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Bring Back The Whale!!!

GHartford

By GHartford
in Greater Hartford

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MadVlad Town

MadVlad

Posted
Posted

yeah, but some of the arenas were built like crap. What was the arena that was just replaced in Charlotte? Whatever the older arena was, I seem to remember it being only like 10 years old, but it was set up horribly, bad sight-lines, etc.

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JHChris280 Unincorporated Area

JHChris280

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yeah, but some of the arenaas were built like crap. What was the arena that was just replaced in Charlotte? Whatever the older arena was, I seem to remember it being only like 10 years old, but it was set up horribly, bad sight-lines, etc.

I don't know about sight lines at the Charlotte Coliseum (with the inferior arena they lead the league in attendance consistently, fans ended up hating the owner) but I do know it's seating configuration was quite similar to Madison Square Garden. If I remember correctly the arena didn't have luxury boxes. Same thing happened to the Miami Arena, original home to the Heat and Panthers. The arena at the Meadowlands is in the same boat and both the Devils and Nets are on their way out. Seems like the example of the Sonics has more to do w/ the lease agreement anyway. Bottom line is the expense to tax payers.

Big concern is that we build an arena, owners up the ante once again and in 10 years we're left with a $250 million dollar relic (in 1997 the arena was estimated at $150 million). I suppose it's more of a rant against team owners and the economics, but when i see so many great ideas on this board and know how many could be completed with the $250 million I'd hate to see opportunities wasted.

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sp1dey Unincorporated Area

sp1dey

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Big concern is that we build an arena, owners up the ante once again and in 10 years we're left with a $250 million dollar relic (in 1997 the arena was estimated at $150 million). I suppose it's more of a rant against team owners and the economics, but when i see so many great ideas on this board and know how many could be completed with the $250 million I'd hate to see opportunities wasted.

I suppose that is always a concern. The reality is, I cannot imagine Hartford without a downtown arena. At some point the HCC will need to be replaced anyway. I was a poorly designed facility in a time when all like buildings were simply concrete bunkers. I don't know how a renovation could improve the concourse issues on the existing footprint. Personally, I support a downtown arena with or without a full time tenant.

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GregV Whistle-Stop

GregV

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I don't know about sight lines at the Charlotte Coliseum (with the inferior arena they lead the league in attendance consistently, fans ended up hating the owner) but I do know it's seating configuration was quite similar to Madison Square Garden. If I remember correctly the arena didn't have luxury boxes. Same thing happened to the Miami Arena, original home to the Heat and Panthers. The arena at the Meadowlands is in the same boat and both the Devils and Nets are on their way out. Seems like the example of the Sonics has more to do w/ the lease agreement anyway. Bottom line is the expense to tax payers.

Big concern is that we build an arena, owners up the ante once again and in 10 years we're left with a $250 million dollar relic (in 1997 the arena was estimated at $150 million). I suppose it's more of a rant against team owners and the economics, but when i see so many great ideas on this board and know how many could be completed with the $250 million I'd hate to see opportunities wasted.

I completely agree with you. Team owners have complete control over their arenas without owning them. They routinely threaten to leave for another city every time their lease comes near its end, and with so much leverage usually get whatever they want. And with Hartford fans desparate for pro-sports, we'd probably give a competitive package to any team that would consider us home. But in 10 years, would we have enough to keep them? How much time, money and space are we willing to spend to satisfy hockey/basketball fans? It's a tough one...

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sp1dey Unincorporated Area

sp1dey

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This is a great article posted on the Whalers Booster club site from MSNBC...

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11329765/

Long story short, it says Hartford is the #3 market for expansion/relocation behind LA and Philly. Hartford is the #1 market for NHL expansion/relocation. See the links on the page for the actual study. It also notes the over saturated markets, with Pitt and KC being among them. Cool to see Hartford in this light and I'm sure this won't go unnoticed.

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Theophrastus Bombastus Hamlet

Theophrastus Bombastus

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This is a great article posted on the Whalers Booster club site from MSNBC...

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11329765/

Long story short, it says Hartford is the #3 market for expansion/relocation behind LA and Philly. Hartford is the #1 market for NHL expansion/relocation. See the links on the page for the actual study. It also notes the over saturated markets, with Pitt and KC being among them. Cool to see Hartford in this light and I'm sure this won't go unnoticed.

Here's the blurb:

http://www.bizjournals.com/specials/2006/0...xpansion/3.html

Makes sense to me...........

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sp1dey Unincorporated Area

sp1dey

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Phoenix isn't going anywhere. They just built a brand new arena and seem to like Phoenix.

