Moving forward, a way UK can make its Rupp Arena schedule more fan-friendly
During a stop in play as Kentucky battled Southern University in men’s basketball Tuesday night in Rupp Arena, public address announcer Patrick Whitmer spoke aloud what would have once been unthinkable.
Whitmer announced to the crowd that tickets remained available for Kentucky’s rivalry game with Louisville on Dec. 22 in Rupp — and implored fans to buy them.
Now that the annual “cupcake section” of the UK men’s basketball home schedule has concluded, we are going to get a test of the various theories that have attempted to explain the origins of the noticeably high number of empty seats in Rupp Arena so far in the 2021-22 season.
Rather than coronavirus concerns or lingering political controversies, my theory is that what has gone on in the stands in Rupp this year is primarily an acceleration of a pre-pandemic trend. In recent seasons, Wildcats fans have been increasingly “voting with their seats” on the competitive quality of Kentucky’s home, non-league schedules by skipping those games.
Whether the U of L game ultimately sells out will test the hypothesis that Rupp attendance is now more-directly correlated to perceived opponent quality than any other factor.
Even by the standards of the John Calipari coaching era, the strength of teams Kentucky has faced in Rupp Arena this year has been slight.
The combined record (through Wednesday’s games) of the seven teams UK has played in Lexington is 17-46. Take out Ohio University (6-2), and that mark is 11-44 — Robert Morris (1-7), Mount St. Mary’s (3-7), Albany (1-7), North Florida (2-9), Central Michigan (1-8) and Southern (3-6).
In an era when Kentucky essentially breaks in a brand new roster every season, Calipari has frequently stated that he schedules in November with player development, not fan entertainment, paramount.
What happened last season, when the pandemic wiped out the early portion of the Kentucky schedule and the Wildcats subsequently produced a 9-16 slog, would seem to support the basketball rationale for how UK schedules.
That’s why fans longing for the days when Kentucky’s non-league, home schedules were heavy on other college hoops blue bloods are likely setting themselves up for perpetual disappointment.
However, there should be ways for UK to at least meet its fans halfway. Kentucky should be able to both use its November slate for player/team development but also schedule in such a way as to give Wildcats fans more reasons to attend games.
Two years ago, one frustrated UK men’s basketball season ticket holder, Richmond’s Tony Thomas, made an interesting suggestion to address the problem. It would involve Kentucky adopting what I would call “theme scheduling.”
Essentially, UK would pick a theme each season around which to build its non-league schedule with the idea of giving fans greater reason to invest in early-season home games.
That could work like this:
Theme one. “NCAA Tournament revenge.”
Teams that pinned hurtful NCAA tourney defeats on UK in past decades — UTEP, Jacksonville, Western Kentucky, UAB and Middle Tennessee State, to name five — could be invited to Rupp one season.
Theme two: “Payback for shocking Rupp Arena upsets.”
Gardner-Webb, San Diego, VMI and Evansville — all of whom have beaten Kentucky in Rupp in the 21st century — could be asked to return to face the music.
Theme three: “Bluegrass State battles.”
Playing multiple home games in the same season vs. some combination of Bellarmine, Eastern Kentucky, Morehead State, Murray State, Northern Kentucky and Western Kentucky would be far more interesting than what UK provided its fans this year.
Theme four: “The Cats vs. the ex-Cats.”
As of now, there are five former Kentucky players serving as head coaches in NCAA Division I men’s hoops — Travis Ford (Saint Louis), Steve Masiello (Manhattan), John Pelphrey (Tennessee Tech), Mark Pope (BYU) and Sean Woods (Southern).
Currently ranked No. 24 in the AP Top 25 and soon to join the Big 12, BYU doesn’t fit the profile of a “tuneup game” for early in a Kentucky season.
You could schedule the other four teams with ex-Cats running the show, however, and provide Wildcats fans with some nostalgic fun (and you could just bite the bullet and play BYU, too).
Theme five: “The Cats vs. the ex-Cats head coaches.”
If Kentucky really got into the spirit of “theme scheduling,” it would rock to see UK play against High Point, Iona and Tarleton State — coached, respectively, by former Kentucky head men Tubby Smith, Rick Pitino and Billy Gillispie — in Rupp in the same season.
We live in an era when in-person attendance at mass-spectator sporting events is under downward pressure nationwide.
Those are the kind of trends, however, to which Kentucky men’s basketball used to seem immune.
That, clearly, is no longer the case.
With a little scheduling creativity, UK could give Wildcats fans more reason to come to Rupp Arena without fundamentally undermining Calipari’s developmental approach to the early season.
This story was originally published December 9, 2021 at 2:42 PM.
