Mad props and bon mots to the Connecticut Tigers, who are nice enough over the next few weeks to open Dodd Stadium to the Hartford Yard Goats, the nomadic Double-A franchise up the road. Among all the other examples of goodwill the Tigers hath wrought in their time here, nothing else exceeds their benevolence with the Ballpark On The Hill, welcoming high schools, colleges and now even competitors. Good people there at 14 Stott Ave. They have turned Dodd Stadium into a home for everybody.

OK. Appetizer over. Now for the entrée:

Has there ever been a minor league baseball franchise that has received more publicity than the Yard Goats? Gloryoski. The eccentric mascot and not-yet-finished stadium whose cup has already runneth over make for good storylines, sure. But it's minor league baseball. Note the word "minor."

Media gushing, an absurdly expensive stadium and unwillingness from politicians to address far more serious issues to the future of Connecticut sports underscore the dizzying levels to which our priorities need realignment.

To wit: UConn sports, the flagship sporting endeavor in Connecticut, play basketball and hockey in a decaying XL Center. Football plays in a concrete slab 20 miles from campus. But a minor league baseball franchise, with a perfectly acceptable 6,000-seat minor league stadium 15 miles south in New Britain, gets a shiny new ballpark, even if it feels as though it won't be ready until Bastille Day.

Hello?

Is this thing on?

And to think the UConn folks have to market themselves to the Big 12. What's the pitch? Well, we don't have the money to fix the roof at Gampel, our antiseptic football stadium doesn't have turf, our downtown basketball arena is falling apart ... but the kids from Texas and Baylor can run the bases of our new minor league ballpark when they're here.

Now I realize that technically, the new ballpark and the XL Center are mutually exclusive financial endeavors. But perceptually, they fall under the sporting umbrella that already has enough detractors. Do you have any idea the difficulty of selling the idea of $250 million for the arena when the ballpark has already run over cost and lawmakers bickered like Ralph and Alice Kramden before passing the recent budget?

I have serious concerns that the XL Center is going to become the New Haven Coliseum. As in: poof.

There's a reason Mike Freimuth, executive director of the Capital Region Development Authority, the entity that oversees the XL Center and Rentschler Field, calls the XL Center "the granddaddy." It is home to our most important teams, surely more significant than some minor league baseball team, whose novelty will dwindle in time.

And then what happens?

What happens when the Yard Goats aren't the flavor of the month anymore?

And while we're asking questions: Perhaps some enterprising news reporter can get a minute with Gov. Malloy to ask him just how hard he's prepared to fight for the funds necessary to repair the XL Center, given that he had plenty to say about UConn's foray into Hockey East and why playing downtown is more important than a spleen.

I'm also wondering whether the suggestion that the ballpark and XL Center are separate financial ventures isn't a swing and miss. Here's why: The state budget has allowed Hartford to keep admissions tax revenue for tickets sold at Dunkin' Donuts Park as a way to pay for the facility. This has happened before. Example: When the state granted money to Bridgeport to build the Webster Bank Arena, it also levied a 10 percent admissions tax to help pay for the bonds.

If the state, for example, levied a 10 percent tax on each ticket, a $50 ticket costs $55.

Problem: the admissions tax is not applicable to the casinos, causing some uncompetitive situations, especially for concerts. Would promoters be willing to leave a 10 percent profit on the table by booking at the XL versus a casino or another venue in a town without the admissions tax?

"The XL has had difficulty in securing concerts. But when the 10 percent admissions tax was eliminated two years ago for both Webster and XL, the buildings became more competitive," Freimuth wrote in a recent email. "The XL has increased its concert activity and the earnings margin on AHL hockey games improved, both contributing to the bottom line and consequently a far more efficient way of lowering operating subsidies to the building."

More Freimuth: "We worry about the re-establishment of an admissions tax. While designed to give the city of Hartford the ability to assess an admissions tax to help them pay for the Yard Goats, it could have the effect of levying a fee at the XL that will come, in part, from the building's operations."

Translation: Because Hartford, given its budgetary constraints, needs assistance to pay for Dunkin' Donuts Stadium, the XL could be assessed as well, causing a reduction in events and attendance as has happened in the past.

What will this mean to the building's competitive position and its bottom line? Good question.

All I know is that if the Yard Goats in any way inhibit the future of the most important building in Connecticut sports, we deserve our reputation of being a minor league state. Because that's what we're serving. Minor League Baseball. Catch the fever.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.