Trinity Health takes over name of Dillon Stadium
HARTFORD — Dillon Stadium, home to the Hartford Athletic soccer team, will be renamed Trinity Health Stadium as part of a new rights agreement with the hospital chain, the team announced Thursday.
Hartford Athletic owner Bruce Mandell unveiled the new name at a press conference in the stadium tunnel, alongside Trinity Health of New England officials and Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin.
“We’re thrilled to officially welcome you for the first time to Trinity Health Stadium,” Mandell said.
According to renderings provided by the team, the stadium’s new name will appear throughout the venue, including on a new sign outside its main entrance.
Trinity Health of New England, which operates four hospitals in Connecticut, including Saint Francis Hospital in Hartford, has been a prominent
sponsor of the Hartford Athletic since the team was founded, with its name and logo appearing on players’ jerseys. The health system has also provided medical care to the team’s players.
“Trinity Health Stadium will continue to provide a family-friendly place for us to come together in a positive way,” Dr. Reggy Eadie, Trinity Health of New England’s CEO, said Thursday. “We’re excited to be a part of something that continues to breath new life and vitality into our community.”
Dillon Stadium has been home to the Hartford Athletic since the team’s founding in 2019, which coincided with $14 million in renovations for the venue. It also hosts high school, college and international soccer games, as well as community events.
Initially built in the 1930s, the building has been known as Dillon Stadium since 1956. It is currently named after James H. Dillon, who worked nearly 40 years as Hartford’s recreation director.
Mandell said the team will commemorate Dillon within the stadium “in really cool ways,” but he is not ready to announce how. He said selling the sponsorship rights to the building was a necessary next step for Hartford Athletic.
“As we’re growing as a community, it’s important that we’re able to support that growth,” Mandell said. “To do that, having sponsors like Trinity Health of New England is very important so we can bring pro soccer and we can have community events.”
After decades under the Dillon Stadium name, not everyone was ready to see a change. On social media, locals complained that the team was trading history for corporate money and said they will always think of the building as Dillon Stadium.
Bridgitte Prince, a Hartford native and veterans rights activist who attended Thursday’s press conference, said she’d like to see the Dillon Stadium name remain and for sponsorship dollars to go toward other causes in the city.
“They said they’re going to honor Dillon Stadium, we’re going to preserve his name, but if that’s the case why are you putting Trinity Health on there?” Prince said. “It just takes away from the historical factor of the city.”
Bronin said he views the new named deal as good news for Hartford, noting that Dillon Stadium had been “derelict” before the Hartford Athletic arrived and the building was renovated.
“Together we were able to bring it back and make it a center of community again,” Bronin said. “A center of community gathering to watch some great soccer games, a center of community where kids can come out to learn some skills or just have fun, where a community can reserve the field and use it for their uses.”
Jay Williams, president of the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, which helped fund the Dillon Stadium renovations, said Thursday the stadium helps “attract families and young people not only from the city of Hartford but from across the region” and “promote health, camaraderie and friendliness.”
“We are now excited that we are emerging [from the pandemic] and that this will be a place we can gather once again,” he said.
The Hartford Athletic are set to begin their season Saturday and will play their first home game April 2 at 7 p.m.