{"id":38799,"date":"2015-10-14T12:56:14","date_gmt":"2015-10-14T16:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=38799"},"modified":"2015-10-14T15:46:46","modified_gmt":"2015-10-14T19:46:46","slug":"hartfords-nasl-bid-dealt-a-blow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=38799","title":{"rendered":"Hartford’s NASL Bid Dealt a Blow"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Photo credit: Hartford Football Whalers<\/p><\/div>\n

Hartford’s bid for an expansion franchise in the NASL was dealt a serious blow<\/a> after legal troubles surrounding a key developer recently surfaced.<\/p>\n

The Hartford Courant<\/em> recently reported<\/a> that James C. Duckett, who heads Connecticut-based development firm Black Diamond, was convicted of embezzlement in 1999. The Courant<\/em> also reported that Duckett lost “a handful” of civil judgments totaling $119,000.<\/p>\n

As a result of the revelations, City Council President Shawn Wooden will no longer lend his support of the project, which would’ve refurbished the 80-year-old structure to meet NASL stadium guidelines. He has asked the City Council to remove Black Diamond’s lease proposal hearing from the agenda for Monday’s meeting.<\/p>\n

“I have enough concerns that I’ve decided I’m not supporting this project,” Wooden told HartfordBusiness.com<\/em> last week. “The principal involved is not a principal we should be doing business with.”<\/p>\n

The stadium was originally targeted as the home grounds for Hartford City FC, which was linked to a potential NASL expansion bid earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The City of Hartford set aside $12 million in its budget over the next three years to redevelop the 9,600-seat stadium, which was built in 1935, in the hopes of attracting a pro soccer team. Black Diamond pledged to secure financing for the project in order to position Hartford City FC as an expansion candidate.<\/p>\n

Instead, Hartford City will field an indoor team for the 2015-16 Major Arena Soccer League, and play 10 home games at the XL Center starting in November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A $12 million redevelopment project for Dillon Stadium is in jeopardy after a key developer’s legal troubles surfaced. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[138],"tags":[1055,1090,1259,1303,892],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Dillon1.png?fit=600%2C415","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38799"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38799"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38818,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38799\/revisions\/38818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}