This is your Father's XL Center, and that is the problem
Around 100 people traveled out on a rainy Tuesday evening to learn more about the XL Center plan that could help revitalize the capital city's stagnant entertainment district.
Last night the Capital Region Development Authority held a public hearing on the XL Center that drew interesting responses from the people on hand. The renovation plan announced last February is still the best chance to return the 42 year old building back to profitability. As it stands now the XL Center is a city owned and state run building that is running in the red every year. The XL Center is not that different than the Titanic before it sank, it is sending out distress signals and going down by the head.
Structurally the building is sound and there is nothing to worry about there, just as former Whaler owner Howard Baldwin said, ".. the bones of the building are strong." The real issues were laid out to start the meeting held at the Connecticut Convention Center. The public hearing began with a presentation by Murray Beynon. He is the head architect for Stadium Consultants International, the same architectural firm that has been involved with planning and working on bringing the XL Center into the this century. They are not like the developer, Center Plan from Dunkin Donuts Park. SCI headed the plans for Madison Square Garden in New York City and the Los Angeles Forum among many other big league markets. I asked Beynon why was he working on a plan for Hartford, Connecticut when he had worked on so many arenas in top NHL markets? "I was born in Canada, and I am a hockey fan. I believe Hartford is a viable market for the NHL and I would like to see it happen, if it can." Beynon went on to say that arenas for the NCAA are so compatible to what is needed for the NHL that if a team were interested in Hartford any additional work to meet NHL standards could be done with little difficulty and with minimal costs. This would be for requirements like locker rooms, and some additional club seating.
After Beynon's presentation the CRDA opened up the floor to the public. About 15 people spoke and offered their thoughts on the plan and its potential. Surprisingly, the speakers were all positive about the plan, all except one. Southington Senator Joe Markley spoke, respectably, about his opposition to the plan to revitalize Hartford's entertainment center. The Senator just does not believe that the XL Center has any economic impact. He does not think we should be spending money that we do not have. He made his argument but tonight he was a stranger in a strange land. The comments from the public were positive and they did not reflect Markely's views. Several people said they did not mind their tax dollars going to this plan. How often do you hear that at a public meeting? If this plan keeps UConn games in town and the building attracts better events and concerts then most in attendance appeared to be for it. Senator Markely, outmanned and outgunned, left shortly after his statements and well before the end of the hearing. It might have been a long ride home to Queen Street after seeing and hopefully learning how vital the XL Center is to a market of 1.3 million.
I am glad he spoke, it is important to hear the view of the opposition even if it ends up watching someone experience cognitive dissonance. I also spoke at the hearing for the "Whaler Guys". Jerry Erwin and I have been doing a television show about Hartford Hockey for over five years now. We have done two tours inside the bowels of the XL Center where the real issues with the building reside. We don't claim to know everything but we know our stuff. I told the crowd of about 80-100 people that they may go to a game and think there is nothing wrong with the building but sometimes things look fine from the outside. The inside hosts a failing infrastructure that is inefficient and antiquated. In 2014 the state put 33 million dollars into the XL Center as a stop gap and since then the XL Center has drawn over one million people. The renovation work has helped the XL produce back to back years of attracting over five hundred thousand people. That means that 1 out of 3 people in Connecticut went to the XL Center for a concert, event or for a sporting matchup. That many people is equivalent to the amount of people that live within a 45 minute radius of the XL Center.
Another feather in the cap of those 2014 upgrades was the numbers that showed up for UConn. While in Hockey East, UConn has finished first in attendance in 2014-2015 and they were second last year all while outdrawing bigger colleges in bigger cities, like Boston College and Boston University. Putting roughly 10% of the renovation work into the XL Center has been a great proof of concept for the plan that was presented tonight. It is working, since when does Hartford have attendance that dwarves numbers posted in bigger cities? The time may not be the best, especially with all kinds of budget issues, but this is where we are after 20 years of kicking the can down the road. If we do nothing to the building that will cost us so much more. The state lost plenty more than a beloved Whaler hockey team 20 years ago, Hartford lost an estimated 75 million dollars annually according to the Hartford City Council in 1997. Thats a ton of money over 20 years. Can you imagine what we will have lost in the next 20 years if we are dumb enough to do nothing again?
Photo courtesy of WFSB Channel 3, Hartford
