At the junction of winter’s snow and the increasing intensity of the football season during the crucial run to the playoffs, have you ever attended or watched a football game and wondered how the stadium gleams so clear and pristine amid the surrounding piles and crusts of brown-tinged, half-melted snow and ice?
Read MoreThe reference to University of Connecticut football was succinct and unflattering. “They can’t draw anybody to games, they have no natural rivalries and they’re not very good,” said Peter Roby, former Athletic Director at Northeastern University. “Is that what people want?”
Read MoreBaseball fans in Connecticut turn their attention to the West Coast this week, as the traditional “hot stove league” Winter Meetings get underway. While much of the interest will focus at the major league level, there will be plenty of action at the concurrent minor league baseball meetings
Read MoreConnecticut’s minor league franchise hosts may be in two different categories – the have and the have not – when the 2021 season gets underway, if Major League Baseball’s plan to cut 42 teams in Minor League Baseball becomes a reality. Norwich is on the list of affiliated franchises that may be disconnected.
Read MoreAn innovative undergraduate program in Digital Media and Communication will launch in January 2020 at the University of Saint Joseph (USJ) in West Hartford, part of a pioneering collaboration with Connecticut Public. The undergraduate degree program offers students two distinct concentrations: Spanish Media and Communication or Sport Media and Communication.
Read MoreThe Travelers Championship has announced that the 2019 tournament generated more than $2.1 million for 150 local charities, including this year’s primary beneficiary, The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. The impact of the tournament, one of the most highly regarded on the PGA Tour, reverberates throughout the state.
Read MoreWhen statisticians, academicians, and sports enthusiasts with a keen interest in the overlapping fields of sports and statistics get together for the annual New England Symposium on Statistics in Sports on September 28 at Harvard University, Connecticut will have a strong presence.
Read MoreProfessional soccer’s return to Hartford may be only months old, but the city is already gaining notice. A new national survey ranked Hartford as 8th best in the nation for soccer fans, among midsize cities hosting soccer franchises or with college soccer teams.
Read MoreConnecticut Children’s Medical Center is the only hospital in Connecticut dedicated exclusively to the care of children. A pediatric dialysis center - the state’s first - is now being planned, with support from a major gift - and an assist from purchases of Hartford Whalers license plates from the state Department of Motor Vehicles.
Read MoreIf you are wondering why there is optimism for the success of the Hartford Athletic, the city’s new professional soccer team planning to begin its inaugural season later this month, a peek back at ratings for televised international soccer in the U.S. provides some hints.
In March 2016, the Washington Post reported on the U.S. cities with the highest viewership for the Manchester derby between City and United in the English Premier League the previous week. Topping the ratings was Baltimore, followed by Kansas City, Hartford, Seattle, Columbus, the San Francisco Bay area, West Palm Beach, and Philadelphia. Yes, Hartford ranked third that week. The match was the highest-rated Manchester Derby telecast in U.S. history at that time, attracting 1.17 million TV viewers.
Two years later, when NBC Sports reported on the cities with the highest average season-long ratings on Premier League telecast for the 2017-18 season, Hartford was ranked in the top 10. Connecticut’s Capitol region was outranked only by Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, Providence, Austin, Norfolk and Dallas.
This past Sunday, the top rated U.S. television markets for Manchester United vs. Liverpool, broadcast on NBC Sports Network, once again included the Hartford/New Haven market, at number six. Leading the way once again was Baltimore, followed by Norfolk, Washington D.C., Milwaukee and Jacksonville. Boston was seventh, just behind Hartford/New Haven.
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oincidentally, the telecasts are coordinated not in the U.K., but in Stamford, Connecticut, at the massive NBC facility there, which also serves as the command center for NBC’s Olympic coverage. Approximately 60 work on each match day at NBC Sports’ headquarters, located at 1 Blachley Road on the city’s East Side, the Stamford Advocate reported last summer, just prior to the current season. On NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app, a record 4 million unique viewers watched during the past season, the Advocate reported.
Hartford Athletic, a USL expansion franchise, will kick off its inaugural season with a game in Atlanta on March 9. The team's home opener is set for May 4. The club announced this week that Trinity Health of New England will be Title Partner and Official Healthcare Provider of Hartford Athletic and featured on both Hartford Athletic’s home and away jerseys. Dillon Stadium, currently undergoing renovation in Hartford, is slated to be the club’s home turf.
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