Louisville waterfront arena
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This article or section is about a planned or proposed arena. It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically as the construction and/or completion of the arena approaches. |
The Louisville waterfront arena (yet to be officially named) is a proposed basketball and multipurpose arena slated to open in 2010 on the Ohio River waterfront in Louisville, Kentucky USA. Its primary tenant will be the University of Louisville men's and women's basketball teams.
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[edit] History
Discussion about the need for a new arena to replace Freedom Hall began in the 1980s, which resulted in no new arena, but instead the refurbishing and expansion of Freedom Hall. Serious talk began again in 2001 when Louisville came very close to landing the NBA's relocating Vancouver Grizzlies, and later the New Orleans Hornets. In both cases, it was believed that the team would pay for at least half the cost, and corporate sponsors would pay the rest. In the end, Louisville landed neither team, and talk of a new arena again cooled.
Louisville head coach Rick Pitino has also complained that the school often has trouble scheduling home games throughout the season due to other events going on in Freedom Hall. He also pushed for new on campus arenas to be built while at the University of Kentucky, an idea which was rejected but did result in Rupp Arena and Heritage Hall being refurbished. He has stated that he feels not being able to practice in a team's home arena hurts performance, although this has been disputed by other coaches.
The talks would start again when Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher formed the Louisville Arena Task Force in 2005. The Task Force was divided into five groups, each with five members: the Executive Committee consisting of government officials, the Need and Use group, Site Analysis, Governance, and Finance. Each member had the power to vote yes or no on proposals, such as location.
The Task Force first met on May 19, 2005, at the Frazier International History Museum in Downtown Louisville. Its final meeting was on September 30, 2005, were it offered final recommendations to Governor Fletcher. In it, the task force recommended a downtown location for the arena and entertainment complex at a site commonly referred to as the "Louisville Gas and Electric (LG&E)/Riverfront site." The site is located just west of the Clark Memorial Bridge and is bounded by River Road, Second, Third and Main Streets. It is currently home to electric and transmission equipment used by LG&E and an office tower used by Humana. The company has agreed to move its equipment to make way for the proposed arena complex at a cost of approximately $78 million, which includes all purchase and relocation costs. The Humana property was appraised at $11.2 million.
The Task Force tabbed the anticipated cost of the arena complex at approximately $299 million, saying it will be paid for by 15 different revenue streams. They include naming rights, seat premiums, parking and rebated tax dollars that occur due to the creation of the arena complex.
The University of Louisville men’s and women’s basketball teams will be the primary tenants in the arena complex, although concerts, family shows and other major functions will be held as well. Initial plans call for the arena complex to be approximately 665,000 square feet. The task force recommended that the arena have 22,000 seats, 70 luxury suites, a practice facility and the ability to convert the facility into an ice rink for a minor league hockey team and family skating shows. The rest of the complex should contain a restaurant, a parking garage and retail shops. It is also slated to include a large hotel, although there is an ongoing dispute about its size, especially with the announcement of a 700 bed hotel in the 61-story Museum Plaza, which is slated to open the same year as the arena.
[edit] Controversy
The Task Force meetings were not without controversy. At first, task force member and University of Louisville athletics director Tom Jurich, along with UofL president James Ramsey and Task Force member and Papa John's Pizza founder John Schnatter, were ardently opposed to a downtown site and supported instead a campus arena, or a new arena built near Freedom Hall at the Kentucky Exposition Center. Jurich and Ramsey would later support the waterfront site, while Schnatter continued to strongly support a new arena at the Exposition Center, which was the cheapest option. In the final site recommendation vote, Schnatter was the only one to vote against the waterfront site.
Many urban geographers have pointed out the waterfront site wouldn't have the same economic impact has another proposed site located four blocks down 2nd Street which is surround by commerical sites and near 4th Street Live!, although it would still have more impact than a fairgrounds location.
The size of the arena was another source of contention, with UofL pushing for an arena size of 24,500; slightly larger than UK's Rupp Arena which officially seats 23,000 but frequently seats over 24,000. UK is often the leader in NCAA Men's basketball attendance with an average of around 23,000; while UofL usually ranks third at around 19,000 (about 700 above official capacity), and has been ranked in the top five for attendance every year since 1985, and top ten since the 1970s.
