By Amanda Lee Anderson
Earlier this month, a study was presented to the University of Louisville arena committee about the renovation of Freedom Hall, or alternatively, the building of a new arena. Luckett and Farley Architects of Louisville did the study with Rosser International Architects of Atlanta.
The study detailed the costs of both building a new facility and renovating the old Freedom Hall. According to this study, the new building would cost nearly $148 million, while renovating Freedom Hall could cost up to $137 million. Luckett and Farley presented a similar study in 1997, and this was an updated version of their original study.
This plan is part of a larger scheme to renovate the South and East Wings of the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center. Harold Workman, arena committee member and Kentucky State Fair board president, said that these renovations would take priority over the plan to renovate Freedom Hall or build a new arena. The renovations of the Fair and Expo Center have been in progress for about four years, and Workman said that the completion of the renovations were needed in order to stay competitive in the convention business.
Malcolm Chancey, co-chair of the arena committee, said that if the costs are nearly the same, building a new arena would be preferable to renovating Freedom Hall. Kevin Miller, the associate athletic director for internal operations, agreed, saying, “Building a new arena is attractive, because the cost of building new is not much more than the renovation costs. Also, it would eliminate scheduling problems for the fairgrounds and for the university, because there would be two facilities for concerts and shows as opposed to one.”
Rosser International came up with three different plans for updating Freedom Hall, at varying prices. The first, costing about $120 million, would include the expansion of the arena to seat over 20,000, with new general seating behind the baskets. The second would cost $118 million and would expand the capacity to 25,000 seats, which includes 28 private suites. The third involves expanding to 30,000 seats with 28 more luxury suites and 10,000 more general seats, and would cost $137 million.
If the choice were made to build a new facility, it would seat 20,000, with 2,000 club seats and 60 private boxes. The cost for the new facility would be $148 million, plus an additional $40 million for a 3000-car parking structure.
It would include practice facilities for the basketball team. Furthermore, it would be used for both men’s and women’s basketball, according to Miller, in order to be in compliance with Title IX regulations.
Whether the committee decides to renovate Freedom Hall or build a new facility, it will be the responsibility of the University of Louisville Athletics Department to sell the idea to the Kentucky General Assembly and to the public. Chancey said that this is not something that will be done within the next year, but hopes that it doesn’t take ten years.
