#chrislawrence

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - Coming back from a refreshing vacation on the Emerald Isle, CRDA Executive Director, Michael Freimuth, jumped right back into the problems here in Connecticut that he hopes his lucky shamrock will help him to overcome. Meanwhile, while Freimuth was away, the circus surrounding the XL Center rolls on. The departure of the XL Center's GM, Chris Lawrence, which was exclusively reported by Cantlon’s Corner, came as a complete surprise. “I had no idea it was coming. Chris informed me the week before I left, and it was a surprise. I had a lot of confidence in Chris, and he did a lot in his term here," Freimuth said in an exclusive interview. "I understand family was a part of the reason for his move. I wish him the very best. "I have a lot of confidence in Ben (new GM, Ben Weiss) too, and we'll move forward working with him as a whole new season is about to start.” Friemuth gave a surprising answer concerning Lawrence’s departure as a possible signal for a change in direction by Spectra as they head toward the end of their contract. "To be honest, we have just started discussions in the last month on that matter with them. It's very early. If you're asking if there are exit clauses in the present deal, yes there are which is normal in a complex contract like this, but I don’t think any thresholds have been crossed at this point. This starts about an 18-24 month process where each side has questions and goals in mind. "Inversely, we have triggers too such as, if we see three consecutive cycles of targets not met. I don’t think we have had that. We had a good NCAA tournament. We saw the best of the XL and the worst of the XL during the tournament. Spectra have made investments in the building, and there are some recapture clauses here if they exit early, but I don’t see any of that coming to play,” remarked Freimuth. One summer casualty of the ongoing saga of Dillon Stadium, the home to the latest Connecticut minor pro sports team, the Hartford Athletic, and is only being reported here,  is that it forced the CRDA to push installing a new chiller system off until the summer of 2020, a year later than planned. “Bob (Saint, the CRDA Construction Manager) has been on the go with Dillon and a lot more work had to be done sooner than expected, and we have a full plate of non-sports projects going on all over the place. We just had to put it off to next year. There are just so many hours in a day.” Then there is the XL Center as a whole, which of course, with the story of the Governor’s private discussions with the casino tribal council about a grand bargain to place a casino and sports betting in the XL Center. Freimuth could be seen by some as throwing a wet blanket over the idea, but he took a more pragmatic approach given the long-standing complexity of the XL Center. “We were aware of some discussions about sports gambling, but the casino idea at the XL, we had no idea about that," Freimuth stated. "I’ve had some experience on this issue two years ago in talking to the Pequots and Mohegan. They came, reviewed the building, and said, 'No, thanks.' One of the two main issues was the significant infrastructures issues in the building and the lack of parking. The two casinos are used to loads of free parking spaces and Hartford parking is at a premium and those issues still remain today. "We can easily accommodate a sports betting area in the building-setting. (We can) setup a small bar and tables and chairs in a nice corner spot, however, there are two critical issues with this. One is most sports betting is done online, on a phone, laptops, home computer, etc. Where does the money go? That leads to the second issue of the state seeking to capture the revenue generated by the activity. It's not like the old days when you went to OTB and make a bet, get a drink and sit down. The whole mechanics have changed.” Given the atrocious WIFI system currently in the building, it would be very problematic, to say the least, if bets weren’t recorded. The buildings direction and future remain as nebulous as ever with a lot of hope, prayers and questions, and little answers or concrete action. One thing Freimuth is certain of is that the building will not close. “I confidently think I can say that option is off the table. Everyone up to the Governor's office realizes how much damage that would cause, with all the work ongoing in the downtown core, and the future projects being planned, and in the pipeline. Though a final plan in place and funding acquired for it is still elusive.” Freimuth has his share of frustration over the long and winding road he has taken on the XL Center reboot which is about to enter its seventh year and they're no further along now than they were then. ‘Certainly, it’s a major problem. Look at the new buildings being built in the marketplace. Buildings 20-years-old like in Philadelphia getting hundreds of millions of dollars in the needed upgrades, and we still haven’t allocated the resources clearly necessary with a building this old. We're