Hartford home of UConn Huskies basketball renamed PeoplesBank Arena

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The Hartford venue that’s the part-time home of the storied UConn men’s and women’s basketball teams has a new name: PeoplesBank Arena.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont joined officials from the arena’s management company and PeoplesBank to announce a new naming rights deal Monday on the floor of what had been called the XL Center since 2007. Terms of the multi-year agreement were not released.

“We chose to invest in this arena because we believe in Hartford,” said Thomas Senecal, CEO and chairman of PeoplesBank, based in Holyoke, Massachusetts. “We believe in the revitalization happening here, the momentum building downtown, the renewed energy in the business district, the arts, the restaurants, the culture. And of course, the sports.”

The UConn men’s and women’s basketball teams generally play half their home games in Hartford and the other half at Gampel Pavilion on the school’s Storrs campus. The men’s team has won six national championships, including in 2023 and 2024, and the women’s team has won a dozen, including this year’s title.

The UConn men’s hockey team also plays some games in Hartford, where the arena is home to the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League.

The arena, originally known as the Hartford Civic Center, turned 50 years old this year and hosts music concerts and other events throughout the year. It’s currently closed for a $145 million renovation to add new seating, loge boxes, private box space and an upgraded main concourse, among other projects. It’s scheduled to reopen in the fall.

The Civic Center also was home to the NHL’s Hartford Whalers, who left town in 1997 and became the Carolina Hurricanes.

Three years after it opened, the arena was destroyed when its roof collapsed in 1978 due to design faults, only hours after a UConn men’s basketball game.