Memorial Coliseum is set to be renovated. But where will UK sports play in the meantime?
Renovations to historic Memorial Coliseum on the Kentucky campus are planned to begin next year, but the immediate future remains unclear for the four UK sports that primarily use the venue for practices and home events.
The Kentucky gymnastics, STUNT, volleyball and women’s basketball programs all call Memorial Coliseum home for the vast majority of their home events, and according to UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart, it’s believed the venue will not be used during the 2023-24 school year.
In an early September interview with the Herald-Leader, Barnhart said those four UK women’s varsity athletic teams will need “some alternate places to play” for their 2023-24 seasons.
But with less than a year until those planned home athletic events would begin (UK volleyball usually has its first home match of the season in late August or early September), no concrete plans exist for where the displaced UK teams would be housed.
In that September interview with the Herald-Leader, Barnhart didn’t specify potential locations where the programs could hold home events during their time away from Memorial Coliseum.
Recent comments and statements from people connected to each of the four programs confirmed this.
Here’s an inside look into how the Memorial Coliseum renovations — in both the short and long term — will affect the four UK sports that call the venue home.
Kentucky women’s basketball
In recent, non-COVID affected seasons, the Kentucky women’s basketball team has played at least 16 home games in Lexington, with two marquee games at Rupp Arena and the remaining games played inside Memorial Coliseum.
In an interview with the Herald-Leader on Monday, UK women’s basketball head coach Kyra Elzy said she is not currently in discussions to determine where her team will play its home games during the 2023-24 season.
“Those are not discussions that we’re having right now,” Elzy said. “The most important discussion was (that) we were getting a new gym. That was the most important thing for me. So whatever they decide after that, we will make it work.”
On the surface, moving more Kentucky women’s basketball games to Rupp Arena during the 2023-24 season appears a straightforward solution, given the team already regularly plays there and the fact Rupp Arena is designed to host basketball games.
However, economic factors also play a part in where the affected sports will play during the 2023-24 school year.
During an August press conference, Barnhart cited the high price that comes with using Rupp Arena.
“Our rent went from a couple hundred thousand, $250,000 a year, under the old Rupp. We’re at almost $2 million a year in rent,” Barnhart said. “That’s a debt service we took on as a department ... that was an expenditure as well that we invested.”
Regardless of the end result, Elzy stressed the immediate impact a renovated Memorial Coliseum will have on the UK women’s basketball program.
“It’s going to be amazing. Our players are excited, along with all the other female sports that compete (at Memorial),” Elzy said. “It also will definitely help in recruiting, but just for our own players, what it means to have a home gym that is brand new, that says a lot about Kentucky.”
One player that the new-look Memorial Coliseum will arrive too late for is Rhyne Howard, the UK women’s basketball legend who concluded her playing career at the venue in February.
In September, the Herald-Leader asked Howard about the planned renovations to Memorial Coliseum, and specifically the addition of air conditioning.
Howard smiled, then sighed before responding.
“My freshman year (2018), my first workout, I feel like I almost passed out. It was so hot and I couldn’t breathe,” Howard recalled. “But I love that they’re getting renovations, but I wish it was sooner, obviously. Definitely I will be going in there just to see what it feels like.”
During Howard’s UK career (2018-2022), attendance for 45 women’s basketball games at Memorial Coliseum (excluding the COVID-impacted 2020-21 season and other non-attendance games) averaged 4,230 fans per game.
Howard said that number could increase thanks to new features at the facility after renovations are completed.
“Just for a new stadium though, maybe people want to come more because it’s more appealing,” Howard said. “I feel like it will be good, especially for the girls that we have coming in and just for Kentucky as a whole. It will be great for us, the basketball team, and volleyball and other sports that play in there.”
While Elzy acknowledged that the renovated facility will aid UK in recruiting, she also pointed to UK’s historically strong record inside Memorial Coliseum (481-164 entering this season).
“We’ve won a lot of games in Memorial Coliseum, so it has not hindered our process thus far,” Elzy said. “So we’ll just keep at it. Everything else is a bonus.”
Kentucky volleyball
The UK volleyball program is the most recent beneficiary of an upgrade at Memorial Coliseum, as the Cats debuted a new Taraflex playing surface at the venue last season.
Kentucky volleyball extensively uses Memorial Coliseum for both home matches (at least 13 matches a season since 2013 when excluding the COVID-impacted 2020-21 season) and practices.
A UK Athletics statement provided to the Herald-Leader on Monday said that “As of right now, a decision has not been made as to where UK volleyball will play next year. There are options that we are circulating through right now, but no decision has been made.”
