New Haven drops the ball

by Tim Parry
July 5, 2002 - arenafootball2 (af2)

When a pro sports franchise makes its way to the defunct team graveyard, it's usually because it lacked finances and fan support. Such is not the case for the New Haven Ninjas.

The arenafootball2 team is a dead man walking, despite healthy ownership, a strong fan base and heavy community involvement. But the City of New Haven, CT, had other plans.

At times this season, the Ninjas have raised the roof at New Haven Coliseum. However, Mayor John DeStefano announced July 2 that the building itself would be closed September 1 and razed as soon as possible. This leaves a once-proud sports city without an arena, and a popular af2 franchise without a home.

Which means there will be no pep rallies to save the Ninjas. No stunts by DJs to keep the team in New Haven. Nothing at all, because there is no plan to even build a new venue for indoor sports in New Haven. After everything the Ninjas did for the city, it slapped it in the face.

Ninjas head coach Rick Buffington spoke up and said if the last two regular season games, July 20 and 27, sell out, then he'll call whoever he can to try to save the building. Whoever Buffington calls better have deep pockets. DeStefano said getting rid of the eyesore would save the city and its taxpayers $26.8 million over the next 10 years.

The city is looking into building a theater on the site. Sure, culture is great, but how many people base civic pride on the quality of ballet performances or the number of Off-Broadway hits it hosts?

DeStefano said the venue is a community asset, but not an asset to the community. Hence, the city doesn't need to keep the 31-year-old facility afloat. It's role as a sports town is finished.

For years, Bridgeport, half-an-hour drive west on I-95, had been considered the laughing stock of the state. But in 1998, a ballpark opened on an abandoned factory site, and the city had independent league baseball. Last October an arena opened just beyond the ballpark's left field wall.

The result for Bridgeport - a baseball team that set the all-time independent league single-season attendance record, a Major League Lacrosse franchise and an American Hockey League franchise that played for the Calder Cup and competed with cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Cleveland.

More importantly, it has civic pride. And most likely it will get the Ninjas, and it's all because the City of New Haven dropped the ball. While Bridgeport was rising, it did nothing to hold on to its franchises. And with a new venue an hour east at Mohegan Sun, New Haven has admitted default.

New Haven does have a state-of-the-art tennis stadium on the campus of Yale University, but it hosts one major tournament a year. Across the street from that, its minor league baseball team, the Ravens, play at crumbling Yale Field. Rumor has it they'll be in the defunct team graveyard, too, as other cities look to take the team away.

The Coliseum is far from being a sexy facility, but it serves its purpose. The arena has great sight lines - especially for Arena Football, it's easy to get to and parking is never a problem. Recently, 9,000 people attended Yale's NIT game. Even though most of the tickets were free, it showed that people would still go to the Coliseum.

But the United Hockey League's New Haven Knights lease ended, and the team said it would fold. That made the Ninjas the only permanent tenant, and allegedly it wasn't enough to keep the arena running.

And that's too bad for a once-proud sports town.

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