[mp775]

Originally Posted by ryanthegoldengod

What night of the week? And was it nice weather?

Looks like it was last Wednesday, June 5. Official attendance was 4,689. 75 degrees, partly cloudy at first pitch.

[MMS02760]

UConn sports could be far more successful if the state contributed more. The school already annually loses over $40M on athletics (expenditures versus revenues). If the state raised taxes on everyone and contributed an additional $60M per year, UConn teams could compete and be more successful. A $100M loss is what it takes. Add in another couple of hundred million in taxpayer money for a new arena in Hartford as well. Makes a lot of sense to have multiple arenas for teams that play less than 20 home games a year to split the dates.

[WILWRadio]

Originally Posted by MMS02760

UConn sports could be far more successful if the state contributed more. The school already loses near $50M on athletics (expenditures versus revenues). If the state raised taxes on everyone and contributed an additional $50M, UConn teams could compete and be more successful. A $100M loss is what it takes. Add in another couple of hundred million in taxpayer money for a new arena in Hartford as well. Makes a lot of sense to have multiple arenas for teams that play less than 20 home games a year to split the dates.

Raising taxes does not seem to be solving any fiscal problems in the state these days. As I recently pointed out the State budget was around 4 Billion in 1984 or 1985. And now apparently it is 43 billion. The State was in better financial shape in 1985 than it is today.

[Mike 75]

Originally Posted by MMS02760

UConn sports could be far more successful if the state contributed more. The school already annually loses over $40M on athletics (expenditures versus revenues). If the state raised taxes on everyone and contributed an additional $60M per year, UConn teams could compete and be more successful. A $100M loss is what it takes. Add in another couple of hundred million in taxpayer money for a new arena in Hartford as well. Makes a lot of sense to have multiple arenas for teams that play less than 20 home games a year to split the dates.

I'm a UConn alum and there is no way I would support this. If the school needs additional funding for its athletic program, it should be banging on the doors of alums and boosters to raise money, not raise taxes.

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by WILWRadio

Raising taxes does not seem to be solving any fiscal problems in the state these days. As I recently pointed out the State budget was around 4 Billion in 1984 or 1985. And now apparently it is 43 billion. The State was in better financial shape in 1985 than it is today.

No, the budget for the next two years is $43 billion. Jay

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by MMS02760

The blueprint is a very generous tax handout to build a stadium for rich owners that do not have to risk infrastructure investment. Can the State of CT or one of its cities open its wallet again for some $70M?

Correct. My city is spending $46M on a new stadium for a AA team (the Mobile BayBears will become the Rocket City Trash Pandas). I suspect the true cost will be much higher. It may work, but is a bit scary for a local taxpayer.

[DK736]

Originally Posted by ryanthegoldengod

What night of the week? And was it nice weather? Both seem to determine attendance quite a bit. Also I've noticed that even when there are empty seats, many of those seats were sold. You can tell when you go on the website for tickets and they aren't available but then you go to the game and they aren't always filled. So plenty of no shows.....maybe corporate bought tickets?

In fairness to them it was on Wednesday night. Girlfriend is a speech pathologist from an elementary school in East Hartford and she and her co-workers all had tickets. Weather was decent that day. Cops do a horrible job of traffic duty over there IMO. Can't tell you how many times they'll decide to put their hand up to have you stop at the last minute, as well as clogging up the intersection right next to the stadium when you come off the Trumbull exit. Matter of fact, there was a game last night, and I was an intersection away from the ramp to hop on 91 to go to Wethersfield where I live. Cop was definitely a rookie because he did get yelled at for this, as well as his superior taking his place.


Rookie cop decides at the last minute to stop all traffic going through that intersection towards 91. Two city buses were in those lanes, and they both ended up getting stuck, along with everyone else. Took almost a half hour for it to get back to normal thanks to that idiot.

[DK736]

Originally Posted by mp775

Looks like it was last Wednesday, June 5. Official attendance was 4,689. 75 degrees, partly cloudy at first pitch.

Wow, 4,689 people? Sure didn't look like that towards the 8th inning. Would've never guessed that number LOL!

[ryanthegoldengod]

Originally Posted by Dizzy1988

In fairness to them it was on Wednesday night. Girlfriend is a speech pathologist from an elementary school in East Hartford and she and her co-workers all had tickets. Weather was decent that day. Cops do a horrible job of traffic duty over there IMO. Can't tell you how many times they'll decide to put their hand up to have you stop at the last minute, as well as clogging up the intersection right next to the stadium when you come off the Trumbull exit. Matter of fact, there was a game last night, and I was an intersection away from the ramp to hop on 91 to go to Wethersfield where I live. Cop was definitely a rookie because he did get yelled at for this, as well as his superior taking his place.


Rookie cop decides at the last minute to stop all traffic going through that intersection towards 91. Two city buses were in those lanes, and they both ended up getting stuck, along with everyone else. Took almost a half hour for it to get back to normal thanks to that idiot.

They do much better on weekends. And the 4,000 attendance figure probably gets to my earlier point that tickets seem to get sold but not used. Possibly corporate tickets.

[DK736]

Originally Posted by ryanthegoldengod

They do much better on weekends. And the 4,000 attendance figure probably gets to my earlier point that tickets seem to get sold but not used. Possibly corporate tickets.

That makes a lot of sense. I believe the tickets my girlfriend had were corporate, or something close to it. We had access to the Sam Adam's party deck.