According to FootballScoop.com, Jerry Glanville is looking at former Buccaneers/Patriots/Saints coach Harold Jackson, former Buffalo Bills QB coach and offensive coordinator Turk Schonert, and Illinois assistant coach (and former Tuskers running backs coach) Kurt Beathard to add to the staff in Hartford.
The Colonials are still missing offensive line and quarterbacks coaches as well as defensive and special teams coordinators. The gentlemen listed above are all offensive guys, so if any of these pan out it seems that we'll still be looking for coordinators in the other two phases of the game.
Of course it was recently reported that Glanville has already hired five coaches. Let speculation run rampant as to who those names were and what positions they're going to be in charge of.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011
A Few Things to Like About East Hartford
The name of the team is the Hartford Colonials, but the venue in which they play is, in fact, in my old home town of East Hartford: not-so-proud hive of the East Hartford High football Hornets, who won only a single game in the four years I attended. Pictured below is the school's mascot, presumably clutching a sprained wrist and grimacing in pain.
But the point is that I lived in this town for nearly fifteen years. It's had some ups and downs and, yeah, it ain't the prettiest place. But damn it, it's my home. And there are a few good things about East Hartford. Name one? Fine!
1: Burnside Brewery
Yes folks, I'm going right for the beer.
Located at 776 Tolland St (you'd think it would be on Burnside Ave), the Burnside microbrewery churns out delicious Ten Penny and Dirty Penny ale in wonderful, wonderful hillbilly-esque jugs. It's a small place so there's no brewery tour, but you can check them out at this link Warning: Site may contain bagpipe music. I'm serious.
Ten Penny has been a favorite of mine for years for barbecues and parties. It's only available in the 64 ounce growlers, so find someone or someones to share with or steel yourself for an overwhelming amount of goodness. (I don't need to tell you to be responsible, do I? I mean, if you need random football bloggers to dispense life advice you need more help than I can give.) Could be a good pickup for, oh, I dunno, maybe tailgating? Know anyone who might be doing that?
2: Cabela's
Not far from Rentschler Field, in fact Cabela's is visible from it! The sporting goods giant features two floors of sporting, hunting and fishing paraphernalia, a small cave/aquarium, a snack shop with roasted nuts and... a gun library. I'm not sure how that last bit works. Odds are you might be looking for something to do in the area, and this shop which is just as much an exhibition as a market is a a fun place to stop for outdoorsy types. Or people who like sporting goods stores. If you know anyone like that.
3: The Triple-A Diner
Connecticut has a really good selection of late night diners. Definitely more so than Massachusetts, which I add because I still have yet to find one since moving. That being said, this is mostly a nostalgia pick. My bud Art and I have been hanging out here since the halcyon days of East Hartford High and its horrible Hornets. A little less now that we've both moved further away from the place, but Main Street's Triple-A is a place with some history, and I still remember it fondly even if I visit it less frequently. This was where my father and his best friend used to hang out back in the 70s.
The food is about what you'd expect for a 24-hour greasy spoon. Good place for a bite to eat late and it's been a staple for the area's night owls for many, many years. One of the few places around you can get a Monte Cristo. As far as I know the jukeboxes still don't work. The Triple-A's greasy breakfast's have cured many a hangover throughout the years I'm sure. Maybe even one or two induced in someone (we won't mention names) who's tried to tackle a bottle of Ten Penny all by themselves.
 |
| ""Eh" pretty well sums up the team." |
1: Burnside Brewery
 |
| "Officer, I just had one beer!" |
Located at 776 Tolland St (you'd think it would be on Burnside Ave), the Burnside microbrewery churns out delicious Ten Penny and Dirty Penny ale in wonderful, wonderful hillbilly-esque jugs. It's a small place so there's no brewery tour, but you can check them out at this link Warning: Site may contain bagpipe music. I'm serious.
Ten Penny has been a favorite of mine for years for barbecues and parties. It's only available in the 64 ounce growlers, so find someone or someones to share with or steel yourself for an overwhelming amount of goodness. (I don't need to tell you to be responsible, do I? I mean, if you need random football bloggers to dispense life advice you need more help than I can give.) Could be a good pickup for, oh, I dunno, maybe tailgating? Know anyone who might be doing that?
