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My guess is a new baseball stadium first. If the city and university continue to be miles apart on renovating Rupp or building a new off campus arena, I can see UK starting to seriously consider it in the not to distant future.
With 30 million extra this year and more to come each year down the road, is the time now to leave Rupp?
Replace Big Bertha with a state of the art audio system and install decent video boards and call it a day.
I agree that we need to simply update Rupp which BTW is an excellent, excellent place to watch a ball game. Simply change Big Bertha to a modern video board and sound system and be down with it.. The City of Lexington should not use UK and our credit to build a whole new convention center . Also they should take the YUM! center arrangement with UL and change the names to UK and Ul and give us the same arrangement the Cards have. It must be a fair arrangement . Otherwise the Cards and Jefferson County would never have agreed to it.I am for a few updates at Rupp.
Yep. Huge difference between emptying it seven Saturdays a year versus twenty Saturdays and Tuesdays of WednesdaysThose saying the parking situation is sved with Commonwealth are incorrect. Students park there during the week.
With 30 million extra this year and more to come each year down the road, is the time now to leave Rupp?
Won't happen and thank goodness:
1. UK is better served to spend the money to upgrade faculty, academic facilities and dorms.
4. We already have an iconic facility that the whole world (except some UK fans) thinks is wonderful.
Replace Big Bertha with a state of the art audio system and install decent video boards and call it a day.
Our firm has had a peripheral role in advising UK on this, so I can only talk about the broad issues that are already publicly known. An on campus basketball arena would be a great move for UK. It's the best deal UK could cut, by far, if UK lived in a vacuum. The costs, which some posters lament here, would actually be recovered in a reasonable amount of time through sponsorships and direct revenues. After that, future revenues, minus maintenance expenses, would become almost pure profit. UK would completely control and collect revenues from parking and concessions, which is not true now at Rupp Arena. This is a lot of revenue, directly generated by our basketball program, that UK concedes to the city of Lexington. But UK does not live in a vacuum. UK is the biggest and single most important business entity in Fayette County. Rupp Arena and UK basketball are the key to economic revitalization of downtown Lexington. If UK pulled its basketball program out of Rupp Arena, the economic consequences for many downtown businesses would be disastrous. I will not discuss individual downtown businesses by name. But if you owned a downtown hotel or restaurant, you would have nightmares every night of your life about the possibility of UK pulling its basketball program out of Rupp Arena. UK cannot turn its back on its responsibilities as the largest corporate citizen in Lexington's business and economic community. If the central Kentucky economy was stronger, this might be less of a problem. But as long as Lexington's economy subsists just above the level of recession, as it has for years now, UK cannot pull its basketball business out of downtown. When the city proposed the Rupp Arena renovation several years, UK's tepid response showed that UK knows it is a political captive at Rupp Arena for now. But the on campus basketball arena will happen eventually. It must happen, because the favorable numbers from UK's point of view will force it to happen. It is worth mentioning here, although many of our fans still badly misunderstand the horizons and ambitions of UK's administration, that this athletics director and this Board clearly get the advantages of corporate sponsorship of an on campus basketball arena, just as clearly as they understand the reasons for a $150 million renovation of their on campus football facilities. Anyone who doesn't think so is not informed. If someone posts a comment that says UK's administration doesn't want success in its athletics programs, or doesn't understand the investments required for success, they are admitting that they are not informed.With 30 million extra this year and more to come each year down the road, is the time now to leave Rupp?
Won't happen and thank goodness:
1. UK is better served to spend the money to upgrade faculty, academic facilities and dorms.
2. Lexington can't support two mega arenas.
3. Game day atmosphere. On-campus facility has no hotels, restaurants, bars, etc. on site. Drive, park, watch game, drive home (or someplace else). Totally boring unless you enjoy a sub-zero tailgate experience in a frozen tundra parking lot.
4. We already have an iconic facility that the whole world (except some UK fans) thinks is wonderful.
Replace Big Bertha with a state of the art audio system and install decent video boards and call it a day.
With 30 million extra this year and more to come each year down the road, is the time now to leave Rupp?
