Why there were no basketball upgrades included in UK’s latest facility projects
When UK announced a series of five capital construction projects Thursday, there was a noticeable lack of basketball projects on the list.
Financed by a $110 million internal loan from the university, UK will undergo a multi-part renovation to its football stadium, including the construction of a new premium seating club in the west end zone and renovation of the corner luxury suites first opened in 1999. The school is also planning a $5 million renovation to its softball and soccer complex in advance of hosting the 2026 SEC Softball Tournament.
News about the first basketball investments since the athletic department was moved to a nonprofit LLC called Champions Blue could come this fall.
“We have multiple plans around Kentucky basketball as well,” said Eric Monday, UK’s executive vice president for finance and administration. “Those are things that we’ll be talking about with you over the next few months. I would target probably more in the September (board meeting) area.”
The Kroger Field projects were first on the list of priorities due to the need to develop new revenue streams for the department.
UK anticipates operating at a $31 million deficit over the next two fiscal years. The university will cover that loss with another internal loan, which the athletic department must begin paying back with interest in 2027-28. That is the same year the department projects to be back in the black financially, thanks in large part to the increased revenue that will come from selling tickets in the new premium seating areas at Kroger Field.
“We have two sports that sort of turn the flywheel for us, football and men’s basketball, and there’s more coming,” UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart said after the committee vote. “We got more things on the plate.”
On Thursday, UK also began the process of planning for a fan entertainment district outside the football stadium that could include shopping, dining and hotels. Since UK plays its home men’s basketball games at Rupp Arena, which is owned by the city of Lexington and recently underwent a renovation to include new premium club spaces, the most obvious opportunity for revenue growth was at the football stadium.
While there were no basketball projects unveiled Thursday, Monday did point to the university’s move to begin covering the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition rates for athletes as a reflection of the importance of the basketball program.
“”That part of our connection to the people of Kentucky is one of the primary reasons why the University of Kentucky is investing in the athletics department,” Monday said. “That is a first for us. … That grows as a significant move of the institution to show and to recognize and to commit to our athletics department and the emotional connection it has to every citizen in the Commonwealth.”
As for what facility investments might eventually be coming for basketball, a renovation to the Joe Craft Center, which serves as the training home for the men’s and women’s programs, has been a talking point for years, dating back to when former men’s basketball coach John Calipari created a public firestorm between the basketball and football programs in August 2022.
Mark Pope has continued that push since being named head coach.
“Our administration is always working hard ahead, and so that is certainly past the just imagining phase,” Pope said when asked about the practice facility on his final radio show in March. “Still, there’s a bunch of hurdles to cross and priorities that we have to refocus in this really dynamic changing landscape of college athletics. But that’s something that is definitely in the working stages.”
While UK is searching for new forms of revenue to help account for the $20.5 million it will begin distributing to athletes on July 1, a move away from Rupp Arena to an on-campus arena does not appear to be under consideration.
“We’ve got an incredible relationship with Rupp Arena,” Barnhart told reporters in April when discussing the formation of Champions Blue. “The Lexington Center folks have been phenomenal partners to us. We talk about partner equity, they’ve been partners. They’ve put literally hundreds of millions of dollars into the convention space and into Rupp Arena and new scoreboards. It is an older building, for sure, but the guts of it and the landscape with clubs that we’ve put in place, the premium clubs we put in place down there … it is not the same old facility, and so we’re thankful for that partnership.
“... I’m thankful for Rupp Arena, and it is iconic, and we enjoy it tremendously. And so that is where we live, and we want to hang some more banners there.”