2: Cabela's
Not far from Rentschler Field, in fact Cabela's is visible from it! The sporting goods giant features two floors of sporting, hunting and fishing paraphernalia, a small cave/aquarium, a snack shop with roasted nuts and... a gun library. I'm not sure how that last bit works. Odds are you might be looking for something to do in the area, and this shop which is just as much an exhibition as a market is a a fun place to stop for outdoorsy types. Or people who like sporting goods stores. If you know anyone like that.
 |
| Oh deer! |
 |
| Sigh. |
Connecticut has a really good selection of late night diners. Definitely more so than Massachusetts, which I add because I still have yet to find one since moving. That being said, this is mostly a nostalgia pick. My bud Art and I have been hanging out here since the halcyon days of East Hartford High and its horrible Hornets. A little less now that we've both moved further away from the place, but Main Street's Triple-A is a place with some history, and I still remember it fondly even if I visit it less frequently. This was where my father and his best friend used to hang out back in the 70s.
The food is about what you'd expect for a 24-hour greasy spoon. Good place for a bite to eat late and it's been a staple for the area's night owls for many, many years. One of the few places around you can get a Monte Cristo. As far as I know the jukeboxes still don't work. The Triple-A's greasy breakfast's have cured many a hangover throughout the years I'm sure. Maybe even one or two induced in someone (we won't mention names) who's tried to tackle a bottle of Ten Penny all by themselves.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Blog Update
Just a quick scheduling note before. While the regular Thursday updates were good at keeping me on task (well, until they became the Friday updates) I feel like it’s also been a hindrance at times. For starters, I end up feeling like every entry must be long and ponderous since this blog is only being utilized once a week. That and it also leaves me feeling like I can’t update whenever big news gets mentioned, since I must wait forThursday.
So the schedule here at "Blue Foot, Gold Foot" is changing. There will always be a Friday post now that the schedule has wandered there. However, I’ll be posting bits and pieces throughout the week as well. Overall each entry will likely be a bit shorter, but I think more frequent content will make for a more interesting blog.
Next piece will be today or tomorrow and will detail some of the things there are to like about East Hartford, the town in which our beloved Rentschler Field stands. There'll be beer and fine dining... well, dining anyway.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Hotel 2011
I'm sitting here watching the replay of Hartford's first home game in 2010, and I think it's only now that I'm really struck by the fact that we are no longer in the post-2010 season fugue, we've busted down the doors to the 2011 season and are standing in the lobby, waiting for the bellboy to quit loafing and take our damn bags up to our room.
As of writing this, it's the second quarter and the Colonials are up 10-0. Damn that was a great game.
There's a hell of a lot of bad news that happened in Post-2010. Nobody can deny that, but we're beyond that now. With the hiring of Jerry Glanville, we're past that. You can actually feel the air in the room change, and not just because the snooty bellboy opened up the windows (he's doing extracurricular stuff, looking for a bigger tip) but because there's a whole new attitude in the organization.
Of the five UFL head coaches, four have been in the NFL. Three of those have winning records. Jerry? He doesn't. But I'll take gladly take his 60-69 record and multiple playoff appearances and his awesome attitude over Palmer's 8-32.
McCown-to-Chery and it's now 16-0 by the way. Aaaaand now 17-0!
I feel energized. I feel good. We have a coach. There will be a 2011 season. There's nowhere to go but up. What else can you ask for? Fine, here's a dollar. Now get out of my room. I want to see what's on pay per view.
As of writing this, it's the second quarter and the Colonials are up 10-0. Damn that was a great game.
There's a hell of a lot of bad news that happened in Post-2010. Nobody can deny that, but we're beyond that now. With the hiring of Jerry Glanville, we're past that. You can actually feel the air in the room change, and not just because the snooty bellboy opened up the windows (he's doing extracurricular stuff, looking for a bigger tip) but because there's a whole new attitude in the organization.
 |
| "See? See? We did have that one game. I mean 27-10? Come on!" |
McCown-to-Chery and it's now 16-0 by the way. Aaaaand now 17-0!
