The New Haven Register, Angela Carter, Register Staff, 11/08/2004

NEW HAVEN — Nineteen supporters of retaining the New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum are asking the Board of Aldermen to deny the use of $6 million in city funds to pay for its demolition

The demolition is part of a larger development plan to move Gateway Community College and Long Wharf Theatre downtown and create new housing units, commercial facilities, public open spaces and additional parking.

According to a City Plan Commission advisory report, the overall project is a $230 million investment that would revitalize nearly 15 acres in the city’s downtown.

"It is important that the Board of Aldermen not even consider this issue of demolition money until public hearings and studies first occur on the future of the Coliseum itself," states the letter, addressed to board President Jorge Perez, D-5.

It was submitted by Salvatore Amendola, Robert Bloch, Joe Chieppo, Dr. Peter Demir, Stephen Dickus, Henry Dynia, Michael Eskridge, Gary Ferdinand, Elizabeth Gerber, Gil Gershman, John Grayson, Tom Holahan, Yaniquej Joseph, Michael Luzzi, Larry Mendelsohn, Kevin Tennyson, Kimberly A. Thomas, Joel Tolman and Aelwen Wetherby.

"We don’t think the building should be torn down, period," Ferdinand said in a telephone interview.

The city should use the demolition money to help plug a looming $9 million budget deficit, he said.

The city must pay $1 million in debt service each year through 2009 on the $23 million in municipal bonds sold to build the arena.

Before its closing, the coliseum was unsuccessfully competing for events in the state with the Hartford Civic Center, Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport, and the Mohegan Sun Arena at the Uncasville casino.

Additionally, the revamped careerbuilder.com Oakdale theater opened in Wallingford, and the ctnow.com Meadows Music Center in Hartford, making it more difficult for the old Elm City venue to compete, according to officials.

Derek Slap, spokesman for Mayor John DeStefano Jr., said the coliseum was losing money and it would cost much more than the $6 million demolition price tag to renovate it.

Perez said he is waiting for more detailed information from the Office of Economic Development about the proposed demolition and subsequent development plans for the site before referring the matter to a board committee for a public hearing.

The letter would be sent to a committee at the same time, he said.

Economic Development Administrator Henry Fernandez could not be reached for comment.