The University of Kentucky men’s basketball team has signed a new, 15-year lease at Rupp Arena, keeping them there through the 2033 season.
The new agreement, announced on Feb. 8, stipulates that UK Athletics will pay the Lexington Center Corporation (LCC), which manages Rupp Arena and the adjacent Lexington Convention Center, a yearly rent of $1.9 million for hosting 28 events, including men’s regular season games, Big Blue Madness, Blue/White games, some women’s basketball games, and UK’s winter and spring commencement ceremonies.
UK will receive revenues from the creation of four clubs and club spaces within the arena. In turn, Lexington Center Corporation will add chair backs to some upper arena seating.
“When UK and Lexington work together, we move ahead, and [this] agreement is a big step ahead for our city,” Mayor Jim Gray said in a press release announcing the new Rupp Arena lease.
But changes even more substantial than club space and seatbacks may soon be coming to the downtown landmark.
A proposed site plan shows the layout of the new convention center and adjoining park.
At a meeting last week, LCC officials asked the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council for as much as $20 million in additional funding to support a proposed $230-million upgrade of the 41-year-old convention center.
In 2016, the city had approved $10 million for a proposed expansion that would add more than 100,000 square feet of exhibition space and a new, roughly 25,000-square-foot ballroom to the convention center. Budget negotiations remain underway, and LCC has worked to cut $40 million-$50 million in costs from its original renovation proposal in recent months.
LCC is currently soliciting construction bids on the proposed upgrades and anticipates that construction cost estimates will be available later this spring.
A site design plan provided by the Lexington Center Corporation suggests a new footprint for the Rupp Arena/Lexington Convention Center, with exhibition space in the area now occupied by the Jefferson Street parking lot and ballroom space in the area now home to Heritage Hall. An adjoining park and outdoor pavilion space are also shown.
Downtown advocates anticipate that the upgrades will allow Lexington to attract increased convention bookings and recoup higher downtown hotel rates and taxes.