still stuck on installing a new chiller system when there are so many other major mechanical issues that need to be addressed. "That’s the reality we have here, and we're running up against our upper limits here. We thought we could get ten more years out of the building, and obviously, that isn’t an optimal setup or was our desire, but that’s what’s happened.” The negotiations with Northland Corporation over the atrium continue on, but in two-and-a-half years, they've produced no tangible agreement which is the linchpin to the upgrade getting done. They need the title to the atrium to make the XL Center whole as an entity for the rehab work. “We have had some talks about a month ago before vacations. We submitted a new proposal. To date, we haven’t received a response. I’m hoping to hear back next month. Hope springs eternal,” Freimuth noted with a healthy dose of sarcasm. Eminent domain is still a possibility on the table. “We still have that as an option. We have the authority on this. We also have maintained communication with the governor’s office, and the legislature, on this matter. I think we're getting closer to maybe a month or two where decisions will have to be made. More than that, I really don’t want to comment much further.” Despite the grand amount of resources and legislative approval and authority, there are limits and the CRDA must obey those stop signs. “There are certain matters we have no control of, and we're stalled in this process. As I said, we looked at this as a ten-year project, and yes, sometimes, we feel like we're the dog chasing its own tail at times. We are going to come to a critical point at some juncture. Whether that's sooner or later I don’t know." Hopefully, the bagpipes will be playing at a party, not at a funeral. Read the full article

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - The revolving door at the XL Center continues to turn as the General Manager of the XL Center, Chris Lawrence, is the latest to exit Asylum Street as of Friday. When reached earlier in the week, Lawrence played it as he did when he was a defensive forward at Michigan State, keeping everything close to the vest, “I have no comment on the subject,” he would reiterate each time the question was asked regardless of how it was phrased.  Three sources confirmed Lawrence was leaving for a yet undefined position in the State of Michigan. Whoever his successor will be, will become the fourth building GM in 23 years. MSG's Marty Brooks was GM for 10 years. AEG's Chuck Steadman followed during their six-year run, and now Lawrence, who was the second choice for the position after first left after a contract dispute with Global management. Lawrence came to Hartford after a seven-year run at the Glens Falls (NY) Civic Center. He came shortly after Spectra (then known as Global) won a ten-year contract to manage the XL Center, following a CRDA open RFP proposal to select a new management team. The CRDA discarded AEG who believed they had a deal sewed up as well as a local bid from Laz Parking. Last May, Atairos, a private equity firm created with a $4 billion dollar seed money by Spectacor, last year purchased all of Spectra’s building operations. Since then, Atairos has seemed to have a yearly staff overhaul of the Wolf Pack business office personnel as well as the building management staff. The Wolf Pack lost a $100K last year despite finishing seventh in the AHL in average attendance, and for the first time finished under 4,000 in crowd numbers at 3,942, an all-time low. Spectra also runs Rentschler Field, the home to the moribund UCONN Division I football program. The stadium is swamped in red ink with less than a half-full building for most football games. When asked about the future of the Spectra’s involvement at the XL Center, Lawrence cracked the door just slightly. “That is a matter to be discussed potentially somewhere down the road. Right now, we are concentrating on the first (football) game at Rentschler at the end of the month, and the XL Center with the hockey season for the Wolf Pack and UCONN in October.” When asked about this week's bombshell news that Governor Ned Lamont was discussing with both of Connecticut’s Native American tribes about the possibility of them buying the distressed XL Center as part of a grand bargain on getting a casino in Bridgeport, the door was shut again. “I have been concentrating on a concert here this past weekend. That is a question for the CRDA and the Governor’s office. I have no comment on that subject, one way or the other.” The Atairos company has two office bases, with one in Bryn Mawr, PA, and the other in New York City. Spectra is the stadium management services division of the overall corporate behemoth known as Comcast. Spectacor changed its corporate name from Global Spectrum to Spectra two years ago. The equity firm was the brainchild of former Comcast CFO, Michael Angelkakis, who, with $4 billion dollars of Comcast money, started the firm that included his own investment capital, which has in over three-plus years made strong asset