I feel energized. I feel good. We have a coach. There will be a 2011 season. There's nowhere to go but up. What else can you ask for? Fine, here's a dollar. Now get out of my room. I want to see what's on pay per view.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Welcome to Glanville
It's been announced in a few places, but since this is about Hartford's football team, we'll go with this link to the Hartford Courant. Former Oilers/Falcons head coach Jerry Glanville is slated to be the Colonials new coach. A+ to the UFL for name recognition: Glanville has a long history in the NFL and other football leagues and is a major name in the sport. His win/loss record is less than perfect however, so it remains to be seen what sort of team will take the field in August.
There were a lot of names being bandied about. Eric Mangini, of course, though the CT native was said to be still pursuing NFL opportunities. The embattled Brad Childress was another. Hard to get a good read on Childress. The Vikings seemed to improved each year under his tenure, but 2010's team was a train wreck and I get the impression that the players never respected him.
Jim Mora Jr. was another former NFL head coach without an offer from America's largest football league last year. I get the impression that he's in the same boat as Childress: not a lot of respect from his personnel.
In the "note likely to ever happen" pile were Jon Gruden and Bill Cowher. There are NFL teams who would welcome these guys back, and I can't see them in the UFL when the possibility of an NFL paycheck still looms in their future like an ominous silver-lined thundercloud.
 |
| Genesis Video Games: Glanville 1 - Palmer 0 |
There were a lot of names being bandied about. Eric Mangini, of course, though the CT native was said to be still pursuing NFL opportunities. The embattled Brad Childress was another. Hard to get a good read on Childress. The Vikings seemed to improved each year under his tenure, but 2010's team was a train wreck and I get the impression that the players never respected him.
Jim Mora Jr. was another former NFL head coach without an offer from America's largest football league last year. I get the impression that he's in the same boat as Childress: not a lot of respect from his personnel.
In the "note likely to ever happen" pile were Jon Gruden and Bill Cowher. There are NFL teams who would welcome these guys back, and I can't see them in the UFL when the possibility of an NFL paycheck still looms in their future like an ominous silver-lined thundercloud.
Friday, March 18, 2011
The NFL Lockout, Simplified
Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe is on Twitter, and he's had a few things to say about the lockout. For starters, here's a quick look at the bargaining process in stick figure comic format.
Not much you can really add to this. Unless you add the following take on Roger Goodell's letter to the players (available at the link above and elsewhere.
What amazes me is the amount of vitriol aimed at Kluwe by the average fan. The lockout has constantly been cited as a battle of "millionaires vs billionaires", which is enormously short-sighted. I'm not sure that the entirety of the casual fanbase understands that this is not a strike: the owners have chosen to remove the possibility of football in 2011 if they didn't reach a deal that gave them significantly more revenue and more control over revenue. Goodell's last deal would have had the player's share of revenue as static and unchangeable. Meaning players might see 4.5 billion of the 9-ish billion the league would make in 2011... but would receive the same pay out of the projected $25 billion dollars the league is looking to make by 2027. (Numbers here are admittedly very rough.)
So it shocks me to see people calling Kluwe "Chris Klueless." Would anyone accept a deal that reduced their pay by as much as 18% merely because their boss said they needed the money, and had done nothing to prove the claim? How about during an era of unprecedented growth in their industry? And if your boss proposed a deal that essentially shrank your paycheck to half of what it was (compared with your company's profits) in fifteen years. You'd think the average person would be against that.
I think we're conditioned to hate on professional athletes for making quite a lot of money for "playing a game." There's that sense that these people came from nothing, didn't have to work hard and are getting paid over what anyone is worth. If player salaries are reduced, it's not like owners are going to throw parades and hand out free candy to children. They're going to pocket that cash. And yet people will stand in their corner because these people have lived the supposed American Dream. They're rich businessmen. Whether or not they've actually worked for that money, the perception is that owning a team = work. Playing for a team = not work. It's not really accurate and it has no place here. The lockout was an attempt by men with money to make more money.
You can still be against the current player salaries and realize that, even if those were lowered, you as a fan would see no benefit.
