Those high glass walls are meant to protect the visiting team from you Viet Vet! Just kidding’
I’d love to seee modifications to that student section with the cinder block walls. First, get rid of the wall. Replace it with safe railing. Put risers up there and it’s a great place for the band. Second, the concession stands are woefully inadequate for a capacity crowd. There’s plenty of space for enlarged food service areas in both corners of the arena on the home team side. They are desperately needed. You can miss half a period waiting for a beer and a pretzel. By the way, the food choices at Toscano and XL are just horrible. The food at the Yard Goats games is so much better. Of course my cardiologist would kill me himself if he found me eating any of that stuff …..
I’m hoping to see improvements by next year. Any new venue has growing pains and I’m sure DB et al we’re in a hurry to get Toscano open this year. Anyway you look at it it’s a great place for UConn Hockey . Beat BC!
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The high glass some five rows up would be ok in a larger arena where you have options to get up above them, but they do get in the way of sight lines and were a particularly bad choice given the intimate setting. Do the walls behind each bench really need to be so tall in a tiny rink? Their height and stark white behind them are becoming of showers stalls in aesthetic.

100% right on with band risers to take place of student standing room cinderblock wall.

XL food offerings for larger crowds are better, but some vendors like Teds Steamed Burgers may not operate for 3-4K fans at XL. Randy’s Wooster Street and Bears are nice regular features, that and drought beer of course. Will be interested to see if food options will also be part of the Sugarhouse Sportsbook area.

Yard Goats need food and drink as an attraction to compliment a beautiful park. The experience there is more like a mini carnival, and it’s fun, but most in attendance are there to enjoy a night or day out rather than get behind the team like they do with UConn or Hartford Athletic.

At least with Tuscano if you waiting for concessions, you’re basically in the same room as the action rather than in the exterior concourse. Still, improvements will be welcome, even so early on.

Sweep BC!
 
huskymedic said:
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Interesting piece on the technology and control rooms that exist behind the scenes to support both live arena and video supports.

Having had to watch the student only game vs Alaska Anchorage on ESPN+ it was curious to see Tuscano on the screen for a whole game vs the highlights fed to Twitter etc. There are no issues regarding where the commentators are, but the cameras have been placed at a level too low. There is a frequent disruption of the scene by fans either standing or moving up and down stairs. They literally block the view of the ice surface which is very annoying and bush-league. The cameras should have been placed up at the Blue Line Lounge level to avoid that visual interruption but with a mandatory $1k per ticket donation to be up there, there's a fat chance that they'll do the right thing and move the cameras up there for a better line of sight angle.

There are no issues with the arena looking small on camera - all that is fine. It's definitely better than seeing swaths of empty seats like seen last night when viewing Northeastern vs UMass Lowell, but the ice level lounge looks vacuous and dumb on screen and to some degree the student deck appears to be a bizarre wall that seems to needlessly come out of nowhere.
 
DblCrossbar said:
Interesting piece on the technology and control rooms that exist behind the scenes to support both live arena and video supports.

Having had to watch the student only game vs Alaska Anchorage on ESPN+ it was curious to see Tuscano on the screen for a whole game vs the highlights fed to Twitter etc. There are no issues regarding where the commentators are, but the cameras have been placed at a level too low. There is a frequent disruption of the scene by fans either standing or moving up and down stairs. They literally block the view of the ice surface which is very annoying and bush-league. The cameras should have been placed up at the Blue Line Lounge level to avoid that visual interruption but with a mandatory $1k per ticket donation to be up there, there's a fat chance that they'll do the right thing and move the cameras up there for a better line of sight angle.

There are no issues with the arena looking small on camera - all that is fine. It's definitely better than seeing swaths of empty seats like seen last night when viewing Northeastern vs UMass Lowell, but the ice level lounge looks vacuous and dumb on screen and to some degree the student deck appears to be a bizarre wall that seems to needlessly come out of nowhere.
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DblCrossbar is a wealth of reasoned, unbiased, intelligent opinions. Full disclosure: We share adjacent season tickets at XL Center.
 
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Now go to work on the inside. IMO..........

Priority #1: Get rid of the Student Deck. Add bleacher seats instead.

Priority #2: Increase seating to at least 3,000 (getting rid of the student deck will help facilitate this).

Priority #3: Lower the walls behind the benches. Will add a couple of rows of seating, and enhance sight lines.

Priority #4: How about some draft (draught to you Anglophiles) beer. And wine for my wife!

Priority #5: Replace the "puck" holders with cup holders.

Priority #6: Night games, not 3:05pm and 4:05pm. It's Hockey East, not peewee hockey.
 
Viet Vet said:
Now go to work on the inside. IMO..........

Priority #1: Get rid of the Student Deck. Add bleacher seats instead.

Priority #2: Increase seating to at least 3,000 (getting rid of the student deck will help facilitate this).

Priority #3: Lower the walls behind the benches. Will add a couple of rows of seating, and enhance sight lines.

Priority #4: How about some draft (draught to you Anglophiles) beer. And wine for my wife!

Priority #5: Replace the "puck" holders with cup holders.

Priority #6: Night games, not 3:05pm and 4:05pm. It's Hockey East, not peewee hockey.
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I like your suggestions. Just make sure the financial gift you send to UConn for these upgrades is clearly marked “for the hockey arena upgrades”. Otherwise they might use your donation for other projects in the athletic department.
 
Viet Vet said:
Now go to work on the inside. IMO..........

