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A Winner Or a Loser?
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Business New Haven
2/22/1999
By: BNH
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Other cities' experiences may hold key to Hartford stadium gamble
So...is building a $350 million, 68,000-seat football stadium going to be a net gain or a net loss for Connecticut taxpayers?
The answer, of course, is that no one knows for sure - not even the Office of Research at the state's Department of Labor or the Department of Economic & Community Development.
As part of the $1 billion Adriaen's Landing project, the NFL's New England Patriots will begin play in a brand-new open-air stadium in September 2001. The University of Connecticut football team, upgraded to NCAA Division I-A, will become co-tenants of the facility as well. It is also expected that major concert acts will make the stadium a stop on their concert tours.
Research analyst Joseph Slepski, writing in the DOL- and DECD-sponsored Connecticut Economic Digest, recalls that Phoenix Home Mutual Insurance Co. first proposed construction of Adriaen's Landing last May, That plan envisioned a 35,000- to 40,000-seat domed stadium to house UConn football, attached to a convention center along with 400,000 to 500,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space.
In November, that plan was modified to accommodate the Patriots, whose owner, Robert Kraft, pledged to build a hotel connected to the stadium and also an NFL “retail center.”
Worthwhile investment, or pig-in-a-poke? To build the stadium and convention center, the state will allocate more than $300 million in state bonds. These bonds are projected to be paid for by a tax on tickets. In addition, the Capital City Economic Development Authority (CCEDA) must find about $210 million in private investment.
The Patriots will play eight regular season and two preseason games in the facility each year (and potentially more if they make the playoffs as a home team), while UConn will play about six games. Even with a few big concerts thrown in, the stadium will be full only about 20 times each year. Remarks Slepski, “Even the staunchest supporters of this plan would not call this a good investment.”
The convention center, however, changes the overall picture. The CCEDA estimates that such a facility might draw as many as 120,000 visitors and pump up to $75 million each year into the economy of the city and the region. The retail and entertainment offerings at Adriaen's Landing, including specialty stores, a movie complex, music and interactive entertainment, would create some 700 permanent jobs, the authority estimates.
What of other cities' experiences with convention-stadium complexes? There are just two: in Indianapolis and St. Louis. The former city opened its complex in 1984 and has since seen the creation of 49,000 new jobs and more than $210 million in state and local government revenues. Most agree that the complex has revitalized Indianapolis' downtown core.
However, notes Slepski, both Indianapolis and St. Louis have domed stadiums which can accommodate more events year-round than could the open-air Hartford facility. He also points out that both of the larger Midwestern cities have superior infrastructure, transportation and parking to Hartford's.
Slepski also points to an impact study by Urban Strategies Inc. of Toronto, which offers a different view of Hartford's future. While generally favorable of a stadium and convention center complex, Urban Strategies concluded that Hartford was simply too small from a tourism standpoint to justify the allocation of several hundred thousand square feet to retail space. Its consultants instead advocated construction of 1,250 units of downtown housing.
So...is it worth the investment? Slepski acknowledges that the answer to that question is impossible to determine objectively. “Sports fans will think that it is; non-sports fans will think that it is not.”
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