i'll have to find the article i read about a possible new stadium, but it said something about lexington officials wanting to make the area around the new rupp similar to the Riverwalk area (san antonio, i think).

if they do decide to build this new stadium, i hope they go to 30,000 capacity. i see no way that UK can't sell that out every game. and i hope for a student section much closer to the floor.

Here's all the low down you need to know about this new arena.

1. UK has been playing in Rupp longer than any other venue they have ver played in.
2. Lexington cant schedule any conventions in Rupp between November and March becuase the basketball schedule is set only one year in advance and most conventions are scheduled 3-5 years ahead of time.

The improvements made to Rupp several years ago dont concern me becuase from what I am hearing there is plenty the city will be able to do with Rupp arena that will be extremely positive and beneficial. There are plans to turn half of it into a 3-5,000 seat concert hall and the other half will be turned into convention space for the Lexington civics center. Apparently this can all be done with very little construction as.

Currently the city is conducting a feasibility study to determine if this whole ITF thing will even be able to fund it. Apparenntly it works like this. The city turns the Rupp area and Manchester street into a new shopping district then all the taxes paid in this district go to pay for the bonds taken out against the new arena for the next 30 yrs. After that the taxes in the district go to wherever they would normally go. I am not too sure about this but cant have much of an opinion about this part of the plan as I dont know if this would work or not.

UK does need a new arena though. The new one would almost certainly contain private suites and more club style seating like an NBA arena that would be awesome. Trust me it would be fun to watch a game in such a place and it would bring in more revenue.

Is this really necessary?  In my mind I always viewed Rupp as college basketball's biggest and best arena. No?

IMHO:
This has very little to do with basketball and more to do with point #2 in the post by davw83. The fact that Lexington has only one major venue and it is under semi-permanent contract is a deal with the devil. On one hand the downtown area and hotel tax base are going to get 23k people spending money (+/- $150 each) 15+ times a year. The down side is its size and this contract.

The music industry has changed and acts can't afford to come to Rupp as most top ten acts are closer to the 8 to 10k audience. It is actually a little too large for most conventions that would come to Lexington over Cincy, Louisville, Nashville etc. in the region AND the LCVB and the Lexington Center can't sell it properly due to basketball. This killed two hockey teams and is slowly choking an arena football team. Scheduling + cost to rent + huge empty space = not a great fit for the city OTHER than UK.

Now add to that 1) a group of old money wanting Lux Boxes like they now have at Commonwealth and 2) the Horse Park getting a covered arena that can be closed and floor seating that might reach 10k and an aggressive team looking to book it with anything from dog shows to concerts and you get talk of a new arena and using UK as leverage. Throw in the Newtown Pike extension project that will create a new business and arts district in eyeshot of Rupp and it is obvious they will explore it.

I say sell it to UK and build a smaller venue next to it and do the river walk and all that jazz if they want. The city can rent it from UK when another attraction wants to use it. As for the Lux Box folks, buy some popcorn in line like the rest of us and learn to enjoy the experience and sit in a regular seat and ACTUALLY CLAP!

In the altered words of Chaz Michael Michaels "Rupp Arena IS basketball!"

Wilson raises some good points but i think i new full size arena would be a better way to go than selling Rupp to UK.

when I talk about conventions coming to town I dont envision them using all of Rupp. Scaling Rupp down would be cheaper and more effective than UK continuing to play in an aging arena and a smaller one being built right beside it.

Second Rupp is a CRAPPY place to watch a basketball game. All this talk of Rupp being one of the greatest college basketball arenas is true only because UK plays there not becuase the building itself is conducive to great basketball in fact its quite the opposite.

The upper arena is archaic and like an article I just read states "it requires a mountain climbers gear to get to the upper seats". Imagine an upper arena with seat backs more room and a better view of the cats becuase that is what a new building would have.

Also for this talk of spurning private boxes. You may not like it but it brings in a lot more revenue. Currently the only way that UK can generate more income is to raise ticket prices. Private boxes would give them another means on revenue without taxing the normal game attender.