Priority #1: Get rid of the Student Deck. Add bleacher seats instead.

Priority #2: Increase seating to at least 3,000 (getting rid of the student deck will help facilitate this).

Priority #3: Lower the walls behind the benches. Will add a couple of rows of seating, and enhance sight lines.

Priority #4: How about some draft (draught to you Anglophiles) beer. And wine for my wife!

Priority #5: Replace the "puck" holders with cup holders.

Priority #6: Night games, not 3:05pm and 4:05pm. It's Hockey East, not peewee hockey.
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Some real food would be nice too. Night games need to be the standard can't have games at 4:05 pm when the rest of the conference is playing at 7:00 pm. Have an additional alcohol stand where they have all that marketing crap when you first walk in... don't need 3 tables of giving away posters and free towels. Give the people libations! And get those retractable belt line dividers so people know where to form lines to keep the flow of traffic going around the building.
 
CTBballfan243 said:
I like your suggestions. Just make sure the financial gift you send to UConn for these upgrades is clearly marked “for the hockey arena upgrades”. Otherwise they might use your donation for other projects in the athletic department.
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Lol, kind of harsh. There’s nothing he’s suggesting there that is outrageous. I think most of us agree that it would be better for the facility to increase capacity in the student deck seems like an ill considered add on given that it actually created obstructed view seats.
 
CTBballfan243 said:
I like your suggestions. Just make sure the financial gift you send to UConn for these upgrades is clearly marked “for the hockey arena upgrades”. Otherwise they might use your donation for other projects in the athletic department.
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It's like having to pay your contractor a second time for not getting it right the first time. Find out whomever approved the plans for the cup holders, who decided on the student deck instead of seating and who decided on the wall height behind the bench. Dock it from their pay for incompetence.
 
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Chin Diesel said:
It's like having to pay your contractor a second time for not getting it right the first time. Find out whomever approved the plans for the cup holders, who decided on the student deck instead of seating and who decided on the wall height behind the bench. Dock it from their pay for incompetence.
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The cupholders was just a miss. It happens.

I’m guessing that the “student deck” was a change order, probably in an attempt to avoid the cost of extra seats. It just looks thrown together in a completely half assed manner. My guess is that Dave Benedict will use the fact that we have had sellouts to expand the seating capacity and that will be one of the first things to go.
 
CL82 said:
The cupholders was just a miss. It happens.

I’m guessing that the “student deck” was a change order, probably in an attempt to avoid the cost of extra seats. It just looks thrown together in a completely half assed manner. My guess is that Dave Benedict will use the fact that we have had sellouts to expand the seating capacity and that will be one of the first things to go.
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The student deck was in all the renderings so I have my doubts that it will be gone. Plus money was donated by the Longobardi family for it so I'm guessing it's not going anywhere. They're just going to put up risers behind it hopefully or else it might be the biggest waste of space. My issue is that students don't even stand up half the time it's usually non-students. Most of the time students go galavanting into sections 104,105 & 109 looking for actual seats to end up getting tossed out once the season tix holders show up. The communication surrounding those sections and the non-seated student seats is really poor.
 
UC15 said:
The student deck was in all the renderings so I have my doubts that it will be gone. Plus money was donated Longobardi family for it so I'm guessing it's not going anywhere. They're just going to put up risers behind it hopefully or else it might be the biggest waste of space. My issue is that students don't even stand up half the time it's usually non-students. Most of the time students go galavanting into sections 104,105 & 109 looking for actual seats to end up getting tossed out once the season tix holders show up. The communication surrounding those sections and the non-seated student seats is really poor.
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It wasn’t a cinder block box stuck behind one goal. Here, take a look.
BC54F7F5-4028-4799-95F9-D68EE6721B07.jpeg

What ended up being there seems very transitory like it’s just begging to be taken down. I agree with you about the Longobardi family contribution, but I can’t see them as being upset if it became the Longobardi student section.

Architects website
 
CL82 said:
The cupholders was just a miss. It happens.

I’m guessing that the “student deck” was a change order, probably in an attempt to avoid the cost of extra seats. It just looks thrown together in a completely half assed manner. My guess is that Dave Benedict will use the fact that we have had sellouts to expand the seating capacity and that will be one of the first things to go.
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How will Frank and Pat Longobardi react to the removal of their namesake Student Deck? I imagine a few bucks were donated for that naming right. Perhaps the additional seating could be named the Frank and Pat Longobardi Student Section, or "Husky Pound" or "Dog Pound".

They certainly deserve to be consulted and recognized for their generosity.
 
Viet Vet said:
How will Frank and Pat Longobardi react to the removal of their namesake Student Deck? I imagine a few bucks were donated for that naming right. Perhaps the additional seating could be named the Frank and Pat Longobardi Student Section, or "Husky Pound" or "Dog Pound".

They certainly deserve to be consulted and recognized for their generosity.
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Could not agree more. I suspect they would be entirely content with the Frank and Pat Longobardi student section, but we’d definitely need to reach out to them first.
 
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That is one state of the art top notch hockey facilities. Can't get much better than that.
 
I'm curious, how much was the naming rights for this?
 
I'm glad it's finally finished. It felt like that front façade was being manufactured on some pacific island somewhere with one guy hammering out one piece of steel at a time on an log and shipping it back to Storrs.

It looks terrific.
 
temery said:
I'm curious, how much was the naming rights for this?
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It was originally listed as a sponsorship opportunity @ $10M. Not sure what the actual amount ended up being:
 
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