There is past precedent — although not a regular one — for UK volleyball playing at Rupp Arena.
In October 2012, Kentucky won a three-set match at Rupp Arena against Mississippi State. This was the first time the program played at Rupp Arena.
UK volleyball head coach Craig Skinner was asked about the implications of the Memorial Coliseum renovations during the team’s media day in August.
“You’re always looking for progressive things happening, and so when you talk to recruits and talk to club coaches, ‘What’s new? What’s happening? What’s going on?’” Skinner said. “There’s things we’ve done with our recruiting room and locker room and how we travel and the upgrade to Memorial Coliseum is a significant advancement on a facility that’s a special venue. We all like new things. It’s a great time and we’ve earned the opportunity to get that chance to have those things happen.“
More than the other three varsity sports that call Memorial Coliseum home, UK volleyball’s home events are affected by Memorial Coliseum’s lack of air conditioning.
UK volleyball played a home match at 4 p.m. on Aug. 28 earlier this season.
The temperature in Lexington that day reached 92 degrees, according to Weather Underground.
Also during the team’s media day in August, Kentucky volleyball upperclassmen Reagan Rutherford and Azhani Tealer discussed the upcoming changes to Memorial Coliseum.
“I think (improved facilities) becomes more important over the years as campuses across the country get nicer things and it plays into recruiting, but ... we recruit really good people and so those things don’t matter to the people that are here,” Tealer said. “We come here to play and win. It’s hot, but we get after it and it’s one of the best environments in the country. I don’t think it fazes us too much.”
“We may not have the flashy locker rooms or the flashy facilities, but I think what’s important here is the genuine people and the culture that we’ve created,” Rutherford added. “That’s really what brings people here.”
Kentucky gymnastics
The closest thing to concrete answers about where the affected UK sports could hold home contests during the 2023-24 school year came from UK gymnastics head coach Tim Garrison.
During an extensive interview with the Herald-Leader last week, Garrison listed several potential options for the gymnastics program to hold home meets. He also said his input has been solicited as the process of finding a temporary venue continues.
“I know there’s some talks with Rupp ... there’s been talks of other locations around town, don’t really know exactly what that looks like, whether it’s maybe Alltech Arena out at the Horse Park ... that’s a long way to take our equipment and all that,” Garrison said.
Typically, the UK gymnastics program holds five home meets each season. The first home meet of the season — known as Excite Night — is held inside Rupp Arena.
Another option on the table? Holding fewer home events.
“We’re not as big of an issue as volleyball or women’s basketball because we only have five home events, and one of them is already in Rupp. So really we have four home events that will be affected,” Garrison said. “Maybe we take that down to three home events and we do more away meets. It’s up in the air right now what’s going to happen with that, but we’ll handle it either way.”
Garrison’s final thought concerning the Memorial Coliseum renovations seemed to encapsulate a common theme for the affected programs.
“I think the end result is going to be worth whatever shakeup we have to deal with,” he said. “It’ll be something we can manage, it won’t be something that’s outrageous.”
Kentucky STUNT
STUNT is the newest varsity sport at UK, and began competition in February.
The Cats held several scrimmages and STUNT clinics, as well as two home games, inside Memorial Coliseum in the spring.
Last week, UK Athletics provided the following statement to the Herald-Leader about UK STUNT home games for the 2024 season.
“For the 2024 STUNT season, no final decisions have been made regarding home games. Several options are still being considered at this time.”
Plans for Memorial Coliseum renovations
In August, Barnhart outlined renovation plans for the 72-year-old facility, which he said have been approved by UK’s Board of Trustees.
According to Barnhart, the planned improvements will include upgrades to all seats, the construction of event space and the installation of air conditioning, which the building currently doesn’t have.
In addition to being the primary home for four different UK sports, Memorial Coliseum hosts several non-athletic university events like commencement activities, the DanceBlue dance marathon, student group meetings and orientations.
In August, the venue hosted a memorial service for UK men’s basketball legend Mike Pratt.
Last weekend, the area surrounding Memorial Coliseum was home to the return of the Big Blue Madness campout.
“It’s a university facility, it’s used for a lot of things. It’s really, really important for a lot of reasons to get it right,” Barnhart told the Herald-Leader in September, adding that a priority in the renovations is to highlight the facility as a memorial to Kentuckians who served in the military.
Barnhart has also said a UK Athletics Hall of Fame could be incorporated into the new-look Memorial Coliseum, which was completed in 1950 and initially constructed at a cost of approximately $4 million.
