Yum! to pay $13.5 million to name downtown arena

After giving it some thought I'm not sure the new arena is really going to give L'ville a (long term) leg up on landing (additional) music concerts...I think this has more to do with geography than it does anything else. I mean let's face it, we're sitting smack dab in the middle of three larger cities that are all within a couple of hours drive...Indy, Cincy, and Nashville. All three of which have a variety concrete palaces equal to anything L'ville has (in addition all three have outdoor amphitheaters). Even more importantly they all have a larger audience base to draw from. So I'm going to guess that from a promotional perspective things haven't changed a whole lot.

Yeah we're going to have to get an amphitheater to attract some more concert. This new arena has around 1100 additional seats versus Freedom Hall, not exactly a huge new arena to attract events that looked over the area before.

It's great they have a new arena (and stadium). But, I'll never set foot in either one unless someone drags me kicking and screaming...

Louisville attempts to throw out their belief they can support pro sports teams. They can not. Our population is vastly outgrown our capacity to drive around this town safely without seeing insane lunatic. They need to take a lesson and improve rather than try and expand. Work on the bad things we've got and have had in this city for years...*cough* Watterson...I am lucky to get around in few hours than most people in some other cities, but it does not mean I'm as safe.

Oh...And...I would have voted for the McNugget Hut Arena.

Heather L The Allman Brothers have played at the Palace a number of times, but it's definitely been a few years. I was actually just talking to someone this past weekend about seeing them at the Palace the same night as Thunder in the mid 90's.

Damn....I must of been in a cave or something, don't remeber that one

Grateful Dead (again I won't go back too far) but they played Freedom Hall in 1989, Cardinal Stadium in 1990 and back to Freedom Hall in 1993.

OK - music geek out! But yes - hopefully they use the arena for some musical good!

Thats what I thought. I know I have some boots from a couple of those shows. I also have a DVD with some footage with a killer "standing on" at freedom hall.

After giving it some thought I'm not sure the new arena is really going to give L'ville a (long term) leg up on landing (additional) music concerts...I think this has more to do with geography than it does anything else. I mean let's face it, we're sitting smack dab in the middle of three larger cities that are all within a couple of hours drive...Indy, Cincy, and Nashville. All three of which have a variety concrete palaces equal to anything L'ville has (in addition all three have outdoor amphitheaters). Even more importantly they all have a larger audience base to draw from. So I'm going to guess that from a promotional perspective things haven't changed a whole lot.

The issue with concerts isn't capacity or geography, it's availability. It typically takes 2 days to set up for a concert and 2 days to tear down. Good luck finding 5 days in a row where Freedom Hall is available. Then try to work the few times it is available into a concert schedule.

Mens and women's hoops games and practices, horse shows, cow shows, boat shows, car shows, flea markets, speakers, graduations.... Freedom Hall is booked most of the time.

Having 2 arenas doubles the opportunity to be able to schedule concerts here, and will help us attract a lot more shows and such to Louisville. Indy, Nashville, Cincy etc. all have multiple venues all in the 15-25k range, which is why they get all of the concerts and we get none.

Geography actually works in our favor... since we are a couple of 3 hours from a lot of places, but they aren't a couple of 3 hours from each other.

Grateful Dead (again I won't go back too far) but they played Freedom Hall in 1989, Cardinal Stadium in 1990 and back to Freedom Hall in 1993.

I remember outside in the stadium for the Dead ( guess it was 90 ), hell I was probaly in the parking lot for the other ones......

Jimmy Buffet, Springsteen, and U2 are the only big names that I can think of that never visit Louisville.

Springsteen played Freedom Hall in '99. It was the same night as Thunder and, as such, a significant amount of seats were empty. I knew then and there he'd never come back.

Buffet was out at the Fairgrounds back around 1990. I'm not sure but I think there was some sort of dispute regarding vendors in association with the concert. But I may be mistaken. I know JB has pretty much total control over any and all sorts of "parrothead" related marketing.

After giving it some thought I'm not sure the new arena is really going to give L'ville a (long term) leg up on landing (additional) music concerts...I think this has more to do with geography than it does anything else. I mean let's face it, we're sitting smack dab in the middle of three larger cities that are all within a couple of hours drive...Indy, Cincy, and Nashville. All three of which have a variety concrete palaces equal to anything L'ville has (in addition all three have outdoor amphitheaters). Even more importantly they all have a larger audience base to draw from. So I'm going to guess that from a promotional perspective things haven't changed a whole lot.

The issue with concerts isn't capacity or geography, it's availability. It typically takes 2 days to set up for a concert and 2 days to tear down. Good luck finding 5 days in a row where Freedom Hall is available. Then try to work the few times it is available into a concert schedule.