Not much you can really add to this. Unless you add the following take on Roger Goodell's letter to the players (available at the link above and elsewhere.
What amazes me is the amount of vitriol aimed at Kluwe by the average fan. The lockout has constantly been cited as a battle of "millionaires vs billionaires", which is enormously short-sighted. I'm not sure that the entirety of the casual fanbase understands that this is not a strike: the owners have chosen to remove the possibility of football in 2011 if they didn't reach a deal that gave them significantly more revenue and more control over revenue. Goodell's last deal would have had the player's share of revenue as static and unchangeable. Meaning players might see 4.5 billion of the 9-ish billion the league would make in 2011... but would receive the same pay out of the projected $25 billion dollars the league is looking to make by 2027. (Numbers here are admittedly very rough.)
So it shocks me to see people calling Kluwe "Chris Klueless." Would anyone accept a deal that reduced their pay by as much as 18% merely because their boss said they needed the money, and had done nothing to prove the claim? How about during an era of unprecedented growth in their industry? And if your boss proposed a deal that essentially shrank your paycheck to half of what it was (compared with your company's profits) in fifteen years. You'd think the average person would be against that.
I think we're conditioned to hate on professional athletes for making quite a lot of money for "playing a game." There's that sense that these people came from nothing, didn't have to work hard and are getting paid over what anyone is worth. If player salaries are reduced, it's not like owners are going to throw parades and hand out free candy to children. They're going to pocket that cash. And yet people will stand in their corner because these people have lived the supposed American Dream. They're rich businessmen. Whether or not they've actually worked for that money, the perception is that owning a team = work. Playing for a team = not work. It's not really accurate and it has no place here. The lockout was an attempt by men with money to make more money.
You can still be against the current player salaries and realize that, even if those were lowered, you as a fan would see no benefit.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Not a Random Fandom
It's Friday. And to that, all I can add is ta da!
Linked above is Dusty Sloan's Fan Friday article on the UFL's website. It was awesome being chosen for the piece, and a bit of a surprise, too. I'm hoping this won't come off as narcissistic, but I wanted to expand on something at the end.
Fandom is a funny thing. Back in the early days of sports you didn't have much of an option but to root for the home team. It's not like you were going to listen to the 1870 Red Stockings' games on the radio. And in 1926, the NFL's Hartford Blues were still siting around wondering when people would invent the TV so they could show up on it.
So I'm from New England, and yet I'm not a Pats fan. There are a couple of reasons. First and foremost, I wasn't even into football until I picked up Tecmo Super Bowl as an impressionable youth in 1991. Anyone ever try to play that game as the Patriots? They have a middling ground game and an abyssmal pair of QBs --by the game's standards at least, which I add because my father still holds Steve Grogan as one of his favorite players. Put simply, I wasn't about to beat my cousin (who owned the game and the Nintendo) with his QB Bills (Jim Kelly) and Thurman Thomas and Andre Reed.
Slight tangent: I'm not sure why he wasn't a Pats fan either. We lived in the same town. And he looks like John Elways, which you'd think would've pushed him towards the Broncos.
So, who was I going to play as? Well, I briefly tried out the Packers because I liked Don Majkowski's name. That didn't go so well. What next?
The team and player pictured to the right were next.
QB Eagles was a freak of nature. He only had one good receiver to throw to (Fred Barnett), but that was fine. That was all he needed.QB Eagles would drop back to pass, and if the 100-yard bomb wasn't an option, he would run like hell, end zone to end zone for the TD. This player was not a man. He was a shadow creature that fed on the nightmares of defensive players and had been spawned from a dimension of pure darkness.
Oh, and Reggie White and the rest of the "D" was pretty good too. But who really played this game for the defense? If you weren't throwing the ball at least 40 yards or zig-zagging with your speediest back you were playing wrong.
I think that for a little while I'd actually convinced myself that Cunningham really could do all of that stuff. He ran for more yards in 1990 than the rest of the Eagles runningbacks did that year. Today I still don't want to disbelieve it. Of course, 91' was also when Cunningham's ACL was torn. Theoretically I never really got to see the best of him out on the field.
