The First Priority for Kentucky Athletics: Commonwealth Stadium and Football.

We all know Christmas is the season for giving. The question for the UK athletic department is: Who do we give the funds to?

In recent weeks there was a picture that was posted on Kentucky sports radio that stirred up the big blue nation. Take some time and look at the post by clicking here.

If you clicked, you probably saw what looked like exactly what the title of the post said, a church potluck supper set up but actually this is one of the many reasons that the debate has come up, because compared to the other schools in the SEC, Kentucky’s “recruiting room” if that is even what you want to call it (which is actually set up in the corner of Nutter Field House) is nowhere near up to par what some of the others look like.

Not only is the recruiting room a problem, but Commonwealth Stadium is way out of date, including the scoreboards being over 12 years old and the sound system being older than that. I’m a season ticket holder for Kentucky football and I can honestly say the place needs some attention. During the South Carolina game I was in my seat and when we tied the game up and everyone was jumping around the Zombie Nation the stadium was literally shaking beneath the amped up crowd.

Therefore, many of the football lovers and UK fans alike said that the UK athletics attention should be on upgrading the features of Commonwealth, such as new video boards, a new recruiting room, new sound system and possibly some more seating, or maybe even the possibility of a whole new stadium.

Their argument

To compete on an SEC level you must have nice things like every other SEC school does to bring in those four and five star recruits and Kentucky just isn’t doing that.

On the other hand though, a facelift to Commonwealth Stadium could mean a hold off on the new arena that Kentucky has talked about building for some time when the lease for Rupp Arena runs out. Basketball elitists think that a new basketball arena would be more important. Seeing as John Calipari has established Kentucky back as an elite program, and Louisville just built the Yum Center just right up the road, we need to one up them and build a new arena just like they did.

Athletic director Mitch Barnhart finally came out and said that football would be a FIRST PRIORITY for the school, meaning if they got the funds they needed, football would be the first to get a facelift and the first to get the attention it deserves.

Let me be the first to say I totally agree with Barnhart on this and let me tell you why. I don’t buy into this whole debate over football and basketball simply because Kentucky is one University, not the University of Kentucky football and Kentucky basketball. They are the same program.

Like I said before, I’m a season ticket football holder to Kentucky football and I go to about 8-10 basketball games and events a year and this is my opinion.

Kentucky football still brings in more money than Kentucky basketball. Even with how popular basketball is, even when Kentucky can pack in 24,000 against some small team, the football still brings in and makes the most money. I think it’s more important that Kentucky upgrade those recruiting rooms and make Commonwealth a more “sexy” place to go. You want to be able to bring a kid out onto the field and say “this is where you want to come and play football” because right now basketball has sold itself.

You can invite a kid into Rupp Arena and sit him down and if he isn’t sold then he was never coming to Kentucky to begin with. You can bring a kid to Big Blue Madness and say this is what you have to look forward to. You can show a kid how much fan support is all over the country and who wouldn’t want to play for your program.

Now just imagine you were a high profile Kentucky recruit and you had just got done visiting a few other SEC schools and then you come to Kentucky where it looks as if you are at a church potluck compared to some schools where the recruiting room is a recruiting BUILDING. In a 17-18 year old kids mind that could literally make or break weather he comes to a program or not.

I’m curious to where the readers of this blog think the priority should go. Should we be focusing more on football? Or should we let it take a backseat while we upgrade the basketball and focus on building a new arena?

Let your voice be heard.

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