XL Center managers are sketching out a multiyear, multiphase renovation of the 48-year-old arena, once known as the Hartford Civic Center. (XL Center photo)
Getting hungry at a concert or a game? Pull up an app on your phone, order, and pick up your food without standing in line. And we're not talking just hot dogs and burgers. Many of today's arena patrons can choose from a menu of cuisines including Filipino, Senegalese and Thai.
When the game is over, they can get up from their padded seats in the club section and walk through the spacious corridors for a quick exit, followed by drinks and dinner downtown.
That is the new standard for spectators at mid-sized sports stadiums and concert arenas across the nation — and a glimpse of the challenges and opportunities facing Hartford, Conn.'s reimagined XL Center.
With $100 million budgeted for an overhaul of the XL Center set to start in 2024, consultants in the arena business have said that Connecticut needs to spend big just to stay in the game as cities around the nation invest in major venues.
Renovation Plans to Go Full Speed Ahead
With the needed funds secured at the close of this year's state legislative session, XL Center managers are now in the middle of the design process, sketching out a multiyear, multiphase renovation of the 48-year-old arena, once known as the Hartford Civic Center. An upgraded XL is seen as crucial to continued viability for the arena and the key to hopes of attracting a National Hockey League (NHL) franchise.
Bids on the first part of the XL rehab should go out by the end of August with contracts expected to be signed in early fall, said Michael Freimuth, executive director of the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA), which manages the arena.
"There's meetings almost on a daily basis," he told the Bridgeport-based Connecticut Post (CT) while speaking of the renovation project.
Other key priorities include updating CRDA's deal with the center's operator, Oak View Group, along with its signed pacts with the state and the city of Hartford.
With much of the renovation happening "at the back of the house" and during the week and slower summer months, XL Center attendees may not notice any changes for months, Freimuth noted.
High on the priority list is expanding the loading docks for the arena to allow for quicker setup and breakdown by large acts. Upgrading the electrical and IT grid also is prioritized to make it easier for patrons to use cell phones and other technology inside the XL.
An expanse of brand new glass marks the near-completion of the revamp's first phase as well as a new sports-betting venue on the west side of the XL Center facing Ann Uccello Street. Operated by the state lottery, the sportsbook is on schedule to open for business by the end of August, Freimuth said. Gamblers will then be able to access the sportsbook from the street but will need a ticket to enter the larger arena.
"Operationally we should be a go for Sept. 1," he explained, adding that major HVAC and electrical work has been completed despite supply-chain delays. "We're now actually finishing up the place."
Later phases of the XL renovation include creating more overall seating by pushing back the stage, adding a new concourse and building more luxury-level seats near the floor.
Arenas Nationwide Loading Up On Amenities
Luxury seating, larger concourses and expanded food and beverage options are the bare minimum to keep an arena competitive in the current high-stakes market, according to national consultants who have reviewed the XL Center project.
"It's not the way it used to be where you build a civic center; this is all very competitive in terms of being able to get content providers to bring you events," said Carl Hirsh, managing partner at New Jersey-based consultant Stafford Sports LLC. "Hartford is unfortunately behind the curve on that right now."
The gold standard of new venues that have been built recently is CityPark, a $460 million soccer stadium that opened late last year in downtown St. Louis, Mo., noted Fred Carstensen, director of the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis at the University of Connecticut (UConn).
Other state-of-the-art venues debuting this year include a $335 million soccer stadium in Nashville, Tenn., a brand-new 35,000-seat arena in San Diego, Calif., and UConn's own 2,600-seat hockey arena on campus, which opened earlier in 2023.
Ultramodern Arenas Make for a Better Community
Carstensen's team has studied the XL Center over the decades and has made continuous recommendations regarding upgrades. He told CT Post that if the city and state are going to invest in the arena, they must make certain they do not build something that will quickly become dated.
"We're seeing arenas all over the country come up," said Charles Johnson, with Johnson Consulting in Chicago, who has worked with CRDA on the Connecticut Convention Center. "It's a national trend to get these things in order, and also make them a better contribution to the community.
"We want downtown Hartford to experience the same thing every other city's starting to experience, and that's modern facilities," he continued. "It's theaters — the cultural add-ons are what we're seeing happen, and arenas are very much cultural [venues]."
Plus, he said, "You're the state capital, so you probably want distinction for [Connecticut] as well as [for the city of] Hartford."
Upgrades in recent decades have kept Hartford's arena operational and able to attract major acts like Lizzo. Additionally, the XL Center has survived setbacks like a catastrophic 1978 roof collapse due to heavy snow, and flaws in the arena's original design.
Centerpiece of a New Downtown Hartford?
The XL Center's size and location dovetail with a national trend toward integrating mid-sized arenas into urban areas and using them to spark economic development.
"These projects enliven swaths of urban neighborhoods," Arizona-based consultant Jesse Zunke wrote in a recent online article in SportsTravel magazine about reimagining stadiums and arenas. "Smaller venues are friendlier to urban neighbors and easier to build."
He cited a multi- billion stadium project that includes 3,000 housing units, office space, and a hotel in downtown Oakland, Calif.
With an arena of the XL's advanced age and space constraints, knocking it down and starting over on a bigger piece of land is an option that has been long debated.
But the cost — likely approaching $1 billion — and logistics of a do-over make it a "bridge too far," Freimuth said.
"The market does sustain the upgrade program, which we're working on, but it wouldn't really justify a billion-dollar enterprise," he explained to CT Post. "Then if you were to find a new place, the land assembly that would give you connectivity to hotels, restaurants, retail and parking garages is not readily available."
Venues like the XL Center will only have increasing importance as cities like Hartford adjust to post-pandemic work-from-home trends and surging office vacancy, Freimuth said. Instead of "downtown business districts," cities will increasingly need to develop downtown entertainment districts.
"The downtowns are going to become something different," he added, noting that along with theaters, bars and restaurants, a revamped XL Center could play a key role in a new, entertainment-focused Hartford.
"For a fraction of the cost of replacing it, we can position it for the next 20 years or so."
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