In a nutshell, I ended up rooting for a team I'd only barely been aware of previously, from a state/town I lived several hundred miles away from because of a player who I thought was Superman incarnate. (to be fair, he wasn't far off athletically from his video game likeness.) All this based on a video game. I still like the Eagles. They're my NFL team and they're rivals with the Dallas Cowboys, whom I despise. Nothing is going to change that.
But damn if it isn't different when you're a fan of a team that actually lives and breathes on the ground your own feet have tread. The place you call home. The Colonials are part of where I grew up. The Hartford area has been hit in similar ways to Detroit, Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and many of the rust belt cities. Not as hard, perhaps, but if you live there you can feel it. You know it. Hartford's population has dropped in the past twenty years. The crime rate is high.This is a city that is fighting for something to be proud of. East Hartford, where Rentschler field is, and where I'll finally admit I'm originally from, feels the same effects. It's down but not out, and whatever its flaws I will defend it.
The Colonials are now part of my town, playing in a stadium that could have housed the Patriots. I'm not even a Pats fan. I don't feel betrayed. It's more that I pine for what could have been. The economic opportunities and prestige of a pro sports organization could do great things for the place. If you think that hasn't been on anyone's mind, Let me remind you of the Whalers.
The cult of the Whalers is still very much alive in Hartford. I have friends in the area who still talk about the team. Hell, the area's AHL team just changed its name to the Whale. If that isn't an indication that the average Connecticutian is painfully aware of that hole in the middle of the state where the professional hockey team used to be, I don't know what is.
So that is part of the reason I am a dyed-in-the-wool Colonials fan. The UFL can be our league, the Colonials our team if we support them. I'm glad they decided to settle down in the place I grew up, and I hope that the league and the city will both benefit and prosper from the partnership.
Linked above is Dusty Sloan's Fan Friday article on the UFL's website. It was awesome being chosen for the piece, and a bit of a surprise, too. I'm hoping this won't come off as narcissistic, but I wanted to expand on something at the end.
Fandom is a funny thing. Back in the early days of sports you didn't have much of an option but to root for the home team. It's not like you were going to listen to the 1870 Red Stockings' games on the radio. And in 1926, the NFL's Hartford Blues were still siting around wondering when people would invent the TV so they could show up on it.
 |
| "You're from HDNet? What's an HDNet? And get that strange motorcar off of the pitch. What in the world is a DeLorean anyway? Just take the picture and be off, ye vagabond." |
Slight tangent: I'm not sure why he wasn't a Pats fan either. We lived in the same town. And he looks like John Elways, which you'd think would've pushed him towards the Broncos.
So, who was I going to play as? Well, I briefly tried out the Packers because I liked Don Majkowski's name. That didn't go so well. What next?
 |
| "Grah! I am evil Randall Cunningham!" |
QB Eagles was a freak of nature. He only had one good receiver to throw to (Fred Barnett), but that was fine. That was all he needed.QB Eagles would drop back to pass, and if the 100-yard bomb wasn't an option, he would run like hell, end zone to end zone for the TD. This player was not a man. He was a shadow creature that fed on the nightmares of defensive players and had been spawned from a dimension of pure darkness.
Oh, and Reggie White and the rest of the "D" was pretty good too. But who really played this game for the defense? If you weren't throwing the ball at least 40 yards or zig-zagging with your speediest back you were playing wrong.
I think that for a little while I'd actually convinced myself that Cunningham really could do all of that stuff. He ran for more yards in 1990 than the rest of the Eagles runningbacks did that year. Today I still don't want to disbelieve it. Of course, 91' was also when Cunningham's ACL was torn. Theoretically I never really got to see the best of him out on the field.
In a nutshell, I ended up rooting for a team I'd only barely been aware of previously, from a state/town I lived several hundred miles away from because of a player who I thought was Superman incarnate. (to be fair, he wasn't far off athletically from his video game likeness.) All this based on a video game. I still like the Eagles. They're my NFL team and they're rivals with the Dallas Cowboys, whom I despise. Nothing is going to change that.
