UL's most profitable program and the Yum Center

davis4uk

Freshman
Apr 29, 2008
3,275
65
0
I bet it is tough to watch from UK's side the continual shouting from the mountain top how profitable the UL basketball program is. Much of the advantage is derived from forces outside the open market (i.e. sweetheart taxpayer subsides). One of the items Pitino pointed out when he was listing all the sufferings from the scandal included the millions lost in the ordeal (presumably much of this from missing the tournament run). What prompted me to gripe about this is the Ali funeral at the Yum. Yet another advantage and quite a bit of "juice" from the world focusing on your basketball venue. I would even guess this counts as an event in which UL gets like 80% of the proceeds from.

I wish UK had pulled the trigger on a new Rupp.... The city and UK will deeply regret not doing this. Revenues from ESPN will dwindle and as such the SEC payout may even go down in the future. We need the ticket and suite revenue to stay competitive moving forward. END OF RANT.
 

E Cat

Freshman
Feb 20, 2006
54
78
0
The Yum Center debacle has hurt matters at Rupp in a couple of ways. First, I think legislators are pretty gun shy about allocating money to Rupp after what happened at the Yum Center. Though I think Lexington is different as there is good separation between the Convention Center board and UK (whereas it was basically insider trading between the Yum Board and UofL).

Second, I think Barnhart looks down the road at the sweetheart deal UofL got and expects the same of the Convention Center. In fairness, that deal is eventually going to bankrupt the Yum Center (especially as the arena ages and doesn't draw as many top acts).

I agree that Rupp is in dire need of renovation and new revenue streams. Something tells me UK is interested in an on-campus arena. If they can make it work at Commonwealth Stadium with a mediocre product, I'm sure they can be quite profitable with basketball.
 

Bungalow Bill

All-Conference
Apr 8, 2007
2,041
3,862
113
I bet it is tough to watch from UK's side the continual shouting from the mountain top how profitable the UL basketball program is. Much of the advantage is derived from forces outside the open market (i.e. sweetheart taxpayer subsides). One of the items Pitino pointed out when he was listing all the sufferings from the scandal included the millions lost in the ordeal (presumably much of this from missing the tournament run). What prompted me to gripe about this is the Ali funeral at the Yum. Yet another advantage and quite a bit of "juice" from the world focusing on your basketball venue. I would even guess this counts as an event in which UL gets like 80% of the proceeds from.

I wish UK had pulled the trigger on a new Rupp.... The city and UK will deeply regret not doing this. Revenues from ESPN will dwindle and as such the SEC payout may even go down in the future. We need the ticket and suite revenue to stay competitive moving forward. END OF RANT.
It's not tough at all. Tough is getting waxed 8 out of 9 times by your in-state rival since Cal arrived.
 

davis4uk

Freshman
Apr 29, 2008
3,275
65
0
UK will always be a top program with or without being the most profitable. Calipari needs to pull his strings and equalize the venues. Now. While he is at it move the students down and surpass Kansas's ambiance.
 

Atrain7732

All-American
Dec 11, 2009
3,804
7,096
65
I may be in the minority, but the Yum Center has never really bothered me at all as a UK fan. I would be pumped if UK pulled the trigger on a new arena, esp one on campus. But, Rupp is such an iconic arena and consistently one of the top basketball venues. I am happy to stay put for foreseeable future.

Funny when you think about it, the Yum even as a brand new arena never gets listed as a must see basketball venue. All their revenue has come from concerts. Not basketball. Far as I can tell at least.

Not sure why but Yum has never really bugged me in the slightest. I think it is funny listening to UL fans trumpet their "most profitable" status as a last resort and retort to UK's complete ownership of them the past decade. Even saw some on their boards strongly advocating to eliminate UK from their schedule. Of course, they do not admit it is bc UK owns them. They have invented an altogether unrelated reason to drop UK. Has nothing at all to do with UK's dominance. Yeah right.
 
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LeonThe Camel

Senior
May 3, 2016
1,896
717
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UK will always be a top program with or without being the most profitable. Calipari needs to pull his strings and equalize the venues. Now. While he is at it move the students down and surpass Kansas's ambiance.

