UK can’t win, can’t lose with annual Freedom Hall game

LOUISVILLE — This Freedom Hall game the Cats play every year is in a pickle.
It’s not a win-win situation, and it’s not a lose-lose. It’s not bad. It’s not great. But it comes with the territory.

Pleasantly, the Cats waltz onto Louisville’s home court year after year against a cupcake opponent and run away with the game, hardly breaking a sweat in the process.

What do the Louisville area fans get out of it? Sure, they get 40 minutes of UK basketball a lot closer to home than Rupp Arena. But year after year, it’s the same game. It’s not closely contested. It’s not horribly exciting. You can chalk one up for the “home” team and call it a night.

Just schedule a tougher team and that solves it, right? Well, not so fast. If UK books a neutral game in Louisville against a big-name opponent, those paying a not-so-small fortune for tickets at Rupp will have a fit. And they have every right to do so: Why should those paying top dollar get a home game against Drexel but not Duke?

And why should those in Jefferson County get Michigan State while Fayette County gets Morehead State?

One way or another, how does anyone make this game better for all parties involved?

At an open practice Sunday in Freedom Hall, Calipari suggested the fans could pave the way for more Freedom Hall games every year. Just sell it out Monday.

The fans heard but didn’t listen: 15,368 showed up, about 3,500 under capacity.

“This makes it hard. You think about it. How many would’ve been at this game if it was played in Rupp Arena? Twenty-four thousand,” Calipari said. “So yeah, there were  14,000 or something here. I wish it would’ve been 19, because I could’ve gone back and it would’ve been easier. The other side of it, if it was a better opponent, we’d have more people.”

But as Calipari pointed out, 24,000 fans would’ve filled Rupp Arena regardless of opponent. In four games so far this season at Rupp, an average of over 23,500 have filed in to watch UK play teams with similar reputations to that of UNC Asheville.

So if UK books a tougher team in Freedom Hall, fans in Lexington may react poorly. If UK continues to book Northwestern No-Name University, the fans in Louisville will have no reason to show up any more than they did Monday.

Now what? Does the Freedom Hall game get any better from here on out? In all likelihood, not really. But by no means should Calipari ax the idea.

“I still think if other coaches in the past have played here and have played in Cincinnati, you got to take this team to the fans,” Calipari said. “There are so many fans that can’t get in our games. I think our fans in Lexington would accept that. These people, would they ever get into Lexington to see us? Probably not.”

The Cats have been stuck in this pickle for over 50 years now, having played at least one game in Louisville each year since 1958.

I expect it won’t be solved anytime soon.

James Pennington is a journalism senior. E-mail jpennington@kykernel.com.