Community Asks: Who's The Boss?

A Springsteen concert at the new Rentschler Field, a state-owned stadium in East Hartford, CT, raises questions over the its intended uses.

1 minute read

August 4, 2003, 8:00 AM PDT

By Connie Chung


Rentschler Field is owned by the state, but will be managed by Madison Square Garden. "And the University of Connecticut's Huskies football is just one tenant of Rentschler Field - though certainly its chief tenant." The manager hopes "to keep both as actively booked as possible. That means more events for 40,000-seat Rentschler Field than the half-dozen Huskies home games on Saturday afternoons." That is contrary to what the general manager of Madison Square garden said in a community meeting three months ago, "that Rentschler wasn't counting on concerts, because putting on such shows might be prohibitively expensive for promoters. That obviously wasn't the case for Springsteen....Nothing guarantees the tours will be a right fit, though. For instance, they must be able to fill about 33,000 seats. And events can't exceed East Hartford's noise ordinance, which caps outdoor noise at about the level of a sewing machine."

Thanks to Connie Chung

Friday, August 1, 2003 in The Hartford Courant

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