CANTLON’S CORNER: XL CENTER WAITING IN THE BULLPEN 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – The Connecticut state budget process has come and gone. The State Bond Commission met recently, but there was no word on the XL Center emerging over the past six-to-seven weeks as its future continues to dangle in the wind.

It looks like the fate of the XL Center will possibly be taken up in the expected upcoming special session, but there are no guarantees to be handed out, so the project sits in the bullpen warming up.

“Any special session is being driven by the tolls discussion and once the parameters are decided on that subject, they will move forward on it,” said CRDA Executive Director Michael Freimuth.

Freimuth is not in a position to confirm a specific date? “We have no date or timetable right now. It’s either at this point.”

When asked if the session is called if it’s expected that the Finance committee will take up the measure, Freimuth said, “I have spoken with Tom Ritter (D-Hartford) and that is the plan at this point.”

Asking about the final price tag being between the original $20-$30 million that was floated about, Freimuth responded saying, “We have no specific figure or price tag to the proposal and it will be debated within the Finance committee, and we also haven’t had a capital budget discussion either. Again, that will likely be in the special session as well.”

Other parts of the state haven’t exactly been jumping for joy over this proposal.

When asked if the needle has moved forward in other parts of the state to support the XL Center package, Freimuth replied, “It’s a tug-of-war still when discussing any budgetary matters, but until its formally brought before the committee we haven’t had any of those discussions. Maybe the Big East change might help some folks who were reluctant on the project’s merits, but they now might be more inclined. I just don’t know.”

At least there’s been some good summertime news as UCONN announced basketball both the men and women’s programs – as well as everything but football and hockey – are returning to the Big East Conference. That move might be a boon for the XL Center.

“On the surface, it looks like with the switch back we’re gonna get more familiar opponents and hopefully an uptick in the crowd than we have had with some AAC schools. Those are simply assumptions. That’s very hard to predict. At this point, we hope there will be more electricity and excitement, and of course, we’re responsible for Rentschler and with football that is very open-ended at this point.”

The XL Center has continued to lose money. The Wolf Pack, not only didn’t on the ice, they didn’t off of it either. The team lost $100K alone and advertising, especially for the Wolf Pack, was very minimal.

“We saw a lot of teams not do well (at the XL Center). We had some under-performing events, concerts and shows it was a tough year no question. When you look at advertising, it’s a Catch-22 issue. The discretionary spending has remained flat and unchanged. The budget is the same (at $600K) so that is factor in the allocations of resources.”

The all-important per cap of concessions, however, did go very well.

“We tend to have more kids at the UCONN games than say at a Wolf Pack game, but that has been a pretty good a steady revenue stream and the NCAA tournament helped, it went very well.”

If there is no special session that means the XL Center issue won’t be heard till the legislature reconvenes in September and likely not until the late fall.