Connecticut’s Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) released Monday the renderings of a sports betting lounge which will be located at the XL Center in Hartford. Officials say the CRDA has been working with the Connecticut Lottery to open a sportsbook at the facility, with operations expected to start by Fall 2022.
The project would carve out a drab section of the arena facing Ann Uccello Street, and replace it with a venue dedicated to wagering combined with a bar and a restaurant. It could cost $4 million and it would be open to both event ticket-holders and patrons walking in off the street.
The sportsbook would include wagering kiosks and counters, boards displaying betting odds and a view of the arena floor.
The arena’s bunker-like appearance would be transformed with a sportsbook built out toward the sidewalk over loading dock ramps and enclosed in glass, raising its visibility.
Mike Freimuth, executive director of CRDA, stated in a press release: “The working plan is to open up a new frontage along Ann Street that will not only provide an additional entertainment option in the downtown but also work to increase the concourse and amenity areas of the XL Center itself. We want to make it a place to be. We want it to be an attraction in and of itself. And we want it to be a place that people know they can go any time of the day or year, and not just when there are events.”
Freimuth said he hopes the project will get on the fast track and be ready for the thick of the football season this fall. The proposal must still be approved by CRDA’s board of directors.
Over the last decade, 250 apartments have been added to the area at a cost of $70 million, including $23 million in CRDA state taxpayer-backed loans. Freimuth said the sportsbook would expand on the previous investments in the surrounding area. State financing for the new, 4,000-square-foot space is already in hand from funding previously approved for improvements at the arena, Freimuth said.
The addition of a sportsbook at the XL Center comes after state lawmakers approved a long-debated sweeping expansion of legalized gambling in Connecticut in 2021. The legislation included the creation of sports betting venues at 15 PlaySugarHouse retail sportsbooks in Connecticut, managed by a partnership between CT Lottery, Rush Street Interactive and Sportech, including larger ones in Hartford and Bridgeport. In December, the Connecticut Lottery Corporation was considering at least three potential locations to launch the wagering retail site in Bridgeport that was stipulated in the law passed last year
If the venue were to prove profitable and able to erase some of the typical yearly losses at the arena, it could help pave the way for a still pending $100 million makeover of the arena, which has been debated for years. Supporters say a significant makeover is necessary to downtown revitalization and keeping the arena competitive.
The legislature approved another $65 million in borrowing for the project in 2020, but those funds have yet to be released by the State Bond Commission.
CRDA decided not to test the public with an “interim location”. “We figured first blush was going to be lasting blush. And so we wanted to do it right, once”.
CRDA had considered other locations, including the arena’s lower-level exhibition hall, the skybox-level Coliseum Club and the atrium at the main entrance off Trumbull Street. However, the final location on the Ann Uccello Street side of the arena: “Gives us a level of improvements in a part of the building that we haven’t really worked on and it allows us to get at the sports betting thing, which I’m comfortable will be a break-even and headed toward making some money, too,” Freimuth said.
Original article: https://www.yogonet.com/international/news/2022/01/12/60895-connecticut-lottery-to-open-sports-betting-lounge-at-xl-center–renderings-unveiled
