Rupp Arena: THE Gold Standard

Kentucky has been perfect at home this season in the confines of Rupp Arena and honestly I would like to change topics instead of arguing on the communal message boards about whether Josh Harrellson was open under the basket last night. With Kentucky having a perfect home record over the last two seasons (I hope I don’t jinx them) the topic that comes to mind is: Is Rupp Arena still the gold standard when it comes to a venue to watch a college basketball game?

When talking about getting a new arena Mitch Barnhart was quoted by saying that whatever we had it would have to be the “gold standard” of basketball arenas. What is the “gold standard” in the NCAA? Is it having a top-notch arena but not being able to fill it? Like Thompson-Boling. Sometimes the team being gold standard…Means the arena is gold standard as well.

Let’s take a look at some of the top school in the countries arenas. All have undergone some sort of renovation since their opening for video boards and score boards, but none have broken down with luxury boxes to sacrifice seating.

When one looks at the top rational schools in the nation a few can be tossed out there. Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina, Duke, UCLA, Indiana. Out of these schools a few of them boast to have the best venues to watch a college basketball game and let’s be honest all of them have cool features that they could claim makes them the best.

Kansas is the literal home of college basketball and their rock-chalk-Jayhawk chant is one of the most haunting things I have ever heard, plus their layout gives them a really ‘old barn’ feel. Kansas claims that they “have one of the best places to watch a college basketball game and holds 16,300 people. Allen Fieldhouse opened in 1955.

Duke claim to fame is Cameron Indoor Stadium that opened in 1940 and Dukies like to call it “the crown jewel of classic college basketball venues”. The problem is that Cameron Indoor only holds a little over 9,000 people so it’s rather easy to fill and who knows if they could sell out a bigger arena.

The North Carolina Dean Smith center is the only one that comes close to Rupp Arena in seating compactly at 21,750.

So before we take a look at getting another arena, quite frankly how is the current Rupp Arena NOT the current gold standard? Sure everything else is upgrading and getting flashy new score boards and a video board in the middle but who needs it honestly? Rupp Arena holds 23,500 and every night no matter who Kentucky is playing Kentucky fans sell it out.

Not saying that a new arena isn’t needed because of other reasons that aren’t disclosed to the public as often, such as lease issues and money issues. Rupp Arena is arguably the current gold standard, so we have to outdo ourselves.

You can read up on a Tipton article here (http://www.kentucky.com/2011/02/13/1632902/jerry-tipton-gold-standard-rupp.html) About being the gold standard.

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