Our firm has had a peripheral role in advising UK on this, so I can only talk about the broad issues that are already publicly known. An on campus basketball arena would be a great move for UK. It's the best deal UK could cut, by far, if UK lived in a vacuum. The costs, which some posters lament here, would actually be recovered in a reasonable amount of time through sponsorships and direct revenues. After that, future revenues, minus maintenance expenses, would become almost pure profit. UK would completely control and collect revenues from parking and concessions, which is not true now at Rupp Arena. This is a lot of revenue, directly generated by our basketball program, that UK concedes to the city of Lexington. But UK does not live in a vacuum. UK is the biggest and single most important business entity in Fayette County. Rupp Arena and UK basketball are the key to economic revitalization of downtown Lexington. If UK pulled its basketball program out of Rupp Arena, the economic consequences for many downtown businesses would be disastrous. I will not discuss individual downtown businesses by name. But if you owned a downtown hotel or restaurant, you would have nightmares every night of your life about the possibility of UK pulling its basketball program out of Rupp Arena. UK cannot turn its back on its responsibilities as the largest corporate citizen in Lexington's business and economic community. If the central Kentucky economy was stronger, this might be less of a problem. But as long as Lexington's economy subsists just above the level of recession, as it has for years now, UK cannot pull its basketball business out of downtown. When the city proposed the Rupp Arena renovation several years, UK's tepid response showed that UK knows it is a political captive at Rupp Arena for now. But the on campus basketball arena will happen eventually. It must happen, because the favorable numbers from UK's point of view will force it to happen. It is worth mentioning here, although many of our fans still badly misunderstand the horizons and ambitions of UK's administration, that this athletics director and this Board clearly get the advantages of corporate sponsorship of an on campus basketball arena, just as clearly as they understand the reasons for a $150 million renovation of their on campus football facilities. Anyone who doesn't think so is not informed. If someone posts a comment that says UK's administration doesn't want success in its athletics programs, or doesn't understand the investments required for success, they are admitting that they are not informed.
A lot of falsehoods here. There isn't much left to work out between UK and the city in terms of the actual modernization process, because the outlines of the process were worked out several years ago by a task force. It has not moved forward because of issues that I cannot get into, but these can be partially identified through an understanding of publicly available information, and partially by drawing logical conclusions from that information that are fairly obvious. All I can say is that city leaders have not always worked cooperatively enough with UK and recognized UK's legitimate interests and leverage in the matter. Overlaid with that, local and statewide economic issues are making a solution more difficult. But whether you believe this or not, Rupp Arena is an obsolete facility from the standpoint of UK's needs. Not a dump, just functionally obsolete. It can be renovated, but it will never serve UK's needs as well as a modern on campus facility would serve them. While it is true that an on campus arena would hurt the downtown economy and probably devastate Rupp Arena for the future, it would succeed strictly from the point of view of UK's interests. The financial angle will work well for UK, but not for the city. The situations in Louisville and Lexington are completely different, in every respect. And Lexington is a larger community than Bloomington or Lawrence. This matter requires a Lexington solution, with Frankfort's blessing. It should not be compared to other communities or other schools' problems.A second arena in Lexington would be a disaster for both arenas. It takes much more than full game days and corporate sponsorships to pay for $300-$400 million arenas...they need to be utilized 250-300 days/year to operate in the black. UL wouldn't make nearly what they get out of Yum if they owned the building because they would then have to pay for the maintenance of the place. Another reason for it's (Yum) financial problems are the number of dates it is used for low revenue events like women's basketball and volleyball. Lexington is never going to attract the number of top concerts and shows needed to make a new 20K+ arena economically feasible...and if it is on campus are they going to allow alcohol sales beyond club/suite areas as in CWS?
As some others have said you'd also lose the unique atmosphere of Lexington Center having somewhere for fans to mingle pre/post game. That is what makes Rupp special.
As for those who think that Rupp is "a dump"...Cameron is a dump...Phog Allen is a dump...there are many iconic arenas that are dumps. So what? Is that keeping players from coming here? The locker rooms aren't dumps. The floor isn't a dump...
UK needs to work something out with the city of Lexington to modernize Rupp the best they can and be beneficial to both parties.