But damn if it isn't different when you're a fan of a team that actually lives and breathes on the ground your own feet have tread. The place you call home. The Colonials are part of where I grew up. The Hartford area has been hit in similar ways to Detroit, Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and many of the rust belt cities. Not as hard, perhaps, but if you live there you can feel it. You know it. Hartford's population has dropped in the past twenty years. The crime rate is high.This is a city that is fighting for something to be proud of. East Hartford, where Rentschler field is, and where I'll finally admit I'm originally from, feels the same effects. It's down but not out, and whatever its flaws I will defend it.
The Colonials are now part of my town, playing in a stadium that could have housed the Patriots. I'm not even a Pats fan. I don't feel betrayed. It's more that I pine for what could have been. The economic opportunities and prestige of a pro sports organization could do great things for the place. If you think that hasn't been on anyone's mind, Let me remind you of the Whalers.
 |
| Have you seen me? |
So that is part of the reason I am a dyed-in-the-wool Colonials fan. The UFL can be our league, the Colonials our team if we support them. I'm glad they decided to settle down in the place I grew up, and I hope that the league and the city will both benefit and prosper from the partnership.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Updating on Friday... (Well, alright. A little update now)
Some of you may have noticed that I've missed my Thursday update for the past two weeks, and have posted on Friday instead. That hasn't been intentional... until now. I'll be holding off until tomorrow for this week's entry.
For now I don't really have much UFL news to gab about. I mean, there are little things like this, which is the freshest headline I could find today, and which (if you clicked) would tell you that the Virginia Destroyers have signed a deal with a company by the name of New Era Tickets. The small ticketing firm is an offshoot of Comcast. Sounds like a good deal for the UFL to be working with a company with firm backing. But this is the kind of news that's only news in the offseason.
And why should we care about ticketing info for a team that we'll be destroying in the fall? Hear that Destroyers? Yeah, that's right. I went there. Whatcha gonna do about it?
One final note: it seems like the NFL Lockout is already providing the UFL with a whole bunch of free press. I'm not sure that it'll be enough without the benefit of a serious and concerted UFL-devised ad campaign, which the league has not previously tried in lieu of cheaper options such as Facebook, Twitter and word of mouth, but the word is certainly getting out there. And that is good news.
For now I don't really have much UFL news to gab about. I mean, there are little things like this, which is the freshest headline I could find today, and which (if you clicked) would tell you that the Virginia Destroyers have signed a deal with a company by the name of New Era Tickets. The small ticketing firm is an offshoot of Comcast. Sounds like a good deal for the UFL to be working with a company with firm backing. But this is the kind of news that's only news in the offseason.
And why should we care about ticketing info for a team that we'll be destroying in the fall? Hear that Destroyers? Yeah, that's right. I went there. Whatcha gonna do about it?
One final note: it seems like the NFL Lockout is already providing the UFL with a whole bunch of free press. I'm not sure that it'll be enough without the benefit of a serious and concerted UFL-devised ad campaign, which the league has not previously tried in lieu of cheaper options such as Facebook, Twitter and word of mouth, but the word is certainly getting out there. And that is good news.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Paying the Rent
As the NFL lockout looms ever closer, and was we slowly grind our way through this offseason towards the UFL's third, it's becoming ever more important that the league get a handle on its outstanding debts. Important to note in that list is that The UFL still owes $90,000 to the state of Connecticut for it's use of Rentschler field last year.
I'm not certain what the venue situation is in other cities, but I don't see any other place for the Colonials to play in Connecticut should they be unable to pay "The Rent." Dillon Stadium in Hartford crossed my mind: it's a 20k seat facility that is mostly used for high school football and (in the 60s) for Rolling Stones-related riots. Colonials fans could certainly fill up the stadium, which is half the size of Rentschler. But might there be a stigma attached to using a field that's primarily used by high-schoolers? Two other football teams--the Woman's Football Alliance's New England Nightmare, and the Independent Woman's Football League's Connecticut Crushers--also play in Dillon, which may cause scheduling troubles.