purchases to help diversify the Comcast investment portfolio. Atairos, the Greek word for partnership, and Comcast seem to be joined at the hip. Comcast pays $40 million a year in management fees to Atairos. When Angelkakis was with Comcast, he helped engineer the NBC Universal deal for $30 billion. The deal was meant to diversify Comcast revenue streams outside its cable TV business. The filings with the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) when the company was formed, state there is a 10-year contract between the two entities with a provision to extend to 12-years and it pays 87.5% of its deals to Comcast with Atairos receiving 12.5%. In June two years ago, Paciolan was sold. Paciolan was Comcast's ticketing business. It was sold to the Plano, Texas-based company, Learfield for $4 billion. Learfield is controlled by Atairos which manages advertising and ticketing for 100 arenas and college sports events ticketing nationwide. In another transaction to diversify its portfolio, Atairos purchased the nationally known bowling center empire, Bowlmor AMF and it's 295 bowling centers in the US, seven in Mexico and three in Canada. That purchase was made through the Atairos-controlled, Cerebrus Capital Management. (Portions of info from phillynews.com were used in this stories formation) Read the full article

BY: Bob Crawford, Hartford Wolf Pack  HARTFORD, January 28, 2019:  As part of the AHL All-Star Classic, which began last night at the MassMutual Center in Springfield, MA with the AHL Skills Competition, and concludes with tonight’s AHL All-Star Challenge, the American Hockey League is also holding an “Executives Game”, in which executive staff personnel from around the AHL will take part in a scrimmage. Hartford will be represented in the tilt by XL Center general manager, and head of Wolf Pack business operations, Chris Lawrence.  Lawrence’s participation in the Executives Game is an extension of his utilization of the game of hockey to spread goodwill throughout the Hartford area.  Lawrence volunteers his time throughout the hockey season to the Hartford Police Athletic League (PAL), which offers inner-city youth the opportunity to learn hockey skills with weekly ice time at the XL Center. “Hockey left an indelible impact on my life,” Lawrence said, “the synergies between competitive sports and the business world are endless, and having a chance to pass along those experiences to a community that has embraced my family and I, is a true blessing.” A four-year letter winner at Michigan State University, who captained MSU to an NCAA championship as a Senior in 2006-07, Lawrence organizes PAL’s weekly skating sessions, running drills and teaching basic hockey skills to the PAL skaters, many of whom have never had the opportunity to skate before.   Additionally, through his involvement with the Hartford Wolf Pack Community Foundation, Lawrence has also headed up equipment donations that help strengthen the PAL program, and allow it to provide an enriched experience for the kids. PAL is an organization Lawrence truly believes in, and he encourages his staff at the XL Center to get involved with PAL skates throughout the season. Today’s Executives Game, which will face off at 2:30 PM, marks Lawrence’s return to competitive hockey for the first time since the glory of his Frozen Four title season in 2007.  Born and raised in Havertown, PA, just outside of Philadelphia, Lawrence played one season of USHL Junior Hockey with the Dubuque Fighting Saints, and two years with the Pittsburgh Forge of the NAHL, before heading to Michigan State.  He hung up his skates after the 2007 championship, to begin the off-ice career that has led him to his current position with the XL Center and the Wolf Pack. Defenseman John Gilmour is representing the 2018-19 Wolf Pack in the All-Star Classic, and more information about the event can be found at theahl.com. The Wolf Pack’s first action after the All-Star break is this Friday night, February 1, when they travel to Springfield to take on the Thunderbirds.  Faceoff is 7:05 PM and all the action can be heard live on News Radio 1410 AM, and 100.9 FM, WPOP, and online at www.newsradio1410.com and iHeartRadio.  Video streaming is available at theahl.com/AHLTV. The next Wolf Pack home game is this Saturday night, February 2, a 7:00 PM game vs. the Rochester Americans.  That is “‘90’s Throwback Night”, featuring a fanny pack giveaway to the first 2,000 fans, presented by ProHealth Physicians. Tickets for all 2018-19 Wolf Pack home games are on sale now at the Agera Energy Ticket Office at the XL Center, online at hartfordwolfpack.com and by phone at (877) 522-8499.  Tickets purchased in advance for kids 12 or younger start at just $13 each, and all tickets will have a $3 day-of-game increase. Season ticket information for the Wolf Pack’s 2018-19 AHL season can be found online at hartfordwolfpack.com.  To speak with a representative about all of the Wolf Pack’s many attractive ticketing options, call (855) 762-6451, or click here to request more info. Read the full article