Rupp Arena wrapped up the decade with a busy year in 2019, despite a four-month closure from June 15 through October 4. The venue hosted 33 public ticketed, non-UK Basketball events with 313,000 tickets sold over an eight-month window. By comparison, over a full 12-month calendar year of scheduled events in 2018, Rupp hosted 30 public ticketed, non-UK Basketball events with 328,000 tickets sold.
Highlights of the year included major concert touring artists like P!NK and Paul McCartney, and the October unveiling of new chair back seats in the arena’s upper level. Rupp also set new records in 2019 for the fastest concert sellout in its history (12 minutes for Luke Combs’ upcoming February 14 event) and the highest number of concerts on sale in a single month (7 in November).
“The Lexington Center/Oak View Group and Live Nation Arenas partnership, which began in 2018, has produced outstanding results,” said Bill Owen, Lexington Center president and CEO. “We are thrilled to end 2019 on such a high note, and we are looking forward to a prosperous New Year in 2020.”
“While Oak View Group was excited about our second year in Lexington and the 2019 schedule at Rupp Arena, we are even more excited for what’s coming in 2020 with what is already announced, and what is slated to be announced,” said Brian Sipe, Oak View Group Facilities’ director of booking for Rupp Arena.
At the same time, construction continues on the $275 million expansion of the adjacent Lexington Convention Center, which will provide more than 200,000 square feet of flexible meeting and event space in the facility. Delays in construction have extended the projected completion date to spring of 2022.
Designed by NBBJ Architects of Los Angeles and EOP Architects of Lexington and Louisville, the convention center project aims to better connect Rupp and the Lexington Convention Center to downtown Lexington, Town Branch Trail and the proposed Town Branch Park, with small parks and plazas, outdoor exhibit space, water features and multiple gathering spaces. The expansion, which is the single largest capital public improvement project in Lexington’s history, is projected to increase the Center’s annual economic impact by an estimated $58 million.