Construction at Memorial Coliseum has continued as the fall rapidly approaches on the campus of the University of Kentucky.
The coliseum, the former home of the Kentucky men’s basketball team, now plays host to Kentucky women’s basketball, volleyball, gymnastics and STUNT, two of which are expected to begin play in the newly renovated venue in the fall.
“There is no plan B,” Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart half-joked when asked if the venue would be ready in time for the semester. “We’ve got to be ready to go. All the people, they’ve been here tirelessly working on it. These folks have been incredible, so I feel comfortable that we’ll be ready to go.”
Memorial Coliseum, which first opened in late 1950, was created as the second home of the Kentucky Wildcats, then led by legendary head coach Adolph Rupp — of which the new venue, Rupp Arena, was named after — after an upgrade was needed from Alumni Hall, which is now Alumni Gym, a fitness center attached to the UK student center.
Dubbed “Memorial” as a tribute to Kentuckians who had fought and died during World War I, World War II and the Korean War (plus later Vietnam), the venue had begun to draw criticism in recent years as it became more and more outdated.
Despite hosting the 2020 national champions in volleyball and an SEC women’s basketball program — along with the consistently nationally relevant gymnastics squad and back-to-back national runner ups in STUNT — the venue still lacked common amenities such as air conditioning, chair-back seating and proper lighting in the top sections of the arena.
With the estimated $80-million upgrades, the venue has added air conditioning, a brand-new ceiling, additional lighting in the top sections of the arena, new seating with chair-backs in many sections of the arena, a brand-new scoreboard hanging over the court, a new special club seating area and a new sound system. Outside the court area, the concession stands, restrooms and main stairways have also been completely updated. This also included the locker rooms, athlete academic center and media areas.
With the seating renovations, Barnhart plans to bring the seating much closer to the court and create a proper student center along the sideline, allowing for a stronger home advantage that may be diminished by the lack of oppressive heat opponents weren’t used to.
It was also emphasized that, while some seats were lost in making seating more accommodating, the venue maintained the 6,500-capacity limit that allows it to host NCAA postseason events.
While a hefty price tag may cause some to scoff at the necessity of such upgrades, Barnhart joked that, as far as the HVAC was concerned, it was “worth every penny.” His words rang true to media in attendance as, whilst under construction, the building remained cool and even brisk during the scorching July heat.
With the influx of new to the venue, dubbed on the court as “Historic Memorial Coliseum,” Barnhart ensured that the history and importance of the storied halls are not being forgotten.
“We will never forget the people who helped us have the opportunity to play sports and who we honor in this facility and that’s veterans,” he said. “The staff have done a really cool job of finding ways outside the facility and inside to honor our veterans and I think you’ll really enjoy that when it all comes together.”
The veterans weren’t the only piece of the building’s history Barnhart hoped to preserve, though, which will likely allow many UK fans to breathe a sigh of relief.
“The historical nature of this building we wanted to keep as much of it in places as we could,” he said. “We’re looking at maybe putting together something (like) a time capsule kind of thing. We demolished a wall and found a bunch of pay phones, (I went) upstairs and there (were) actual offices up there. There were rumors that a couple of assistant coaches used to house themselves up there at one point, I don’t know if that’s true or not.”
As far as timing goes on the construction, it could be argued that the renovations couldn’t have come at a more pivotal time for Kentucky as the updates to the historic venue played a major role in the hiring of new women’s basketball head coach Kenny Brooks.
“We told him we did it for him,” Barnhart laughed. “I think that was a big deal. A big deal for women’s basketball and for him to be able to say that he is rebuilding a program in this facility. It was certainly a selling point for his staff as well as recruits.”
Brooks wasn’t the only coach to be heavily impacted, though, with volleyball — of which head coach Craig Skinner was present — gymnastics and STUNT will all greatly benefit from the updates.
The four teams were forced to compete in a plethora of venues throughout the past year to make up for not having a home floor. While most events were able to be held inside Rupp Arena, UK was forced to seek help from nearby colleges and schools as well to host events.
With Georgetown College hosting a women’s basketball game and even Frederick Douglass High School hosting the Blue-White meet for STUNT, perhaps none accommodated the change more than nearby Division-III Transylvania University, which hosted all five home STUNT matches — including the 2024 Division-I STUNT Championship — and four women’s basketball games.
Barnhart privately expressed disappointment in himself after speaking for being remiss in thanking all three nearby institutions for their contributions.
Gymnastics, STUNT and volleyball all qualified for NCAA Tournament play during the 2023-24 year, with STUNT becoming back-to-back national runners up, volleyball earning a share of its seventh straight SEC Championship and gymnastics being seeded No. 7 before falling in the NCAA Regional Final at Arkansas.
As for women’s basketball, the Cats finished a disappointing campaign that saw head coach Kyra Elzy be dismissed from her role, but the addition of Brooks — and his star-studded transfer portal class — has many fans expecting big things in the future.
So, with all four teams having big expectations, it should come as little surprise that, along with the renovations bringing excitement, season-ticket sales are considerably up from where they were last year.
“We’ve got 1,100 people that have bought season tickets for women’s basketball and already put deposits down,” Barnhart said. “ We’ve got over 1,500, close to 1,600, that have got deposits down for all of our women’s sports programs (and) we haven’t even reached out about renewals yet. We’ve run it through our K Fund, through our points program like we always do.”
Barnhart promised all four teams would have a “soft opening” in the new venue, but the first officially scheduled competition to take place in the new Memorial Coliseum is set come on Aug. 23 as the volleyball team hosts an exhibition against Dayton.
Barnhart also expressed potential interest in a larger “grand opening” event in the spring including former athletes and people who were a part of the facility, but a time or date for any such event has yet to be announced.