It is completely a sad state that we cannot get down to the lower bowl with more students. I know the blue hairs are the ones with the funds, but college sports is for the students.

Assembly Hall, Phog, Cameron are blue blood programs and they have students down low. There is no reason we should not have the same atmosphere.
 
May 12, 2014
504
220
43
UK just needs an arena with suites. That moves a lot of blue hairs from the courtside seats into boxes, and allows them to move some new blood in. It also would bring in TONS of new revenues for the program. We wouldn't need to have the same facility UofL has...it's overkill for college, frankly, and the Yum center has a terrible atmosphere, worse than Rupp.

That's probably going to be tough in Rupp just because the scope of the project in a city like Lexington might be out reach compared to Louisville, where it's a stretch already with more businesses, more people, more money, and more traffic. It might require a completely new build on a smaller scale.
 

Blueaz

Heisman
Jul 7, 2009
28,072
30,262
113
It is completely a sad state that we cannot get down to the lower bowl with more students. I know the blue hairs are the ones with the funds, but college sports is for the students.

Assembly Hall, Phog, Cameron are blue blood programs and they have students down low. There is no reason we should not have the same atmosphere.
You realize how much smaller those places are. There is probably the same number of students in the "lower" area, just Rupp is much larger
 

sluggercatfan

Heisman
Aug 17, 2004
35,953
29,631
0
I may be in the minority, but the Yum Center has never really bothered me at all as a UK fan. I would be pumped if UK pulled the trigger on a new arena, esp one on campus. But, Rupp is such an iconic arena and consistently one of the top basketball venues. I am happy to stay put for foreseeable future.

Funny when you think about it, the Yum even as a brand new arena never gets listed as a must see basketball venue. All their revenue has come from concerts. Not basketball. Far as I can tell at least.

Not sure why but Yum has never really bugged me in the slightest. I think it is funny listening to UL fans trumpet their "most profitable" status as a last resort and retort to UK's complete ownership of them the past decade. Even saw some on their boards strongly advocating to eliminate UK from their schedule. Of course, they do not admit it is bc UK owns them. They have invented an altogether unrelated reason to drop UK. Has nothing at all to do with UK's dominance. Yeah right.
Why is it that some of you guys think that Otis "pulled the trigger" on the *** center...UK grads AND SUPPOSED boosters Steve Bashar and Jim Host were the guys who did the back door deals to make the make the arena happen and set up the sweetheart deal for Otis and then they turned their backs on UK to great something similar so they can both kiss my A$$
 

catdance

All-Conference
Feb 21, 2016
1,355
1,693
0
It is completely a sad state that we cannot get down to the lower bowl with more students. I know the blue hairs are the ones with the funds, but college sports is for the students.

Assembly Hall, Phog, Cameron are blue blood programs and they have students down low. There is no reason we should not have the same atmosphere.
UK has the best program, most wins, highest attendance, best history, most loyal fans, and greatest future, yet some mofo's can't be satisfied. GTFO
 

GYERater

All-Conference
Jul 19, 2012
2,489
3,375
0
There is a reason the Bond Rating for the Yum Center continually gets downgraded, while it may be 'doing fine' for now when the debt payments increase in the coming years we will see how things turn out.
 

Rod Crandler

Junior
Mar 30, 2007
875
321
0
UK needs an on campus arena period. Put it next to CWS. Plenty of parking and space. The school could come up with the money on its own plus they get 100% of the proceeds from all uses including on campus concerts and use by other UK sports teams. Stop waiting for the city of Lexington to get its head out of it butt. Build it now!!!
 

LeonThe Camel

Senior
May 3, 2016
1,896
717
0
UK just needs an arena with suites. That moves a lot of blue hairs from the courtside seats into boxes, and allows them to move some new blood in. It also would bring in TONS of new revenues for the program. We wouldn't need to have the same facility UofL has...it's overkill for college, frankly, and the Yum center has a terrible atmosphere, worse than Rupp.

