HARTFORD — When sports Betting comes to Hartford’s XL Center next month, the $5 million venue will be one of the largest to open in Connecticut since the state approved a sweeping expansion of legalized gambling nearly two years ago.

Hopes are high for the new, state-financed downtown sportsbook: attracting visitors to an Arena even when there isn’t a sporting or entertainment event and earning sorely needed revenue for a coliseum that has struggled financially for decades.

There also is optimism that the sportsbook — a major new amenity at XL — will be the lead-in to a much larger, $107 million renovation contemplated for the 16,000-seat arena, perhaps beginning as early as next year.

“Thought was given right from the beginning by (the Capital Region Development Authority) about making this not just a sports bar that has betting but making the focus when you walk in on the betting,” said Andrew Walter, director of legal and business affairs at the Connecticut Lottery Corp.’s sports betting division, a partner in the venture. “So that these two different operations stand together in parallel and create a really good experience for customers.”

Gaming will be prominent with kiosks and betting windows just beyond the main entrance at the corner of Ann Uccello and Church streets. The sportsbook and bar will be tricked out with a 250-foot long, scrolling ticker with constant updates of sports scores and news. There will be over 80 video monitors — including some in booths along a new glass wall facing Ann Uccello Street — tuned to a broad spectrum of sporting events.

“Everyone who has a ball in their hands,” said Michael W. Freimuth, executive director of the quasi-public Capital Region Development Authority, said during a recent tour of the venue, as he passed below a worker on a scissor lift wiring one screen to what will be a video wall.

The betting and sports bar may open as soon as Sept. 2 and will welcome all patrons whether or not they are attending an event at the XL. Open seven days a week, the hours are still being determined, but are likely to be 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. or 11 p.m., according to CRDA, which oversees  XL’s operations and led the design and construction of the sportsbook.

Event ticketholders will be able to move between the arena and the betting venue by presenting their ticket.

The opening of the sportsbook has been a long time in coming. The opening was delayed a year because construction materials — everything from glass and components for heating and cooling systems to even chips for video display boards — was backlogged for months in the aftermath of the pandemic’s supply-chain disruptions.

The upcoming launch — as was the plan a year ago — will coincide with the start of the NFL’s regular season, this year beginning on Sept. 7.

Growth opportunity downtown

Several locations within the XL Center were considered for the sportsbook. The decision to place it on the northwest side of the building now dramatically changes the look of the rear side of the arena. The dreary, bunker-like appearance has been replaced with a 5,000-square-foot addition over an existing loading dock with a floor-to-ceiling glass wall. The addition brings the betting venue closer to Ann Uccello Street.

In the evening, light from the new venue will spill out into the street and patrons will be visible, making the surrounding neighborhood, in theory, more inviting to pedestrians. An outdoor patio off the sportsbook will be open in good weather.

“The sportsbook really gave us the impetus, the resolve to put an amenity at this end of the building,” CRDA’s Freimuth said. “A lot of people have been pushing, open up Ann Street, open up Ann Street, for years.”

Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, a longtime supporter of upgrades to the XL Center, said the replacement of the bleak, concrete wall at the backside of XL with the sportsbook will create a strong connection between the arena and the eastern end of the Allyn Street corridor.

Over the last decade, 250 apartments have been added to the area behind the XL Center at a cost of $70 million, including $23 million in CRDA state taxpayer-backed loans.

“I think of the Allyn Street corridor leading over to Union Station and all of the buildings around Union Place as one of the growth opportunities in the downtown,” Bronin said.

Revenue-sharing agreement

How much the sportsbook will earn for the XL Center is yet to be known. A revenue-sharing agreement with the Lottery will give the XL Center a portion of gambling revenue, plus the arena will reap the proceeds of all sales of food and drinks.

The Lottery projects that eventually the XL’s sportsbook will eventually generate total wagers of $15 million a year. It’s too early, the Lottery said, to project what the financial benefit would be to the XL Center

CRDA is taking a conservative approach in its expectations for the first year in how much will be earned for the XL. CRDA estimates $100,000 in net revenues will be earned for the 2024 fiscal year but the hope is that it will be much more. The figure includes both revenue from gambling and sales of food and drinks. In addition to a ramping up period, the XL sportsbook will only be operating for nine months of the current fiscal year.

