UConn wont play at XL Center this season
UConn athletic director Dave Benedict hopes to have a better idea of what the schedules will look like for his men’s and women’s basketball teams in the next couple weeks.
While plans are still being formulated, one thing is for sure: The Huskies won’t be playing at the XL Center this season.
“We have to pay rent if we use that facility, and I don’t think that financially it makes sense for either one of us if we’re in the situation that we currently are, which is if there’s going to be very few fans allowed to attend games,” Benedict said Wednesday by phone. “It just doesn’t make financial sense for either one of us.”
The decision was first reported by the Hartford Courant.
The XL Center has traditionally served as the Huskies’
home-away-fromhome in basketball and men’s ice hockey. But given the current climate and the ongoing pandemic, UConn and the Capital Region Development Authority decided to push their agreement to next fall.
“For us and our studentathletes, when we do go down there we don’t control all the staffing and what their testing protocols are going to be,” Benedict said. “Certainly there’s a significant concern, and we’re doing a lot to minimize exposure or risk to our coaches and studentathletes coming in contact with people. We’re already doing all those things on our campus.
“In this case, I think we both agreed it made the most sense to play our games on campus at this point.”
Gampel Pavilion will host all home games for basketball. Mark Edward Freitas Ice Forum will do the same for ice hockey.
As for whether fans will be in attendance, Benedict said he’s coordinating with
the Department of Public Health, among others, for how to proceed. To this point, Thomas C. Katsouleas, the school’s president, hasn’t been specifically clear on the matter, saying last
month that fans would be allowed in “someday not too soon but before too long.”
“Certainly there’s a risk and certain things we have to take in consideration when we have students on campus versus when students aren’t on campus when they go home for the break,” Benedict said.
“The first thing is to see where the Department of Health is on it, and then we can develop a plan if it makes sense for the university, for us to have fans. Those things will become clearer shortly.”