What are the "falsehoods"?A lot of falsehoods here. There isn't much left to work out between UK and the city in terms of the actual modernization process, because the outlines of the process were worked out several years ago by a task force. It has not moved forward because of issues that I cannot get into, but these can be partially identified through an understanding of publicly available information, and partially by drawing logical conclusions from that information that are fairly obvious. All I can say is that city leaders have not always worked cooperatively enough with UK and recognized UK's legitimate interests and leverage in the matter. Overlaid with that, local and statewide economic issues are making a solution more difficult. But whether you believe this or not, Rupp Arena is an obsolete facility from the standpoint of UK's needs. Not a dump, just functionally obsolete. It can be renovated, but it will never serve UK's needs as well as a modern on campus facility would serve them. While it is true that an on campus arena would hurt the downtown economy and probably devastate Rupp Arena for the future, it would succeed strictly from the point of view of UK's interests. The financial angle will work well for UK, but not for the city. The situations in Louisville and Lexington are completely different, in every respect. And Lexington is a larger community than Bloomington or Lawrence. This matter requires a Lexington solution, with Frankfort's blessing. It should not be compared to other communities or other schools' problems.
A lot of falsehoods here. There isn't much left to work out between UK and the city in terms of the actual modernization process, because the outlines of the process were worked out several years ago by a task force. It has not moved forward because of issues that I cannot get into, but these can be partially identified through an understanding of publicly available information, and partially by drawing logical conclusions from that information that are fairly obvious. All I can say is that city leaders have not always worked cooperatively enough with UK and recognized UK's legitimate interests and leverage in the matter. Overlaid with that, local and statewide economic issues are making a solution more difficult. But whether you believe this or not, Rupp Arena is an obsolete facility from the standpoint of UK's needs. Not a dump, just functionally obsolete. It can be renovated, but it will never serve UK's needs as well as a modern on campus facility would serve them. While it is true that an on campus arena would hurt the downtown economy and probably devastate Rupp Arena for the future, it would succeed strictly from the point of view of UK's interests. The financial angle will work well for UK, but not for the city. The situations in Louisville and Lexington are completely different, in every respect. And Lexington is a larger community than Bloomington or Lawrence. This matter requires a Lexington solution, with Frankfort's blessing. It should not be compared to other communities or other schools' problems.
Good call.Lex and UK will come to terms on Rupp and it will be renovated. Look for the Cats to be playing there for a long time. The cost of a new on campus facility is cost prohibitive for the university to bear itself.
NoWith 30 million extra this year and more to come each year down the road, is the time now to leave Rupp?
Interesting to read some of those old posts about how Lexington Center provides such a unique pre game atmosphere and gathering area for UK fans. I have always agreed with that and now the city is preparing to gut the Center and have it as an outdoor area which makes no sense seeing that the busiest time of the year at Rupp with the biggest crowds is in the colder winter months. Can't understand the thinking behind this plan.
An on campus arena would ultimately be good for UK, but bad for the city of Lexington. As recently as a year ago, the option of building an on campus basketball arena was very much alive. The cost would be significant, but NOT prohibitive. UK's administration is very aware of how quickly financial liabilities of such a capital project would be retired. They could retire the debt in less than a decade. Thereafter, nearly all concessions, parking, advertising revenue would flow directly to UK. That is obviously not the case at RA, which is owned by the city of Lexington, But there are important state and local political considerations. In the last year, UK has finally reached tentative agreements with the city that should keep Kentucky basketball at RA for the foreseeable future. Unless there is a late breakdown in implementing these tentative agreements, there will not be an on campus basketball arena in the foreseeable future.With 30 million extra this year and more to come each year down the road, is the time now to leave Rupp?
An on campus arena would ultimately be good for UK, but bad for the city of Lexington. As recently as a year ago, the option of building an on campus basketball arena was very much alive. The cost would be significant, but NOT prohibitive. UK's administration is very aware of how quickly financial liabilities of such a capital project would be retired. They could retire the debt in less than a decade. Thereafter, nearly all concessions, parking, advertising revenue would flow directly to UK. That is obviously not the case at RA, which is owned by the city of Lexington, But there are important state and local political considerations. In the last year, UK has finally reached agreements with the city that should keep Kentucky basketball at RA for the foreseeable future. Unless there is a late breakdown in implementing these agreements, there will not be an on campus basketball arena in the foreseeable future.