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Message: [QUOTE="UConnNick, post: 2255257, member: 1526"] I agree, but try getting the Town of Mansfield's tree hugger brigade to get on board with this proposal. They didn't want Gampel when it was built. These are some of the same folks that completely shut down the extension of I-84 to Providence back in the 1970's. They argued eastern CT is some sort of pristine wilderness area, which is a laugh. That's why Hartford and Providence remain the only two major cities in New England that are not connected by an interstate highway. They also effectively killed Pfizer's attempt to build a world class partnership research facility on the UConn campus. Politically torpedoing the idea of a 13,000+ capacity arena on the UConn campus will be mere child's play for them. The other problem is attendance is declining for both the men's and women's teams over the past several seasons. There's no justification for greatly expanding capacity if the new or remodeled arena is only half full all the time. They could have explored adding additional seating to Gampel by simply raising the roof and adding rows around the entire arena, since they're replacing the roof anyway. There simply isn't enough ticket demand right now to justify the extra expense, not to mention the dire financial position the state government is in right now. [/QUOTE]