Phillip M. Bailey

@phillipmbailey

University of Louisville athletics director Tom Jurich warned city leaders looking to restructure the KFC Yum! Center’s deal, saying the school will stop playing at the downtown arena if it continues to feel unwanted.

“I can be honest with you, over on our campus we’re very tired of all the rhetoric,” Jurich said on “D&D Spill the Tea,” a Saturday morning radio show on WLOU 1350 AM. “If they don’t want us in there just tell us — we’ll leave.”

Jurich suggested the university could build its own arena on the Belknap campus where 22 silos once stood near Interstate 65 and host men's and women's basketball games there.

“The city, state and U of L share a desire to have a financially successful YUM Center and are working toward that goal,” Mayor Greg Fischer said in a statement Tuesday.

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Jurich's comments were his first public statements since a measure was filed in Metro Council calling on the city's partners to do more financially to deal with the $690 million in outstanding construction bonds on the arena and days after some members said the Yum Center’s lease agreement favors the university.

Councilman Bill Hollander, D-9th District, for instance, said there was a good argument that the lease has "amounted to a transfer of funds from the taxpayers of the city to the University of Louisville Athletics Association." He declined to comment for this story when reached by telephone Tuesday.

Speaking with the show's co-hosts — former Councilwoman Denise Bentley and attorney Dawn Elliott — Jurich said the university would help with any problems associated with the arena's debt, “but I don’t want to be the only one that helps." He then said it is clear that U of L isn't wanted downtown even though the Yum Center has been an economic boon for the central business district.

“The city's made a lot out of this deal, and look at what it has done to downtown,” Jurich said. “Where did this new Omni Hotel come from? You think they’d have come down there without the Yum Center, I don’t think they would.”

When Bentley said that it would be disastrous if U of L abandoned the arena, Jurich interrupted: “Well, I think we should. I don’t think we’re wanted down there, so I think we should."

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He later said the university's demolition of the 22 silos near the Belknap campus gives it an ideal site. More than a decade ago, Jurich supported building a facility on campus. On Saturday's radio show, he said the university was "baited" into a downtown location.

Bentley, who resigned as a councilwoman in 2005, said she felt downtown crime needed to be addressed to make people attending games at the Yum Center feel safer. Jurich concurred and pointed to Louisville's record-breaking homicide totals this year. "Well, I think you hit that on the head," he said. "Look at our homicide rate right now."

Seven of Jefferson County's 118 homicides this year have occurred in the area that the Public Works department defines as the Central Business District, bounded by 15th Street to the west, Hancock Street to the east, Broadway to the south and the Ohio River to the north. The police department defines that area more narrowly, only stretching from 9th Street to Hancock, which would reduce the homicide total to three.

Scott C. Cox, chairman of the arena authority, said Tuesday afternoon that Jurich and other university officials agreed this year to be involved in securing the Yum Center's financial future. He said Jurich's comments on the radio won't make the negotiations more difficult but represent a frustration among U of L officials.

"I think that Mr. Jurich just gets tired of unfair criticism of him," Cox said. "He's been a good partner to the arena authority and all the citizens of Jefferson County."

Cox reiterated that under the lease agreement U of L signed in 2008 the athletics association committed to playing 30 regular seasons in the arena. He said council members are also doing their job as guardians of the taxpayer's interest. "I'm confident we're all going to work this out," he said.

Under the proposal — sponsored by members Kelly Downard, Marianne Butler and Angela Leet — the city would commit to continuing to make the maximum annual payments of $10.8 million a year toward the arena debt, forgoing the option of dropping to the $6.5 million minimum. But it would do so only if the university, state and Louisville Arena Authority were to meet certain conditions.

U of L athletics, for instance, would have to contribute an unspecified amount of money toward the construction bonds, and the mayor would determine if those increased payments are sufficient.

The other conditions would be that the state alters the arena's tax increment financing district to include more sales and property tax revenue; the arena authority obtains an opinion from its bond counsel that any new agreement would not negatively impact the bonds; and a bond insurer consents to those changes in writing.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Matt Bevin did not immediately respond to a voicemail seeking comment.

During last week's budget hearing some council members said the university hadn't done enough financially and that their constituents don’t see the arena's economic benefits. Those members said U of L should take the first step to address the debt crunch.

"Why is it that we have to be the first to stick our neck out there," said Councilman Brent Ackerson, D-26th. "… I just feel like we ought to be getting a commitment from U of L before we make a commitment."

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Jurich said on the radio show that U of L has done its part. "And that's the thing that really disappoints me so much is they've changed the whole conversation to blame it on the university, and I think that's criminal."

Downard said U of L has been a good partner for the city since the Yum Center first opened more than six years ago, and that Jurich was responding to "grandstanding" by some council members during last week's budget hearing.

"Tom Jurich has been a stand-up guy," Downard said. "He's tired of the political rhetoric, and I am too when people starting playing for the television cameras."

The Metro Council's Budget Committee last week tabled the arena measure despite Cox's warnings that the arena authority won't be able to cover the debt payments in 2020.

Downard, R-16th, said the sponsors of the debt proposal have since agreed to turn the ordinance into a non-binding resolution. He said the proposal also has been changed to allow the mayor to raise the minimum payments but no beyond the $10.8 million annual level.

The Budget Committee is scheduled to discuss the proposal again at 3:30 p.m. Friday at City Hall, 601 W. Jefferson St.

Reporter Phillip M. Bailey can be reached at (502) 582-4475 orpbailey@courier-journal.com