Unison league colosseum3/22/2023 ![]() ![]() He said pieces of the building’s skin were at one point falling from high up and that was a problem. “It was a Goldilocks situation - they didn’t want it too big or too small,” Nemerson said. The big acts and teams wanted 15,000 seats and the smaller ones wanted 6,000 seats, he said. He said it was too big for the smaller entertainers and sports teams and not big enough for the big ones. He said the Coliseum, one of the first medium-sized venues of its type built in the country, also had a size problem. Nemerson said there were many inherent problems with the 11,000-seat Coliseum and even more by the time it came down.įor one, he said, the state sponsored the building of the Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport, now Webster Bank Arena, only about 18 miles from the Coliseum site. ![]() “I think it was a lost opportunity to hold onto something that would be very valuable,” Nemerson said. ![]() The money went to other city projects, Nemerson said. ![]() The committee voted to demolish the Coliseum, and the mall on Long Wharf was never built. The state was willing to give $30 million, Nemerson said, but gave the city an option to use the money for a mall on Long Wharf, to retrofit the building to house a community college or to fix the crumbling Coliseum. Nemerson said the Coliseum brought hundreds of thousands of people to the city every year for events. Nemerson said that while he understood then-Mayor John DeStefano Jr.’s reasoning in tearing down the structure, he thought of it as a way to keep 2,400 parking spaces and protecting a good investment that had already been made. Matthew Nemerson, now the city’s economic development administrator but at the time president of the New Haven Chamber of Commerce, as well as a member of the now defunct New Haven Coliseum Authority, said he was the lone member to vote in favor of revamping the coliseum with state money, rather than tearing it down. More than 10 years after a committee voted to demolish the building rather than revamp and repair it, city officials and the public are still talking, debating, about the venue’s history and the future of the esteemed parcel referred to the so-called “Gateway to New Haven,” right off Interstate 95.įor now, the old Coliseum site remains a parking lot, adjacent to the Knights of Columbus Museum.īut there are big plans for the site someday - nothing has been approved and the vision keeps morphing as other revitalization efforts move forward in New Haven. It is so legendary, in fact, that there is an active Facebook group, “New Haven Coliseum RIP,” where memories of the old place thrive. The coliseum where hundreds of thousands formed childhood memories watching the circus, sports, Ice Capades and built adult and teen memories watching iconic performers that include as Elton John, Queen, Allman Brothers, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Whitney Houston, Queen, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Sinatra, and even Elvis, may be gone, but the venue has achieved legendary status. RELATED: SEE MORE FROM OUR TOP 50 PROJECT The burning, he said, refers to fire caused by the explosives. “I have buildings all over the world that have survived and here it is in my hometown and they burned it down.” “I was very upset, because can you imagine something that took a great deal of time and effort being burned down?” Roche said. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |