Lexington, KY - By the time the UK men's basketball team looks to make a return trip to the Final Four in 2012, Lexington should have a much clearer picture for where the team will be playing its home games for the next several decades, as well as how to enliven the area surrounding the home court in downtown Lexington.
Driving a sense of urgency in the effort is the university's contract for the lease of Rupp Arena as the Cats' home court. It expires in 7 years leaving precious little time to consider options and then devise and execute a plan of action.
Lexington Mayor Jim Gray announced a 40-plus member task force to study not only the options for 35-year-old Rupp Arena, but also the 46 acres around and including the arena, the convention space and retail amenities of the Lexington Center and the Lexington Opera House. Gray said he is looking for an outcome that will enhance what he called the "event experience" of going to a game or other events on or near the property.
"This project is all about activating the center of our city," Gray said during a press conference inside Rupp's main entrance. "Taking the opportunities in our arts community and engaging those opportunities in imaginative and inspired ways and recognizing that whether it is going to (UK Opera director) Everett (McCorvey's) opera production, or a production by the philharmonic or an experience in an art museum or an experience right here in Rupp Arena, there are common themes. People want to be around that kind of energy."
Gray's task force is chaired W. Brent Rice, an attorney with McBrayer, McGinnis, Leslie & Kirkland, while former Mayor Pam Miller and Ashland Inc's Chairman and CEO Jim O'Brien will serve as vice chairs. The triumvirate will oversee committees focusing on technical aspects (chaired by Lexington Center President Bill Owen); planning and design (chaired by Miller); need, use and benefit (chaired by Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky President Wil James) and finance (chaired by Central Bank President Luther Deaton).
Gray said the task force is looking to raise $350,000 in private funds to hire a consultant who will examine existing and expected reports on the current arena. The group will also study the feasibility of building a new arena across High Street from the existing one, and will look at convention space in the Lexington Center complex - which is said to be at capacity and in need of expansion. All property surrounding the facility also will come under study.
Officially titled "The Arena, Arts and Entertainment District Task Force," Gray and outgoing UK President Lee T. Todd, Jr. expressed a desire to make the area surrounding Rupp Arena a magnet for university students, Lexington residents and visitors from all around the state who flock to Lexington see the Wildcats.
"I remember walking in with Coach (John Calipari) to one of (his) early games and said 'before you do anything else, just look at the top deck that is already full,' and it was about 45 minutes before the game. These are people who drive here and eat here and buy their t-shirts here and some spend the night and some drive all the way back to Pikeville after these late ball games. It's just a vibrant piece of downtown Lexington," Todd said during the press conference.
"We need to take a comprehensive look at what is best for this whole region down here. We do have a lot of property, there are a lot of opportunities for what we can do. We've got to be realistic, but we've also got to dream," he added.
While figuring out a way to retrofit Rupp versus building a new facility under current economic conditions, Todd said there are a few sticking points that give the university pause in extending the life of the existing arena.
A significant issue surrounding renovation is the question of where the Cats play in the interim, a period that could encompass two seasons.
"Our preference is mainly that we've got to be close as possible to the same number of seats we have now and we can't stand a lot of disruptions, so we don't know how to do that, so that's what this committee is going to be putting ideas together for," Todd said in an interview after the press conference.
UK's lease on Rupp expires in 2018, at which point the arena will be more than 40-years-old. Todd, who retires in June, said it is his desire to keep the team downtown, which is just a few blocks from campus, and he hasn't heard otherwise from the university's Board of Trustees. While he hasn't asked members of the board or board chairman and task force member Dr. Britt Brockman, he said he had no push back "whatsoever" when he extended the lease on Rupp for 15 years last decade. "So I would hope that the next president would understand the synergy between a vibrant downtown and the university."
Rupp has an official capacity of 23,000, huge when compared to most basketball facilities, but it lacks many of the lucrative amenities standard in arenas since the 1988 opening of the Palace of Auburn Hills, home of the Detroit Pistons. Opened a dozen years after Rupp, the Palace brought luxury to the basketball experience and since then skyboxes and club level seating (which usually includes access to lounge areas and waiter service to your seat in the arena at a premium price) have been included in new facilities.
"We have a lot of things that need to be considered. Where do we play if there is a renovation, what is the seat count, because I don't think we're going to be able to reduce by a whole lot and tell several thousand people they're not going to have access to their Wildcats, this is a state that demands that," Todd said. "These are questions that are going to have to be answered in the next period of time."
That period of time is expected to extend through the early part of 2012, and while the group is tackling the arena question, Gray has also charged them to find a way to make the whole 46 city owned acres around Rupp something befitting a city once branded "the Athens of the West."
The recently renovated Lexington Opera House is designed to accommodate touring national productions, but its attractive intimacy affords seating for only 950 while rival facilities in the region, including EKU's new Performing Arts Center, seat between 1,500 and 2,000. More seating translates into more affordable ticket prices for major entertainment.
"The event experience can be translated into the sports dimension, into arts, into the before and after an event, the dining, going out to dinner, going to the theater, going to the Opera House, going to a concert. It's opportunities beyond just the arena itself that engage the downtown, that we are talking about," Gray said in an interview following the press conference.
He echoed sentiment made during his State of the Merged Government Address in January to get the Lexington Center "off its island in a sense that it represents today in our downtown and become more connected with our downtown."
During the January 25th address, Gray had pledged to name this task force within two weeks, but said he slowed down the pace to make sure he had the right people and framework.
"I decided there was no need to accelerate it without a real good reason. The better approach, I realized, was to give it a little time to bake and to really examine the composition and the schedule of the task force itself," he said in an interview.
"The members of this committee are people from a diverse background, including those with urban planning and design experience and opera and business experience and awareness for what's been done in other places. So I suspect that this task force will leverage and utilize those talents and assets to a high level," he said.
Some of those included are former UK basketball stars Sam Bowie and Jamal Mashburn, former coach Joe B. Hall, Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart as well as outgoing tourism head David Lord, LexArts President Jim Clark, UK Opera Director McCorvey and adjacent Distillery District developer Barry McNees.
Whatever comes out of the group, one aspect looks to be a more appealing design than the original metal box that is Rupp. Gray appointed Michael Speaks. Dean of UK's College of Design and Louisville Attorney and 21c Museum Hotel developer Craig Greenberg to the planning and design committee.
"Mayor Gray, in particular, is a strong proponent of good design. That good design can lead to a great finished product and great energy in and around the project itself. If you're going to do a world class arena as Coach Calipari said that it should be 'the gold standard,' it has to be a wonderful building as well. The focus can't just be on what's on the inside but the outside and just as importantly how it fits in with the surrounding neighborhood," Greenberg said.