A few thoughts on the XL Center
by Andrew Porter on Feb 22, 2010 1:48 PM EST
Email
Print
Tonight, UConn will host No. 8 West Virginia in a game that is vital for the Huskies as they struggle to play themselves back into the tournament. Yet, according to some UConn fans, UConn will not be home for this game at all, because it will be playing in the most hated building in Connecticut: the XL Center. They mockingly refer to it as "The Morgue" and characterize it as a soulless embarrassment of a building that above all else is quiet. A lot of that reputation is deserved, but I have to ask: Aren't we all being just a little bit too harsh on the place?
Well, no. Gampel Pavilion is a far superior arena to the XL Center. If I was the king of basketball for a day, my first act would be to move all UConn home games to the most storied arena in Storrs.
Still, I cannot help but feel that the Huskies home away from home gets hit a little too hard some of the time, and since UConn is apparently going to be playing there until the end of time, hit the jump for some specific thoughts and my very meager defense of the XL.
I will not try to defend most the Hartford experience, mainly because so much of it is indefensible. But I do think that the arena itself is not all bad, rather, I think the place it is just poorly utilized.
One of the first complaints you will hear is about the stadium's not-exactly-glorious Hartford location. This is dead on. Simply put, it is horrible. Parking is pretty easy, but that is because the most obvious landmark in the area is an abandoned building that the city has needed to tear down for years. If you're going to make me drive out to the city, you need to make sure some of the perks of a city, things like nice restaurants and bars, are nearby and worth visiting. In Hartford, at least by XL, they're not. Yes, as far as amenities go, Storrs is not much better, but Gampel is on campus, which counts for a lot. No one has ever spent a week in a tent outside of the XL center waiting in line for a game.
If the location complaint is not someone's first complaint, the notion that XL is a "quieter" arena than Gampel is. I usually dislike arguments based on nebulous concepts like atmosphere, but the difference between a game at XL and Gampel is night and day -- Gampel will have more students, it will be rowdier and each game just seems to have a little more pop. However, in fairness to the XL center, a lot of this is on the fans. If people in Hartford feel like getting loud, they can, just look at last year's matchup against Pittsburgh. If 15,000 people want to get loud, they can make the place shake and hopefully they will tonight against West Virginia. The problem is just that they often don't.
However, location and sound are not the biggest problems with the XL center, scheduling is. Obviously, the XL center is a fine place to play games over winter break while students are away, but once school is back in session, the athletic department needs to do a better job of making sure games against good teams (like tonight) are played in Gampel. I would have no problem playing the DePauls and the St. John's of the world in Hartford every year. I really do not mind playing teams like Marquette there either (in a year when UConn was expected to be much better than they wound up being, I think a schedule maker can be forgiven for thinking that game should be an easy UConn victory.) The problem comes when UConn is forced to travel to Hartford to take on a ranked team in a big game. These are the times UConn needs to be on campus, with every advantage that provides.
I looked back at UConn's home games against top-25 teams in the last decade. The results speak for themselves:
Total games:
Gampel 10 Hartford 16
Record in those games:
Gampel 9-1 Hartford 10-6
I doubt it is a surprise that UConn is more successful at Gampel, so why in the world is the school scheduling so many more games in Hartford? It makes no sense.
I have had some fun times at the HCC/XLC, and maybe in my own perverse way I have a soft spot for it in my heart, but if UConn is going to be playing half of its games there each year, the school needs to be smarter about how they are scheduled.
20 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
I realize the first thing
that someone always points out in this situation is money, and yes, I get that if you put desirable games in Hartford you can sell more tickets than you can at Gampel, but people do not like paying good money to see a team lose and since UConn is already struggling to sell out Gampel, I think it might be best for them to focus the big games on the one arena they can definitely fill.
I agree
This is the biggest reason why they play in Hartford. More money and a central location. But I’m with you, when the school is on break, put the games (men and women) there. Even if they have a sick out of conference game, put it there over break (a fair compromise). But when the students are in class, stay at Gampel regardless of who is coming in.
by The Columnist on Feb 22, 2010 2:24 PM EST up reply actions
XL Center
As a New Jerseyian, my first experience at the XL Center was in fall of 2004 for a men’s game. Since I didn’t have Gampel tickets that year, this was my first UConn game, so, naturally, I was pumped.