That's probably going to be tough in Rupp just because the scope of the project in a city like Lexington might be out reach compared to Louisville, where it's a stretch already with more businesses, more people, more money, and more traffic. It might require a completely new build on a smaller scale.
Nearly everywhere is smaller than Rupp. The fact is we have enough students that if kicked out all the blue hairs, we could still fill it. We need the most raucous fans behind the basketball goals and behind the visitor's bench.
The other change we need is to have the sound channeled differently. For whatever reason, the sound in Rupp gets absorbed rather than bounced.
 

turkeywildturkey

All-Conference
Oct 23, 2003
2,647
2,202
0
I bet it is tough to watch from UK's side the continual shouting from the mountain top how profitable the UL basketball program is. Much of the advantage is derived from forces outside the open market (i.e. sweetheart taxpayer subsides). One of the items Pitino pointed out when he was listing all the sufferings from the scandal included the millions lost in the ordeal (presumably much of this from missing the tournament run). What prompted me to gripe about this is the Ali funeral at the Yum. Yet another advantage and quite a bit of "juice" from the world focusing on your basketball venue. I would even guess this counts as an event in which UL gets like 80% of the proceeds from.

I wish UK had pulled the trigger on a new Rupp.... The city and UK will deeply regret not doing this. Revenues from ESPN will dwindle and as such the SEC payout may even go down in the future. We need the ticket and suite revenue to stay competitive moving forward. END OF RANT.

First of all, Lexington would never be stupid enough to do a deal like that, so it wouldn't matter anyway.
 

Mikey Likes It

All-Conference
Sep 9, 2007
11,247
3,776
0
There is a reason the Bond Rating for the Yum Center continually gets downgraded, while it may be 'doing fine' for now when the debt payments increase in the coming years we will see how things turn out.
Metro Government is already paying 9.8 million annually to support the arena, its gonna get interesting as the years go by. Its nice that last December the arena authority had 1.1 times the amount needed to pay the yearly debt. Thats like having $2.02 in your checking account and buying a $2 lotto ticket because you're ballin.
 

sluggercatfan

Heisman
Aug 17, 2004
35,953
29,631
0
UK needs an on campus arena period. Put it next to CWS. Plenty of parking and space. The school could come up with the money on its own plus they get 100% of the proceeds from all uses including on campus concerts and use by other UK sports teams. Stop waiting for the city of Lexington to get its head out of it butt. Build it now!!!
Think what you will, but UK CANNOT raise enough money to build an on campus arena. .
 

Stretch98_rivals101536

All-Conference
Jun 4, 2007
3,197
1,387
0
UK needs an on campus arena period. Put it next to CWS. Plenty of parking and space. The school could come up with the money on its own plus they get 100% of the proceeds from all uses including on campus concerts and use by other UK sports teams. Stop waiting for the city of Lexington to get its head out of it butt. Build it now!!!

Building an arena adjacent to Commonwealth Stadium would kill the electric game day atmosphere we have now. No hotels, bars and restaurants for the fans to flow in and out of and there would be zero tailgating in January and February to take up any of the slack. We would drive to the game, watch the game and drive home from the game, period. Bores the heck out of me and I can't see making the 100-mile trip each way to do it. It would ruin the whole experience for me.
 

UKCatNnc

All-Conference
Sep 30, 2005
6,166
1,738
113
It is completely a sad state that we cannot get down to the lower bowl with more students. I know the blue hairs are the ones with the funds, but college sports is for the students.

Assembly Hall, Phog, Cameron are blue blood programs and they have students down low. There is no reason we should not have the same atmosphere.
I wouldn't include cameron. It is so small it doesn't matter where anyone sits in that "rat hole". Go Cats!!
 

IHATEUAVEL

All-American
Aug 11, 2015
5,618
5,761
1
Last edited by a moderator:

IHATEUAVEL

All-American
Aug 11, 2015
5,618
5,761
1
There is a reason the Bond Rating for the Yum Center continually gets downgraded, while it may be 'doing fine' for now when the debt payments increase in the coming years we will see how things turn out.
uavel Dave may be sukkin hind teat..