First off, the retail updates, mostly about Sears' latest maneuvers, to start; the following Kmart/Sears locations will be shuttered within these next few months:
York, PA (coincidentally, the home of the (soon-to-be-mentioned/also liquidating) Bon-Ton company originally, along with Milwaukee, WI later on);
...along with an update on Fairfax Financial Holdings' purchase of Toys "R" Us Canada apparently including just a bit more than the company's Canadian locations:
Also, I should probably mention that we caught Cirque Du Soleil once again earlier this week, specifically "under the big top" in a temporary venue located right next to the Meadowlands Racetrack, and the keyword there is definitely "temporary", and, to be honest, the state should just stop pretending that those types of venues are sufficient for touring shows like the various Cirque Du Soleil traveling shows, or even actual circus shows, as few of those still remain now, and just simply re-open the Meadowlands Arena, which closed back in 2015, even despite its age, to allow those types of shows more than enough space in which to set up their stages and all those other things necessary to run shows!
Anyway, this time around, the show was Volta, part "extreme" sports (BMX bike jumping; high jumping; parkour; roller derby; etc.), and part "high-tech" (malfunctioning appliances; old-school movie projectors; home theater setups blaring fast-paced music throughout the show); obviously, there were all the usual acrobatic acts we've come to expect from those shows - I stand by my point, though, that they should not be held in anywhere but "arenas", since those provide climate control/weather protection, along with more than enough seats for spectators to be able to watch shows they're attending!
(I'm sure the performers were still "on edge", though, this past week, after this in Tampa:
In something that will likely only play a small role, yet might very well end up being just enough, in some cases, to keep a few malls/shopping centers going, there's a long-awaited (since late 2015, in fact) new commuter rail line set to run through Connecticut starting in mid-June between the two stations near downtown New Haven, CT (Union Station and State Street), reaching Hartford's Union Station about halfway along its route, and finally reaching Springfield, MA, right near the MassMutual Center and new/set-to-open MGM Grand Springfield casino/hotel/resort, which I'm sure will take away from Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun nearby, which have less accessible train access via Shore Line East, at about half the price of the same Amtrak trains running along the line(s), although Amtrak might soon accept Hartford Line train tickets aboard certain trains (Acela Express, which is honestly a joke of a "high-speed" train line; the Northeast Regional; the New Haven-Springfield Shuttle; etc.), with the exception of the Vermonter, which, thankfully, looks like it only makes a pair of trips through the region daily - from D.C. to the Canadian border in the A.M., and reverse later in the day; all while bumping the amounts of round-trips from six to seventeen between New Haven and Hartford, and doubling the amount of trips from six to twelve between New Haven and Springfield; for me, personally, I might end up doing that to possibly catch UConn/other college football there, and definitely catch UConn hockey in downtown Hartford and Quinnipiac/Yale in/near New Haven once that restarts this upcoming fall, particularly "day-night" doubleheaders - say, for instance, Providence (to name another Hockey East school) @ UConn starting close to 2 or 3 P.M, followed by Dartmouth (or any other Ivy League school) @ Yale starting around 7 P.M., or vice versa, although, personally, I would prefer to go from Hartford to New Haven, instead of the opposite direction, given Hartford's reputation of being "seedy", although there is a rather fine Japanese joint located just steps away from the XL Center, which itself is just 5-10 minutes from the trains...
...also, an announcement about the upcoming college hockey season:
Before then, though, I should probably tell you that I should only end up having that darned operations management course to still have to take care of over the summer, and that I'll most likely be at any one of either Liverpool-Manchester City (MetLife Stadium, 7/25), Benfica-Juventus (Red Bull Arena, 7/28), or AS Roma-Real Madrid (MetLife Stadium, 8/7), followed by some sort of college football action at the end of the month, or in early September, which, in all honesty, might give me more than enough of a reason to give the CTRail Hartford Line a "test run" of my own then, en route to catching UConn football in action then, followed by UConn hockey (speaking of which, Cornell-Harvard tickets and UConn hockey 2018-19 season tickets both already went on sale earlier this week, which is incredibly early, if you ask me...) later in the fall!
It looks like whoever "leaked" that schedule online a few days ago for the 2018 International Champions Cup (soccer) was right on with the dates of all the games, although, as you'll notice, some of them, at least around here, either conflict with each other, or are at weird times:
It looks like whoever "leaked" that schedule online a few days ago for the 2018 International Champions Cup (soccer) was right on with the dates of all the games, although, as you'll notice, some of them, at least around here, either conflict with each other, or are at weird times:
Bayern Munich v. Juventus - Wed., 7/25, 7 P.M., Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, PA;
Liverpool v. Manchester City - Wed., 7/25, 8 P.M., MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J.;
Benfica v. Juventus - Sat., 7/28, 1 P.M., Red Bull Arena, Harrison, N.J.;
AS Roma v. Real Madrid - Tue., 8/7, 8 P.M., MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford
As for UConn hockey, well, the team released its season ticket offerings for the upcoming (2018-19) season, and, along with that, a hint about next season's schedule:
$150 ($10/game); $210 ($14/game); $255 ($17/game); fees not included, for 15 home games for UConn this upcoming regular season, against the following opponents:
(RPI; Maine (2x); Brown; UMass-Lowell; UMass-Amherst; Boston College (2x); New Hampshire; Sacred Heart; Northeastern; Merrimack; Boston U.; Vermont; Providence, in no particular order)
...so, now, you know that at least one of my recaps this upcoming fall will be "(x) @ UConn", in Hartford, CT, as previously mentioned, with the "(x)" being any of ^those^ teams!
