Overhauling Hartford's XL Center an intriguing 'dollars or sense' debate
Hartford – It is not about whether we pay. It is what we'll pay for. We'll either issue a statewide blessing to find the $250 million needed to reinvent the XL Center or we'll pay another way: watching the state's biggest indoor sporting venue go the way of the New Haven Coliseum: a parking lot.
This is the latest dilemma facing all of us. We have a sporting snarl in Connecticut. The XL Center needs an overhaul. There's roughly $60 million for a new ballpark coming to Hartford. Gampel Pavilion needs $10 million to fix its roof. And it's irrelevant that the money required wouldn't come from the same kitty. The perception will be this: sports, sports, sports. Shouldn't we pay for things that, you know, are more practical for all taxpayers?
Which is what will make what befalls the XL Center a fascinating study. We'll find out just how much we all love UConn, just how badly we want the potential of professional sports returning to Hartford and whether we can adopt the building as a monolith of state pride.
Enter Mike Freimuth, who runs the Capital Regional Development Authority. Freimuth: straight shooter. He's the man whose entity oversees the XL Center and in whose hands, essentially, coordinating the argument for its future rests.
"Long term, we'd like to take the building to a different level. Honestly, if we keep doing what we're doing, we're going to struggle over the next three-four-five years and in my mind, that brings up the New Haven (Coliseum) question," Freimuth said on a recent episode of "Beyond The Beat," a weekly 30-minute sports talk show on CPTV Sports with WTIC's Joe D'Ambrosio, The Courant's Jeff Jacobs and yours truly.
"It's 45 years old. It'll never have enough bathrooms or concessions. It has to be torn apart and put back together. Big nickel. You're looking at a quarter billion. That's a 'b' as in billion. At a time when the state wants to build highways and everyone else has problems that are paramount. It's hard to sell this."
Freimuth didn't just go to school just to have lunch. He knows what's required to bring the XL Center into this century. And what it costs. He also knows there's a chance it'll never happen.
"That's why we need to make sure we get our act together now. The trick is to get revenues back that sustain the investment made up front," he said. "That comes with changing the building. The types of suites, concessions, video boards. Everything that makes a nickel has to be re-geared.
"If we do it right," he said, "we should do better by UConn. And we should give the building the body the majors all want. Right now, they don't want it. Not just the locker rooms. The revenue streams. If we do it right, UConn does better and the building won't be a hurdle anymore."
The CRDA oversaw a recent $35 million investment to keep the XL Center afloat. It had a good year. Attendance is up for the Hartford Wolfpack. Attendance for UConn hockey's initial foray into Hockey East was sensational. The building made money on the American Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament because UConn got hot. The new bar area behind one of the baskets was a hit.
"It was to buy time," Freimuth said, "so we could do what we needed to do to keep the building alive, pick up revenue streams and give the fans the ability to say 'hey this building can have a second life.'"
But that life is temporary. This is an undertaking that's beyond greater Hartford's scope. Our voices must be heard in eastern Connecticut. Would we make a new building ours, too? Would Pfizer, Dominion, the casinos, Electric Boat, the hospitals, The Day, Mystic Seaport, Mystic Aquarium, the car dealers, the banks ... would they all be willing to buy a luxury box for the season, keeping revenue flowing?
Perhaps this would be a topic for the next meeting of the Southeastern Connecticut Chamber of Commerce. The odds are good Freimuth will seek an audience sooner or later.
"How do you sell this to Fairfield County and southeastern Connecticut? Tough call. We have to sell it as a state building, as a larger regional impact," Freimuth said. "We need the larger corporate business community buying in. It's nice to have Aetna, Travelers, United Healthcare and everyone else downtown buying suites.
"We need the law office in Glastonbury, the accountant in West Hartford. We need Sikorsky and Electric Boat. We need to sell it as a state flag," Freimuth said. "That's the only way we get this done. There are 80,000 UConn alums within 45 minutes of this building. Those 80,000 better be in our corner. I want to go to Fairfield. I want to go to New London. You have to get through a lot of the noise factor. It's a hard sell."
Freimuth said Gov. Dannel Malloy has asked for the most specific numbers possible. More studies will be done. That's why none of this is imminent. But it's coming.
"UConn carries the flag, but at the same time, the building has given everybody a lot of advantages, too," Freimuth said. "We've got to sell that. I don't dismiss it. It's a lot of money. Frankly, we think it's a couple of years to get over the hump. I want to go at the next legislative session. I didn't dare try this one. It may not get done the first or second time. That's why we put the $35 million in. We knew we had this window.
"But I'd imagine the Bridgeport guys want some money, too. Harboryard is pushing 20 years. There are lots of moving pieces. But the XL Center is the granddaddy. This is the flagship, I think. We have to protect it as such. Whether we can pull this off, I don't know."
This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.
Twitter: @BCgenius
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