But as I arrive to my seat, what’s the first thing I see – Hartford Whalers banners. That doesn’t exactly scream UConn or help promote a rowdy atmosphere. Of course, this isn’t UConn’s fault (it’s the state’s continued inability to move on), but it does have an effect when that’s the first thing you see.
Once the game starts, it’s forgotten for the most part, but it’s just weird that its still there.
That isn’t my greatest concern though. I would say the lack of students and cavernous roof are problematic. I feel like the non-student fans that get stuck way the hell up near the roof CANT feel like they can really get into the game. They’re so far away and probably feel like their voices won’t be heard. Also, it’s unfortunate the school makes the students travel out there (especially on weeknights when people might have class), so I don’t blame them for not showing.
I agree with this, but...
I resent your comment about the Whalers.
by Russell Blair on Feb 22, 2010 9:08 PM EST up reply actions
The record is the main thing I can't get over
If you told me that UConn was 19-7 against Top-25 teams at home in the last 10 years, I’d think it was pretty accurate, but six of the seven losses came in Hartford. Ouch.
Additional painful fact: The one Gampel loss was the first every college basketball gameday, when UConn hosted Pitt. The game happened the same day as a freak snowstorm, so ticket holders were invited to return their tickets so more students could go to the game. I wasn’t there, but I imagine the atmosphere was insane.
What if,
instead of resigning the fact that we’re going to have a lot of games at the XL center, we acknowledge that this blog gets over 30,000 page views a month during the basketball season, that that likely translates to several hundred regular readers in addition to many less frequent visitors, many of whom are UConn alumni or future UConn alumni who like to attend UConn games when they can, and that actively and repeatedly voicing unhappiness at the number of games scheduled at the XL center would undoubtedly be noticed and, while it likely won’t result in any immediate changes or even changes over the next two or three years, could nevertheless result in some kind of influence among both the fanbase, who may recognize that they are responsible for improving the atmosphere at the morgue, and the powers that be, who will recognize that unhappy fans eventually stop paying to see games or, if not eventually, deliberately stop paying to see games, especially when the team performs badly as a result of the venue.
What I’m saying is let’s use the blog as a force for change if at all possible, rather than a force for acquiesence. Pointing out a measurable reduction in big game performance at one venue over the other is a good place to start.
There is no defending playing at the XL Center
I thought you were actually going to, so I was relieved that you pointed out some intriguing facts. But I think you let XL off easy, so allow me to expand:
Playing in Hartford is a cynical money grab by the school (and the city/state), a relic of a time when UConn’s on-campus gym held 4,000 people, and the Big East wouldn’t let them play league games there.
Today, it’s the worst arena in major college basketball. It’s a rarely-sold-out-unless-the-team-is-in-the-top-10-and-then-not-always warehouse in the middle of a city 30 miles from campus, adorned with empty storefronts and pathetic odes to the days of a hockey team that also couldn’t sell out the building.
Unless you’re one of the first 100 or so students to arrive and get into the low section behind the basket, you’re guaranteed a worse seat than the worst seat in Gampel. The rest of the fans are so far away from the court, it almost never gets loud, unless #1 UConn is in the middle of an epic comeback against the #4 team in the country.
I understand the history, and why UConn will play in Hartford until the end of time (or until the roof caves in again). But you won’t ever convince me that the XL Center is anything but a pathetic excuse for a home-court advantage.
I’m a man of compromise, so I’d be willing to make Columnist’s above deal (Gampel during classes, Hartford during school). Whatever it takes to get UConn playing teams like West Virginia in an actual arena.
Orange Bowl/dual Final Fours or bust in 2011. We're going all-in.
> Unless you’re one of the first 100 or so students to arrive and get into the low section behind the basket, you’re guaranteed a worse seat than the worst seat in Gampel.
This, in my opinion is the worst flaw of the XL center. If they would make the camera-facing side of the court exclusively students, the XL center would likely become a tolerable place to play; it’d get louder, people would be more excited, and the older fans feed off the younger fans’ energy.
I have to imagine that it hurts recruiting too. Imagine being a recruit watching Duke vs. North Carolina in Cameron and then watching UConn vs. anybody in the XL center? Why would you want to go UConn after that?
Unfortunately, the courtside are the ones that bring in the big bucks from the alums, and they will never put students in them. Kill the XL center!