Pitt is the only likely candidate for relocation right now. I highly doubt the slot license gets passed. Other teams will likely move in the future... Tampa probably bought themselves some time by winning the cup, but the Panthers are not doing so good. Nashville seems to be struggling greatly at the box office in spite of a pretty good team, not sure what their arena lease is like. You can forget about Carolina moving anytime soon. Even if they did, as long as Karmonos is the owner, they will not return to the scene of their crime. Perhaps the Islanders if this Nassua thing never materializes, but that one would be a longshot.

Pitt really is our best candidate, given the timetable and likelihood that we could move them with an iron clad promise of a new arena (as part of their relocation deal). However, if Pitt doesn't work out for us, we need to push for the arena very hard should one of these other teams become available in the future. Plus it sure would be nice to replace that bunker we call the HCC.

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CanesFan98 Unincorporated Area

CanesFan98

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Why would the canes move? If they are winning people bandwagon and that is not just for the NHL, but even the NBA in charlotte. Karmanos got a sweet arena deal, he makes money from every event in the RBC center. The arena is basically his, and I think Leipold got the same type of deal in Nashville. The new CBA is great and it will thrive. I don't understand why you guys want us to lose our team, it's not like our city/state moved them here, peter karmanos did, and people like me embraced them. What's the problem?

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TaylorG4444 Whistle-Stop

TaylorG4444

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Can this stupid petty bickering PLEASE stop on the forum about the possible CONSTRUCTION OF AN ARENA in Hartford. jesus christ people. shut UP. The past is the past and there's NOTHING ANYONE can do about it. You guys are acting like a bunch of kids on a playground. How bout we actually talk about the arena for a change....

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Cotuit Megalopolis

Cotuit

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Can this stupid petty bickering PLEASE stop on the forum about the possible CONSTRUCTION OF AN ARENA in Hartford. jesus christ people. shut UP. The past is the past and there's NOTHING ANYONE can do about it. You guys are acting like a bunch of kids on a playground. How bout we actually talk about the arena for a change...

Yes, I just deleted about half of this thread. The next step will be to lock it, which would be very annoying.

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TaylorG4444 Whistle-Stop

TaylorG4444

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I have a question....I know that there is the need for a new arena due to the HCC being old, ugly, and basically a bunker that UConn plays basketball in, but is the current possible site of 12B the official site they are proposing to build a new arena on? Or is it just a guess? And if it IS just a guess are there any other possible sites that it could go? I don't recall how big site 12B is, but I was under the impression that it wasn't that big. I know this is a long shot and that I will be told otherwise, but why isn't the idea of simply building where the existing HCC is now an option? Is there an engineering problem? So what if the UCONN ends up having to play in Storrs for two seasons....when they came back to Hartford they'd have a brand new arena. They could even keep a little part of it as like a memory or something. lol NOT that anyone would WANT a memory of that building. Having the new arena there would keep it in the center of things though and would look amazing next to the brand new Hartford 21 tower. Plus it would go well with the new mall area they plan on having on the street level. (By the way does anyone know if they've signed any leases for that mall area yet?)

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MadVlad Town

MadVlad

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Here's what I'm assuming Northland's plan is: they'd like to build a new arena for a few reasons.

1) It would give them the ability to do something with the current HCC site. I think they really, really want this site to do other things with, so if they could free it up a bit, it's a win/win in their eyes.

2) Building a new arena would a) give them a new arena/building to control and b) would give the people that they are marketing their properties to a new place to go (while spending their money on yet another Northland property).

3) Like most big business guys, I'm sure Gottesdiener has a large ego, is ultra-competitive, and would like a nice, new team to brag to his friends about. I have no problem at all with that, especially if he wants to park it here, with us...

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sp1dey Unincorporated Area

sp1dey

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Call me crazy but I think there are two Hartford 21 designs... one we see now and one where the HCC doesn't exist. Maybe the later is Larry's intention all along, but obvious hurdles need to be overcome first. But to answer the previous posters question, the current HCC site isn't large enough to support a new arena. A new arena requires a larger footprint then the current site allows for. Just my opinion, but the 12B site would be perfect. Could reopen the heart of downtown by knocking down the "bunker", and spark development in an ignored part of the city.

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CanesFan98 Unincorporated Area

CanesFan98

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I just read this on another site.

Did anyone see the CDA's Marie O'Brien yesterday on Channel 3's "Face the State"? It didn't start well as Al Terzi's began his introduction by saying "Local hockey fans love their Wolf Pack", but he got a little better when he asked about a return of the NHL and a new arena. She said something about experts coming in to evaluate the HCC, and then boasted about the 1,000,000 people a year who come into Hartford for Civic Center events.

Doesn't sound good...

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