Jim Gray Says: Lets Renovate!
By Paul Jordan
It’s a slow day in the news department, but most of big blue nation is talking about the announcement of the Mayor of Lexington Jim Gray saying he would rather upgrade Rupp Arena rather than build a new arena.
I know we’ve been around this whole new arena thing over and over but it’s worth noting that the “big three” Calipari, Barnhart and Todd could very well oppose the upgrading of Rupp Arena and could very well want a new arena, in fact sources say that the people at UK doesn’t believe that renovating the current Rupp Arena is the right way of doing things.
With the thoughts of the new arena, or renovating the current one, what would be the pros and cons about renovating the current Rupp Arena?
First off the biggest thing for Kentucky fans would be renovating the current arena would take away quite a few seats from Rupp. The only thing that renovation could mean is luxury boxes which would take a fair amount of seats from the arena, which would in turn mean a loss of revenue.
The result: The reason UK plays so many home games instead of neutral site games is because they make so much money on home games. When you play someone like Penn. and you bring in over 24,000 people for a game like that, it’s very hard to have games away from Rupp Arena, so why on earth would you want to take away those seats that always have people in them? I can see where Calipari/Barnhart/Todd is coming with this one for the argument of a new arena.
Second: Even if you want to renovate Rupp Arena it isn’t going to be up to date with arenas such as Thompson Bowling Arena, which is probably the best arena in the SEC, and The KFC Yum! Center which is probably the best arena in the nation. Renovating Rupp Arena just couldn’t bring that new technology besides maybe put a video board in the middle of the arena where all of the speakers are now.
The Result: To match all these new arenas, renovating is out of the question if you want to bring in a new style and a new flare like the other arenas, another reason why UK would push for a new arena and not just a renovation.
Third: The coolest factor of this whole thing could be that UK could possibly play in Freedom Hall for a whole year, now wouldn’t that be something? I mean Freedom Hall is already blue and ready for UK to play in but that brings up all kinds of cool scenarios, like could UK sell out Freedom Hall every game like it does Rupp Arena? I think it would give the UK people a good figure on how many UK fans are where and how interesting would it be if both Louisville and Kentucky had a BIG game in town. They did play on the same night this year, but Louisville played a nobody team.
The result: This could be the result either way. If UK gets the new arena, it’s going to probably take a season and then another year for it to be up and running, and even with the renovation of a new Rupp Arena it would probably take a whole season and a summer for it to happen. I would miss Kentucky playing in Lexington, but on the other hand I would like to see this happen just for fun.
Myself? My fingers are crossed for a new arena. I would miss Rupp Arena, because with a new arena probably comes a corporate name kind of like Louisville did, but when it comes down to it, we are the best basketball program in the nation…We need the best basketball arena in the country. We will see how this story progresses, but on the bright side it should be a good story to follow during the offseason.
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