I love the anger
I’m just saying that its not a “pathetic excuse for a home-court advantage” so much as it is a “disappointing but not entirely awful excuse for a home-court advantage.”
by Andrew Porter on Feb 22, 2010 4:06 PM EST up reply actions
That's pansy talk.
We don’t take kindly to that around here, I don’t think. This is Arizona in 1884, right?
Orange Bowl/dual Final Fours or bust in 2011. We're going all-in.
by Kevin Meacham on Feb 22, 2010 4:21 PM EST up reply actions
Totally agree with the student section thing
Hereby I’m signing a non-existent petition to
A) schedule more intelligently (e.g. less) at the XL center and
B) rearrange the student section at the XL center and at Gampel.
The fact (re: conspiracy theory im touting as fact) is that President Hogan is trying to turn UConn into Generic Southern Public University. That’s why you see a rapidly growing football program and increased effort to improve and expand sorority and fraternity life on campus. Both tend to create more active, giving alumni, and our endowment is meagre at best.
I love the image of "Generic Southern Public University"
I can just picture the GSPU hoodies.
by Andrew Porter on Feb 22, 2010 4:02 PM EST up reply actions
Agree about the Xl center to a point.
Uconn does not necessarily need hartford, but hartford needs uconn. yes the the city is a deadzone after 5pm. but the city depends on the 16,294 who go to the games to keep the city alive. ask any of the local owners of bars and restaraunts and they will say the uconn games are a blessing to business. also getting to hartford is much easier than storrs. the student section at the civic center is smaller compared to gampel. yes the building is crap. it is very outdated and a new one must be built. depaul and st. john’s? ouch. as a st. john’s student that hurts but i know what you are saying. we have been trying to get rid of norm roberts but that is a different story.
Welcome Dtran
and thanks for the thoughts. Yes, I’m sure that Hartford (such as it is) is thankful to have UConn there, though I’d imagine they are starting to see some very diminished returns.
by Andrew Porter on Feb 22, 2010 7:02 PM EST up reply actions
Agreed
It still sucks.
Orange Bowl/dual Final Fours or bust in 2011. We're going all-in.
by Kevin Meacham on Feb 22, 2010 9:53 PM EST up reply actions
Different Kind of Money
You guys are right – Playing in Hartford IS about the money – just not the kind of money you are thinking about. It is 100x bigger than ticket sales. It is Donations.
As an alumni, the only way you get regular tickets to the games is to donate money annually to the school. Big Money. If you donate a few thousand a year, you will have the privilege of getting the right to purchase tickets in the nosebleed double letter seats at the XL. If you do it for a good 5 years or more you actually get to move up to the single letters – Like Z. It boggles my mind to think how much money the guys in the lower section give and how many years they have been giving. This is big big BIG money for the Athletic program and the foundation for everything they do.
There is no way to fit these people in Gampel, Hartford certainly doesn’t get the attendance to build something new, and with JC’s tenure coming to an end someday the State certainly isn’t building a bigger Gampel.
The interesting thing is my friend who donated for years has stopped and we now get out tix on the secondary market for Hartford and MSG games.
by Albany Chris on Feb 23, 2010 9:42 AM EST reply actions 1 recs
Excellent post
And that certainly does make sense. So really, the solution is to get the football team winning a BCS championship or two and demand for Rentschler Field tickets to skyrocket (That stadium being in East Hartford…don’t get me started on that in my “unreasonable demand that Mansfield be turned into an enormous sports complex” thought train). Football brings in (I would imagine) bigger bucks for most schools, but because we’ve been a basketball school since forever, UConn doesn’t have enough revenue streams to justify moving away from Hartford. Unless we become Texas North or something.
Not that they’ll ever give up a lucrative revenue stream anyway, but a guy can dream, right?
Orange Bowl/dual Final Fours or bust in 2011. We're going all-in.
by Kevin Meacham on Feb 23, 2010 11:37 AM EST up reply actions
Very good point
But I’m not so sure the demand now is quite what it was a few years ago. UConn is having problems selling out Gampel, not just getting people there, but actually selling every ticket to every game. A few years back, you’d need to donate a decent amount just to get a crack at two Gampel tickets, now that is not the case. I don’t know how much more donor money XL could possibly pull in because the demand doesn’t seem to be there.
by Andrew Porter on Feb 23, 2010 12:03 PM EST up reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
