Mary E. O’Leary, New Haven Register Topics Editor, 01/08/2005

HARTFORD — It’s not exactly the kind of publicity a gubernatorial candidate looks for.

Posters with a large, doctored photo of New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. wearing a court jester’s hat with bells and a $3 bill in his pocket greeted commuters this week along the main highway entrance to the state Capitol.

They are one in a series of signs, previously limited to New Haven, objecting to the proposed razing of the New Haven Coliseum.

This version popped up in Hartford just in time for opening day of the 2005 General Assembly session Wednesday.

In large type, it reads:

"You don’t want this AT THE CAPITOL. JUST SAY NO! No More DeStefano. Longest running sideshow at the DeStefano’s Circus! Started Sept. 1, 2002 and never left town. Save the Coliseum."

The city closed the Coliseum more than two years ago and wants the Board of Aldermen to approve a $6 million bond to knock down the 30-year-old facility, which the administration says can no longer compete with other state-supported venues.

Studies projected the Coliseum would need $1 million in yearly operating subsidies and a mini-mum of $10 million to fix.

Hockey supporters want the Coliseum to reopen for sports, while a loose coalition of architects and academics favor a study to determine the highest and best reuse of the building, while saving the huge garage that serves some 1,800 cars.

No one was taking responsibility for the posters. Members of the Coalition to Save Our Coliseum said the artist is a pretty angry fan who lives outside New Haven and was very involved in hockey.

The coalition feels the city unfairly favors art institutions over sports facilities, and this factored into shuttering the Coliseum.

DeStefano, who was in Phoenix for the National League of May-ors conference, took the occasion to give a lesson in economics.

Allowing that people have a right to their opinion, he said, it was fitting that some of the signs migrated out of town, "since most of the people who made use of the Coliseum were not from its host community." "There is no regional mechanism to support the formidable operating costs or more than $35 million in capital improvements needed to help make the Coliseum viable. As it stands, New Haven families would be forced to spend their hard-earned tax dollars subsidizing a facility for those who live elsewhere," DeStefano said.

More than $50 million in public subsidies, split between the city and the state, have gone toward the Coliseum in the last three decades.

The mayor is one of three announced candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in 2006. He has raised more than $1.4 million toward the effort.