XL Concessions are a disaster

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Seeing what the XL looks like full is just more evidence that anything close to an announced sellout the last several years was a blatant lie. Unless there aren’t several hundred people in the bar area.

 

[whaler11]

Place has been alive for all 3 games. @whaler11 is spot on. The times in between games was so tight you had no chance getting back in quick if you wanted a quick beer or burger across the street. Ncaa did no favors with the schedule.

The cheapest tickets on StubHub an hour before the game were $145.

The sub-regional in Columbia was $6 day and night.

Salt Lake City was $12.

Some others were in the mid 30s, Carolina’s session was $45.

At every event like this people who were there for a specific team in the first game (like those with seats you can see on an illegal stream) leave.

If XL management wasn’t a joke UHart and UConn could host constantly because nobody sells more tickets without a home team than Hartford for the NCAA tourney. It’s a bizarre dynamic - and why I was laughing at kids saying they were going to scalp in for below face because they can for UConn/Monmouth in November.

 

[BFieldHusky]

Btw sat next to Florida state fans 1st set of games and now Nova fans. No complaints. They say the set up in terms of waiting in line is normal in most ncaa settings. They are always understaffed.

 

[Excalibur]

It looks at least twice as full, if not nearly packed for the nova game. sorry, looked much more empty for the marquette game.

It looked empty because a huge group of VT fans left because their bus caravan was leaving. No joke.

 

[zls44]

The building being old or having bad tip times didn't make them run out of food or not staff the entrances properly.

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

UVM just happy not to have to spend night in Hartford

 

[TJT]

Every arena in the northeast sells out the NCAA Tournament. It does not matter who hosts or where it is or what year.

 

[UConnDad]

Nobody has food. I don’t mean this figuratively. It’s as if they didn’t realize that 16,000 people were going to be here.

Gampel has dogs and popcorn! Get in line.

 

[uconnbill]

Serious question. Has this state ever hosted a major event and had it go smoothly?

Travelers in Cromwell has run great for years.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Lol - blaming it on football program!!!

Yup, and part of the person's nickname is "ragz". Somehow, "ragz" connecting the NCAA's TV scheduling, the state CRDA, the facility's inadequate management, and inexplicably UConn football suggests Brain-dead Illogical Thinker might be an equally appropriate moniker.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Please tell me the host school was some school other than UConn.

Nope, UConn's the host school. Why couldn't it have been Hartford, Central, Quinnipiac or any other school ...

 

[uconnphil2016]

I said this when I attended a Saturday afternoon game this year. I wasted the entire halftime on line waiting for a beer because the concession people were so slow. It wasn’t even a long line either, maybe 6 people. They have a bunch of older people working with zero sense of urgency.

Man, I was in Alabama for the last ten days and I've never waited longer in my life at everywhere I went. Waited for 30 minutes at Hertz for some guy to drive my rental car into the parking lot, and I've never waited for a rental car at all in my life. Waiting in line for coffee took like 5x longer than it does up north. It's really incredible to see how different it is

 

[Robertelamin]

I’ve never seen so many beer stations at the XL before.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

The cheapest tickets on StubHub an hour before the game were $145.

The sub-regional in Columbia was $6 day and night.

Salt Lake City was $12.

Some others were in the mid 30s, Carolina’s session was $45.

At every event like this people who were there for a specific team in the first game (like those with seats you can see on an illegal stream) leave.

If XL management wasn’t a joke UHart and UConn could host constantly because nobody sells more tickets without a home team than Hartford for the NCAA tourney. It’s a bizarre dynamic - and why I was laughing at kids saying they were going to scalp in for below face because they can for UConn/Monmouth in November.

Exhibit A: "Why UConn Bball tickets will cost more next year." duh.

 

[John]

Is the heavy duty fry-o-lator smell wafting through the entire building?

 

[Caronimo]

There are no words for session 2. Awful. I have no regrets for attending, but I’m also tempted to fire up the laptop and email Lamont.

 

[Caronimo]

I’ve never seen so many beer stations at the XL before.

The beer stations were the only thing run properly tonight

 

[Caronimo]

No one has it on video to see the carnage unfold?

