XL and Uconn Contract

[Excalibur]

I have to wonder if the pro-Gampel voices here actually go to games in Gampel. If so, they would realize how the AAC is killing Gampel attendance. The chairbacks are sold, but the ticketholders just don't go to games against these teams. Those 200's level chairbacks especially have gotten emptier and emptier as the season went on. Hartford is where the fans actually go to the games. UConn needs Hartford to keep connected with the fanbase.

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Attendance at both venues was a function of weekday vs weekend games, not location. Weekend games were at or very close to capacity in both venues.

 

[tzznandrew]

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Attendance at both venues was a function of weekday vs weekend games, not location. Weekend games were at or very close to capacity in both venues.

I was at the game Sunday. That was an amazing home crowd. It's harder to get to Gampel for the majority of fans. Sometimes, I know, the XL can be dead with all the suits. Sometimes, though Gampel isn't particularly great because non-college fans can't get there.

If UConn were in Hartford, this wouldn't be the problem. Or if Storrs became a larger college town with easier access.

But it is what it is, and it isn't that bad.

 

[Fishy]

This argument has been going on forever and the combatants never get any smarter.

The same people who go to XL are the same people who go to Gampel.

They are the same people. Not the same type of people, they're actually the same people.

The change in zip code doesn't make them any louder or any quieter.

 

[Ha Who]

This XL/Gampel argument is getting old. If the AAC is our final resting place, the pro Gampel crowd will be happy as there is no need or even a demand for a 16,000 seat arena more than a couple of games per year. On the other hand if that "key tweet" ever happens, a renovated $250,000,000 arena will have a tenant.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Putting everything else aside the idea of 25 UConn events a year at the (proposed new) arena is ridiculous. There really should be at most three or four women's games a year and once the hockey team gets it new home, they should only play four or five games a year in Hartford. The above would lead to the men's team to need to play sixteen or more games a year in Hartford.

 

[John]

Putting everything else aside the idea of 25 UConn events a year at the (proposed new) arena is ridiculous. There really should be at most three or four women's games a year and once the hockey team gets it new home, they should only play four or five games a year in Hartford. The above would lead to the men's team to need to play sixteen or more games a year in Hartford.

I agree - it really shouldn't be more than 15 events tops - 3 or 4 hockey, 3 or 4 women's basketball, and 6 or 7 men's basketball.

 

[Drew]

Putting everything else aside the idea of 25 UConn events a year at the (proposed new) arena is ridiculous. There really should be at most three or four women's games a year and once the hockey team gets it new home, they should only play four or five games a year in Hartford. The above would lead to the men's team to need to play sixteen or more games a year in Hartford.

Which is what I was trying to say in my original argument before it was taken completely off topic. It's one thing to sign a long term lease to play in Hartford if the city of Hartford has a building that is worth playing in. It's quite another to sign a lease that would essentially commit UConn to helping to fund a new arena for a city it isn't located in. Just makes no sense. Continue the year by year leases and if Hartford can't figure out Hartford's problems then eventually say thanks but no thanks. If you think a program with 4 national championships can't survive a move out of the city of Hartford while the city figures out its ish you're completely delusional. Money that UConn would spend on helping Hartford build a new arena would be better used to make improvements to entities it actually owns.

Yesr to year lease is the way to go. Anything that commits more than the current allotment of games and/or is longer than 2 years is just irresponsible on the University's part.

 

[Chief00]

I have tickets in both places for 25 years. Quite frankly, when you get 15k at XL it's better than Gampel -sorry kids.

I have wondered if the practice facility has ironically hurt our Gampel home court advantage. Guys don't get enough practice shots there now. Shooting %'s were better at XL than Gampel this season.

As for convenience it depends where you live and if you are not a student XL wins again.

More importantly we need to upgrade our recruiting and OOC schedule - if we play good teams and have a good team the excitement will be there in either place.

 

[MattMang23]

I have tickets in both places for 25 years. Quite frankly, when you get 15k at XL it's better than Gampel -sorry kids.

I have wondered if the practice facility has ironically hurt our Gampel home court advantage. Guys don't get enough practice shots there now. Shooting %'s were better at XL than Gampel this season.

As for convenience it depends where you live and if you are not a student XL wins again.

More importantly we need to upgrade our recruiting and OOC schedule - if we play good teams and have a good team the excitement will be there in either place.

I have a question: So if you've had tickets to UConn games for 25 years, that would make you like, what? 45? Why do you still hang out with a 21 year old Andre Drummond and "UConn bitches?"

 

[CAHUSKY]

I have a question: So if you've had tickets to UConn games for 25 years, that would make you like, what? 45? Why do you still hang out with a 21 year old Andre Drummond and "UConn bitches?"

To be fair, I'm 47 and Id like to hangout with Drummond and some Uconn coeds.

 

[MattMang23]

To be fair, I'm 47 and Id like to hangout with Drummond and some Uconn coeds.

Lol, touche. Sucks to be you though. You'd just like to. Chief actually does.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Lol, touche. Sucks to be you though. You'd just like to. Chief actually does.

Hey, I'd love to spend a week as CAHusky but I don't know if my liver would survive it. I'll wager that he has more fun than any of us.

 

[Waquoit]

The same people who go to XL are the same people who go to Gampel.

They are the same people. Not the same type of people, they're actually the same people.

Not true. Many more people, unique visitors, go to Hartford.
And Storrs has many more sold seats go unused.

 

[Gregory Koch]

As UCONN continues to morph into a mid-major, ask yourself this question:

Name a Power 5 school that plays its home games so far from campus for basketball and/or football? One is hard-pressed to find a handful of schools that play off campus in just one revenue sport, never mind both. There is a lesson to be learned there.

What makes it even more unique is the mindset about the convenience of driving to Hartford instead of Storrs. This coming from residents of one of the tiniest states in the country.

If it is too much of an effort to get to Storrs, why should a power conference give a damn about an athletic program that is servile to such a mindset?

Other than UMass, which will move on campus eventually once their stadium gets expanded, we play our home football games the furthest from campus of any FBS school. UCLA is second, but they're in a major city where land is expensive and hard to come by. We don't have that excuse. And they play their basketball games on campus in a historic arena, and it's a great environment.

XL Center was great for the AAC Tournament, and it OK for big games like the SMU regular season game, but for most games, it's pretty dead. Gampel is a great environment just about every time we play there, with the students getting involved and all. Maybe you could play games at XL over winter break, when the students aren't on campus anyway and the student section is significantly smaller. But when school is in session, the atmosphere is invariably better at Gampel. Think back to the Florida game that year and how much the student section was into it for the whole game, and how they got the rest of the crowd into it. Compare that to SMU, our biggest home game this year, where, other than brief spurts, there wasn't much of an atmosphere.

The AAC Tournament is one thing - and they wouldn't play that in an arena as small as Gampel anyway. But the conference has shown its willingness to play the tournament in larger arenas located in the same metropolitan area as schools who don't play there - UCF doesn't play at the Amway Center, but it's still going to be the "host" school in 2016 and 2017. There's also been talk of playing it at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, even though that's not SMU's home court. The St. Pete Times Forum and the Toyota Center have both been under consideration at various points as well even though USF and Houston both play on campus in smaller arenas. There's no reason to think they would refuse to award the tournament to XL Center if we played all our home games at Gampel.