Expanded legalized gambling has proven popular in Connecticut since it was introduced in the fall of 2021, although it has not existed long enough to develop a track record.

Operating for eight months in fiscal 2022, there was $152 million in wagers, $140 million in winnings and $1.2 million earned for the state’s general fund. In the 2023 fiscal year that followed, wagers were $253 million, winnings were $228 million and income for the state was $2.8 million.

The XL sportsbook is the 10th betting venue to open under expanded legalized gambling with five more to go. The legislation provided for two larger venues, one in Hartford and the other in Bridgeport. The Lottery hasn’t announced the Bridgeport site, but is in active negotiations with a similar location as the XL Center.

Walter declined to identify the location, but it is widely believed to be the Total Mortgage Arena, the former Webster Bank Arena.

And as the XL Center sportsbook nears it opening, the Lottery also is negotiating to hire a new operator, because its first, Rush Street Interactive, is preparing to exit the state later this year.

Walter declined to comment on the reasons behind the RSI’s departure, but said it was a mutual decision. The Lottery is negotiating with a new operator, which Walter declined to identify but said is a nationally-known name. Walter said he expects there will be limited disruption in sports betting in the transition.

‘Another feather in the cap’

The sportsbook construction is part of a larger $15 million in upgrades that are now underway at the XL.

Those also include a new commercial kitchen that will serve the sportsbook and elsewhere in the arena; a self-serve area for snacks and drinks in the concourse for those who don’t want to wait in line at a concession; a new elevator; and a replacement of the outdoor concrete staircase leading up to betting venue’s entrance.

But now, with the sportsbook nearly complete, CRDA’s Freimuth and others are looking ahead to a more comprehensive, long-debated makeover of the aging, 48-year-old arena. Renovations at the arena in the heart of downtown Hartford may have the best chance in a decade with a downsized, $107 million plan focused on the lower half of the arena. The project would be partly funded by a private investment.

The private investment would come from Oak View Group, which is the arena’s day-to-day manager. OVG would have to invest at least $20 million, with the state financing $80 million. The state funds have been approved by the legislature.

CRDA will seek bids in the next month for the work to determine if the actual costs match — or at least come close — to the estimates. That will determine to what extent — or even if — the renovations will go forward.

The arena has been a money-loser most years, typically $2 million, but higher during the pandemic, closer to $3-$4 million.

The renovations would be aimed at making the XL Center more competitive with new arenas for events; help the venue turn a profit and carry it through another two decades. Plans would target the addition of premium seating that command higher ticket prices and new amenities, plus upgrades to the concourse and building systems.

The premium seating — include “loge” seating off the concourse, club space under the stands and “bunker suites” at event level — plus upgraded concessions are all intended to increase the arena’s revenue.

Technology also would be a priority, partly to better accommodate heavy social media posting and texting during events.

OVG has a depth of experience in repositioning sports and entertainment venues. The organization manages 300 sports and entertainment venues globally and redevelops others.

OVG’s investment is tied strongly to attracting more concerts to the XL Center, events that are large money makers for modern arenas. But to draw more big-name concert bookings, renovations also will have to include relocation of the stage to increase the number of seats that have a unobstructed view of performers; build the overhead structure needed for modern light shows; and retrofit a loading dock at back of the arena to move shows in and out more quickly.

The legislature’s Speaker of the House Matt Ritter, a Hartford Democrat, said the sportsbook is a significant step forward in reinvigorating the XL Center arena.

“It’s another feather in the cap that allows us hopefully to get to the larger renovation,” Ritter, a longtime supporter of XL renovations, said. “These kind of enhancements and additions have only made the place more attractive.”

Ritter said the intent is modernize a structure built in the 1970s without having the absorb the cost of knocking it down and constructing a new arena.

“Some day, Connecticut is going to have to build a brand new arena,” Ritter said. “But we think with these changes, with these renovations, we can get a lot more out of the building than people expect.”

Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at [email protected].