The Yale Bowl in New Haven seats 60,000, and seems an unlikely place to play given that one of the major reasons the Tuskers were shuttered was how terrible the cavernous and old the Citrus Bowl was. The Yale Bowl was built in 1914 and would hold four times the average attendance of last year's games. Not ideal. And the fact that it's all the way out in New Haven might start giving people flashbacks to the Sentinels' 2009 season without a home.
The UConn Huskies old, 16k capacity field, Memorial Stadium in Storrs (pictured below)? It would look terrible if the Colonials were shuffled off to the Huskies old and unused stadium. Particularly since it's apparently slated for demolition. It has about the capacity, but a lot of baggage to go with it.
Sad to say that outside of Rentschler field these are our best options. I grew up in East Hartford, where Rentschler is situated, and I have a soft spot in my heart for the stadium because it's both in my old hometown and because I always felt it was underutilized. It is also, hands down, the best stadium the UFL has right now. TD Ameritrade? Pftt. New, but really a baseball park. The Virginia Sportsplex? Please. The new designs look great but they're not a patch on the Rent. I know nothing about Sammy Boyd and don't care to expand on that. And then all we have left is the Mountain Lions and Hornet Field, which is probably just a ripoff of the New Britain Rock Cats old ballpark, Beehive Field. I have a lot of good memories of Beehive Field, and you, sir, are no Beehive Field.
Alright, so I get unreasonable when it comes down to matters of local pride. In all seriousness, Rentschler is the only stadium in the UFL right now that was built explicitly for football and has the capacity needed for the pro game without looking like a canyon. It's a great stadium and the Colonials' best option in the Hartford area. Let's hope they can get this straightened out before August.
I'm not certain what the venue situation is in other cities, but I don't see any other place for the Colonials to play in Connecticut should they be unable to pay "The Rent." Dillon Stadium in Hartford crossed my mind: it's a 20k seat facility that is mostly used for high school football and (in the 60s) for Rolling Stones-related riots. Colonials fans could certainly fill up the stadium, which is half the size of Rentschler. But might there be a stigma attached to using a field that's primarily used by high-schoolers? Two other football teams--the Woman's Football Alliance's New England Nightmare, and the Independent Woman's Football League's Connecticut Crushers--also play in Dillon, which may cause scheduling troubles.
 |
| We already had two football teams in Hartford? How come nobody tells me these things? (Side note: Actually Crushers players were working the snack stands at the first Colonials games. First I'd heard of them. I wish them well, even though the New England Intensity are much closer to me geographically and have a much better record.) |
The Yale Bowl in New Haven seats 60,000, and seems an unlikely place to play given that one of the major reasons the Tuskers were shuttered was how terrible the cavernous and old the Citrus Bowl was. The Yale Bowl was built in 1914 and would hold four times the average attendance of last year's games. Not ideal. And the fact that it's all the way out in New Haven might start giving people flashbacks to the Sentinels' 2009 season without a home.
The UConn Huskies old, 16k capacity field, Memorial Stadium in Storrs (pictured below)? It would look terrible if the Colonials were shuffled off to the Huskies old and unused stadium. Particularly since it's apparently slated for demolition. It has about the capacity, but a lot of baggage to go with it.
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| "I am a sad stadium." |
Sad to say that outside of Rentschler field these are our best options. I grew up in East Hartford, where Rentschler is situated, and I have a soft spot in my heart for the stadium because it's both in my old hometown and because I always felt it was underutilized. It is also, hands down, the best stadium the UFL has right now. TD Ameritrade? Pftt. New, but really a baseball park. The Virginia Sportsplex? Please. The new designs look great but they're not a patch on the Rent. I know nothing about Sammy Boyd and don't care to expand on that. And then all we have left is the Mountain Lions and Hornet Field, which is probably just a ripoff of the New Britain Rock Cats old ballpark, Beehive Field. I have a lot of good memories of Beehive Field, and you, sir, are no Beehive Field.
Alright, so I get unreasonable when it comes down to matters of local pride. In all seriousness, Rentschler is the only stadium in the UFL right now that was built explicitly for football and has the capacity needed for the pro game without looking like a canyon. It's a great stadium and the Colonials' best option in the Hartford area. Let's hope they can get this straightened out before August.
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