A Stadium Plan Goes Sour in Hartford
Construction workers build the right-field wall at a stadium for Hartford’s new minor league baseball team on April 25.
Photographer: Charles Krupa/AP Photo
The Yard Goats, the Double-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, had hoped to open their 2016 season at the new $63 million Dunkin’ Donuts Park. Instead, because of a fiscal crisis in Hartford, their new hometown, the team is playing on a borrowed field about 40 miles away.
On May 27, Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin announced the city could no longer afford to cover the cost of construction delays at Dunkin’ Donuts Park. Hartford recently cut services and raided its rainy-day fund to close a $50 million budget gap for the 2017 fiscal year, which begins July 1. Now, Bronin is making a claim against the insurance bought by builders Centerplan Construction to guarantee the stadium would be completed. “The developer is responsible for any costs beyond what we approved, and there were quite a few,” Bronin says.