The Business District, not luxury boxes, may be key to a "new" Rupp Arena
By Paul Jordan
A couple of weeks ago, Lexington mayor Jim Gray and UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart embarked on a fact finding tour to Columbus Ohio, to get information on rebuilding or possibly renovating Rupp Arena. They went to visit the Nationwide Arena, home of the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets. Part of what they found was that that team’s luxury boxes had been losing money. The group also spent a good bit of time touring the business district around the arena:
The latter is the area of free enterprise built around the arena. It includes apartments, condos, office buildings, restaurants, bars, an 11-screen movie complex, a 10,000-seat baseball stadium for the Columbus Clippers minor-league baseball team, a 2.5-acre park and a 2,200-seat indoor pavilion that can convert to a 4,500-seat outdoor amphitheater.
I’m a big fan of building up the area around the new arena, rather than just throwing luxury boxes in a sparkling new building. If UK does build a new arena, it will be Kentucky’s home for the next 30-40 years, so I like this kind of broad thinking. The fact finding group is slated to head to Indianapolis on August 26 to get more information.
Darius Miller and his World University team mates bounced back from their two point loss to Lithuania and crushed Romania 94-73. Darius had 7 points and 3 rebounds in the game. Team USA raced out to a 12-0 lead and this game was never in question. The USA advanced to the 5th/6th place game in the games, which is underway right about now. We will have more on this a little later.
With transfer Ryan Harrow in place for the 2012 recruiting class, John Calipari is looking to extend his PG lineage for 2013. And true to form, 2013 PG Kasey Hill has cut his list of teams to seven, and Kentucky has made the cut. Hill has a final seven of Florida, Florida State, Kentucky, Louisville, Missouri, North Carolina State, and South Florida.
A few weeks ago, there were rumblings that 2012’s Robert Carter may be the first HS commit for the 2012 class. That has not happened yet, but Carter took a step in the right direction by also cutting his list of schools to seven. Carter has a final seven of Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Maryland, and Rhode Island. Carter will cut his list to five teams and then take official visits.
More former Wildcats took the field in preseason football last night as the New York Jets beat the Cincinnati Bengals 27-7. John Connor only had one carry for one yard. DeQuin Evans had two tackles for the Bengals.
Happy Birthday to Randall Cobb as he turns 21 today. If that is not reason for celebration, the Altamonte Wildkats of the Jordan Fantasy Football League picked Randall Cobb with their 15th round pick yesterday. To be honest, I’m not sure which thing Randall will be more pumped about. My WR’s are pretty weak so I will give Mr. Cobb every opportunity to start for the Wildkats.
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