Mens and women's hoops games and practices, horse shows, cow shows, boat shows, car shows, flea markets, speakers, graduations.... Freedom Hall is booked most of the time.

Having 2 arenas doubles the opportunity to be able to schedule concerts here, and will help us attract a lot more shows and such to Louisville. Indy, Nashville, Cincy etc. all have multiple venues all in the 15-25k range, which is why they get all of the concerts and we get none.

Geography actually works in our favor... since we are a couple of 3 hours from a lot of places, but they aren't a couple of 3 hours from each other.

Lexington has one arena and concerts go there instead of here.

After giving it some thought I'm not sure the new arena is really going to give L'ville a (long term) leg up on landing (additional) music concerts...I think this has more to do with geography than it does anything else. I mean let's face it, we're sitting smack dab in the middle of three larger cities that are all within a couple of hours drive...Indy, Cincy, and Nashville. All three of which have a variety concrete palaces equal to anything L'ville has (in addition all three have outdoor amphitheaters). Even more importantly they all have a larger audience base to draw from. So I'm going to guess that from a promotional perspective things haven't changed a whole lot.

The issue with concerts isn't capacity or geography, it's availability. It typically takes 2 days to set up for a concert and 2 days to tear down. Good luck finding 5 days in a row where Freedom Hall is available. Then try to work the few times it is available into a concert schedule.

Mens and women's hoops games and practices, horse shows, cow shows, boat shows, car shows, flea markets, speakers, graduations.... Freedom Hall is booked most of the time.

Having 2 arenas doubles the opportunity to be able to schedule concerts here, and will help us attract a lot more shows and such to Louisville. Indy, Nashville, Cincy etc. all have multiple venues all in the 15-25k range, which is why they get all of the concerts and we get none.

Geography actually works in our favor... since we are a couple of 3 hours from a lot of places, but they aren't a couple of 3 hours from each other.

Lexington has one arena and concerts go there instead of here.

Sometimes, but Lexington is a much smaller town, with significantly reduced demands on their facility. Rupp doesn't host 1/3 of the events that the fair grounds does. It is also considered a booking alternative when Freedom Hall is busy. KFC Arena will likely poach some of Rupp's shows.

For a city the size of Louisville to not have 2 good alternatives for hosting concerts and events has been a huge issue for decades. Indy has 3 or 4. Cincy has 4 or 5. People don't realize the number of shows / concerts and conventions we don't get simply because of scheduling. Sometimes they can go to Rupp... sometimes we just get passed bye completely.

Yes, we get SOME shows. Yes, Rupp gets SOME shows. Most go elsewhere.

Now all we need to do is tear down the old Cardinal Stadium and put up a big amphitheater. Then we'll be all set...

Yeah but the thing is, when pitching this arena there was all the talk of hosting the Final Four again and then it's the size of the existing arena. Again, should have just renovated Freedom Hall.

Yeah but the thing is, when pitching this arena there was all the talk of hosting the Final Four again and then it's the size of the existing arena. Again, should have just renovated Freedom Hall.

I don't recall any talk of hosting a men's Final Four. The men's Final Four is played in huge stadiums that seat 60 or 70 thousand people. Ford Field and Lucas Oil Stadium. Last year Detroit had 72,000 people for the finals. This year Indy had 69,000. The Arena was never going to be anywhere near that big. Any talk of that would be foolish.

Women's Final Four yes. Volleyball etc. absolutely (already happening).

The only men's tournament talk I ever heard was that it would allow us to host first and second round games, which we are doing in 2012. We never could before because Freedom Hall was always booked in the spring (again, availability not capacity or location).

BTW - it isn't the same size. Freedom Hall seats 18,865. It can hold right at 20,000 with standing room only, suites etc. KFC Arena SEATS 22,000, and how many people they can pack into standing room only areas has yet to be determined, but given the number of suites and bars and what not, I'm betting it will be well over 25,000. I guess only the fire marshal knows for sure.

That's at least a 20% increase in capacity. You can't get too much bigger than that given the space they are working with and construction styles. You get any bigger and suddenly you have to build a dome or stadium structure and not an arena. Site lines get bad and costs go way up.

22,000 is plenty big for anything it will be used for.

Renovating Freedom Hall would not have opened any additional dates, which was... again... the root of the problem.

Re: concerts - The reason Rupp tended to get better acts was it's seating capacity of 24K vs. Freedom Hall's seating capacity of just under 19K - a 5K difference.

The Yum Bucket will be about 3K bigger than Freedom, but still smaller than Rupp, and WAY too small for a Final Four, or a pro team for that matter. Louisville will never get a Final Four unless a bigger arena is built someday.

Final Fours are now restricted to indoor football stadiums. No basketball arenas need apply.