The centerpiece of this short trip was a Kentucky college hoops doubleheader, with Louisville home at noon and the Wildcats, just an hour away in Lexington, tipping off at 5. I spent the night in Bloomington and drove along some beautiful country roads before hitting I-65 and turning south. One thing to note as you enter Louisville from Indiana is that some of the bridges, including that along I-65, incur electronic-only tolls. Rental cars are often dinged for the toll plus a daily fee plus a processing fee, so use the toll-free Clark Street Bridge instead. This also gives a great view of the arena, but as I was alone, I could not snap a picture. I did take a picture of the bridge from inside the arena.
The Cardinals play out of the KFC Yum! Center, which is located right along the Ohio River with Indiana in the distance. It is a downtown venue and there are plenty of parking lots charging $10. If you attend a weekday evening or Sunday game, meters are free and you should have no trouble finding a spot within a few blocks. Traffic on those streets can get busy as tip-off approaches, so try to get there at least an hour before the game. The shot below is from Witherspoon Street, which has a large parking lot charging $15; this is the best place to park if you want quick access to I-64 east to Lexington.
The main entrance is conveniently along Main Street, and there are dozens of bars and eateries around. As I had to leave immediately after the game, I did not have a chance to explore. The Louisville Slugger factory is a half-mile west along Main and a good spot for a tour if you have time.
Upon entering, you will find yourself in a large atrium with views south to downtown. Stairs and escalators take you up to the concourses.
You can take an escalator straight to the upper concourse as well, which provides a nice view of the open atrium below.
There are plenty of concessions, most offering one of Yum! Brands fast-food options, such as KFC, Pizza Hut or Taco Bell. Papa John's is a Louisville business and also has a few stands here, so if you've ever wanted to compare the Hut and PJ's pizza, this is your chance. Haute Dog would be my recommendation, just for the name.
The shot below is of the main concourse, taken from the club level. You can see past Cardinal stars along the pillars, a good way to add some colour and history to the venue.
The upper concourse is similarly adorned. Sadly, Clifford Rozier died last year of a heart attack at age 45.
This venue opened in 2010 to replace Freedom Hall, a venue that still stands on the grounds of the Kentucky Exposition Center. With a capacity of 22,090, KFC Yum! Center is the largest in the country designed specifically for basketball and the second largest in the NCAA behind the Carrier Dome. They have done a good job fitting it into a relatively small downtown footprint, and concourses are large enough for the crowd.
You should not have trouble finding your section with these oversized numbers leading the way.
The seating bowl is large, with all seats in Cardinal Red. Sections are quite long as well, particularly at the tops of the corners.
As is often the case in basketball arenas, the seating is not as steep and goes back quite a ways. For this reason, upper deck seats are better for actually watching the game than those in the upper rows of the lower deck behind the baskets.
There are suites here that take up a bit of space and push the upper deck a bit farther away. The photo below is from near the top at midcourt and illustrates just how flat the seating bowl is. Quite different from Indiana!
I did not see as much history here as I expected, particularly in the form of trophies. There are a lot of banners but no silverware to match. Eagle-eyed readers will notice that the 2013 championship banner has been removed, that is because the title was vacated by the NCAA in 2018.
I do appreciate the Dunking Cardinal logo with the old-style jersey. He is also on the floor, which is a new design from this season. He's an angry Cardinal after they lost their previous match to last season's runner up Texas Tech, meaning they will lose their #1 ranking on Monday.
This collage was all I saw in terms of photographic history. After visiting Indiana's Assembly Hall the night before, I was pretty spoiled and had some high expectations that weren't met.
That's not to say there is anything wrong with KFC Yum! Center (other than the name); it is a very large, very generic arena. I'd like to see more here honouring the past, as you see in many campus facilities. Still, it is well worth a visit, as is the city of Louisville itself. You will receive a bit of southern hospitality, as long as you are not playing against the Cardinals.
The Game
The Eastern Kentucky Colonels were an appropriately named opponent in the KFC Yum! Center, but certainly not an appropriately talented one. Louisville began with a win probability of 95% and although EKU kept it close early, getting within 13-12, the Cardinals went on a 19-4 run from there and never looked back. The only excitement was on the last play when Louisville got the ball on 99 points and the crowd urged them to go for 100. They did not, holding on to demote the Colonels 99-67.
Notes
It is beyond the scope of this blog to discuss the vacating of titles other than to say it is silly, requiring record books to be altered and asterisks added. You cannot change the past, so focus on the future. Financial penalties, scholarship reductions, and post-season bans should be enough. And completely innocent players sometimes suffer to; five Cardinals successfully sued the NCAA to have their records from that year's tournament restored. So the team did not win a title, but Luke Hancock is still the Most Outstanding Player. Like I said, silly.
Best,
Sean
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