My walk back from getting food during the nova St. Mary’s game

 

[ASweet3781]

They literally can’t make the food fast enough. Huge lines, nobody actually being served.

Stayed away from the XL concessions and chowed down on Chic Fil- A and Bear's SMokehouse all day.

 

[ASweet3781]

This is the new UConn fan generation spawned by the Noescalators of the world. Football will be blamed for every problem under the sun. I guess it's football's fault that every Big East team not named VIllanova got their behinds handed to them so far.

 

[Hurleyman216]

I was only at the night session but agree with Whaler and BField that the crowd was great and Hartford was dealt a bad draw for times. Took at least 25 minutes standing in line and we were in before a lot of other fans behind us. Missed the first 4 minutes of the Nova game. For what it’s worth I was with a couple people who had never been to the XL before and I started talking about how many people in CT say we need to tear this place down and build a new stadium. They were surprised and thought overall the venue was pretty good. They both commented on the quality of the center scoreboard which happens to be a pet peeve of mine because it’s hard to see player stats. Overall the atmosphere was better than I expected. Just wish St. Mary’s could have pulled it out.

 

[Caronimo]

I had no problem getting in because I got there an hour early. It’s your fault that if you think getting there at game time will give you instant entrance. There’s always lines

Seriously? The lines were pouring into the roads. They weren’t letting people in until 15 min before tip. Took well over a half hour to get in any of the entrances.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

The beer stations were the only thing run properly tonight

sounds like a rousing success then. noice.

 

[Lynyrd]

Is the heavy duty fry-o-lator smell wafting through the entire building?

Miraculously no

 

[Hi-Low]

It's the NCAA's event so they get the majority of the blame, the turnaround time between sessions was a joke.

 

[ASweet3781]

It's the NCAA's event so they get the majority of the blame, the turnaround time between sessions was a joke.

Absolutely. Not XL or UConn's fault there. NCAA is 100% to blame. No way to get the crowd that big back in before Game 3.

I too was at all 4 games and thought the crowd and atmosphere were great. Every team brought a good amount of fans. Place was packed. Upper levels totally filled. Obviously XL is outdated. Long lines for bathroom and food but hey. I had fun. Biggest event in Hartford in quite some time. All the fans of the other schools were friendly and seemed to be enjoying themselves. Funny to see the usual "UConn accounts" on twitter.com pushing the negative story to this event.

I saw Villanova's open practice and after watching them 5 minutes you can see why they are a top 5 program now. Not one single second wasted. Guys constantly communicating and talking. They must have run 10 specific drills one after the other. No coaches telling them what to do. ANd without them the Big East is basically the AAC because Marquette didn't belong on the same court as Murray State.

 

[zls44]

Funny to see the usual "UConn accounts" on twitter.com pushing the negative story to this event.

They got shafted on tip times. But that isn't why they didn't have enough food or enough people to handle the entry. It made a bad hand worse. Thankfully the place filled up and had a crowd all day, which is a lot more than you can say for a lot of 1st/2nd round sites.

I had an awesome time. It doesn't mean there weren't parts that were poorly handled.

Start demanding more and you'll get more. Or keep settling for less.

 

[Devland]

I would think the understaffing and lack of food inventory would be the fault of the firm that manages the XL, Spectra. Most likely a pencil pusher who looked at the numbers and said "We had "X" number of basketball games there this year and sold "Y" number of hamburgers. Let's order "Y" hamburgers. I can make us more efficient and prevent any wasted resources." On Monday he/she will look at the numbers and take credit for reducing waste. There's at least one in every company.

 

[Deepster]

This isn’t a new facility. They knew the ticket sales and still didn’t plan accordingly. And even things like the food in the media room was inadequate. They knew the media passes handed out. Were sessions stacked closely at a point? Sure. It was still a fail. Remember. People want an NHL franchise back here. Not when you can’t run a sold out event right.

 

[Devland]

This isn’t a new facility. They knew the ticket sales and still didn’t plan accordingly. And even things like the food in the media room was inadequate. They knew the media passes handed out. Were sessions stacked closely at a point? Sure. It was still a fail. Remember. People want an NHL franchise back here. Not when you can’t run a sold out event right.

This all falls on Spectra or the State of Connecticut for hiring Spectra to manage it.