Kentucky's Bahamas trip came at hefty cost

Adam Himmelsbach | USA TODAY Sports

Last spring, the University of Kentucky men's basketball team began aggressively seeking a destination for a foreign exhibition tour. The Wildcats were coming off a national title game appearance, and there was urgency to get their NBA-ready roster prepared for a potentially historic season. The coaches and administrators knew this group needed to be tested.

So UK arranged an eight-night August trip to the Bahamas that included multiple games against the national teams of the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, and the French pro club, Champagne Chalons-Reims Basket.

In the same month that 12 other Division I schools quietly faced lower-level competition in the Bahamas, UK's more prestigious contests at the posh Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island were shown live on ESPN's SEC Network.

But the trip—and the competition—came at a steep cost. Expense reports acquired through a Courier-Journal open-records request show that in addition to its own travel, UK paid for the flights, meals and lodging for all three teams it faced. It is believed to be the first time a college basketball program has ever gone to such lengths for an exhibition series.

UK's own team expenses were eye-opening, too, from coach John Calipari's $1,550-per night Atlantis hotel suite to a $23,855.50 reception dinner that included a band and an open bar.

The total cost of the trip was $792,845.68. By comparison, an expense report acquired in an open records request showed that North Carolina's Bahamas trip last summer cost $154,825.91. Portland State, meanwhile, paid a total of $37,714 for its seven-night stay.

"I needed professional-level teams," Wildcats coach John Calipari said this season. "I needed men. I needed experienced, physical guys that knew how to play. That's what this team needed, which is different. That's why most teams don't do what we've just done."

UK offset some costs by providing flights, lodging and tickets for 57 UK boosters who donated $6,000 apiece, contributing a total of $347,047.30. UK also received $17,962.28 in ticket revenue. Even with those adjustments, the final expenses were $431,836.10, nearly three times more than North Carolina's entire trip.

UK paid for 18 rooms for the Dominican Republic national team for six nights, 14 rooms for the Puerto Rican national reserves for six nights and 14 rooms for Champagne Chalons-Reims Basket for seven nights—each at $225 per room, per night. It also spent a total of $72,750 on airfare for the three teams, and $100 per day for their individual meal plans, totaling $36,000.

But UK was prepared to take on these expenses because it anticipated an important return.

"If we wouldn't have had three teams of that caliber, I don't think we would have done the trip," UK deputy athletics director DeWayne Peevy said. "I think we would have cancelled."

Chad Sanders, the director of basketball operations for the Dominican Republic national team, said UK's timing was perfect, as national teams were seeking to prepare for the FIBA basketball World Cup in Spain later that month. Sanders said he was contacted by two other universities seeking to face his team in exhibitions, but unlike UK, they did not offer incentives.

"Finances are a major issue when it comes to some of the smaller-country national team programs," Sanders said. "We don't have the budget to put everyone in a five-star hotel like the Atlantis. We can't afford that food for days at a time. So when Kentucky put together a package, it was a no-brainer for us. Kentucky has set the bar very high."

UK initially sought to lure the national teams of the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Mexico. Puerto Rico agreed, but ultimately sent its reserve team. Mexico declined. Sanders believes it was partly because of scheduling difficulties, and partly because UK's offer almost seemed too good to be true.

"Something like this has never been done before, and I think teams were a little nervous to jump on board," he said. "I think they were kind of caught off-guard thinking, 'Really, why would you do that?' When it was all said and done, Mexico, I think, realized that they had missed out."

The sports consulting firm Complete Sports Management, which received a $10,000 fee from UK to find opponents, ultimately brought in the French pro team.

In addition to paying for its opponents, it was clear UK spared few expenses on its own end. Peevy told The Courier-Journal that Calipari's $1,550-per-night suite at the Atlantis, which totaled $12,400 for the eight-night stay, was booked partly so team meetings could be held there. Peevy said that if Calipari had a regular room, UK would have had to rent out an additional meeting space at added cost.

Assistant coach John Robic stayed in the second most expensive room of the travelling party—$439 per night. Most other assistants and administrators were in $389 and $275 per-night rooms, while the rooms of players and select staff members cost $225 per night. The Wildcats all stayed two-to-a-room, aside from sophomore center Dakari Johnson, who had his own room. UK's players and staff members also had $150-a-day meal plans.

Peevy said the final expenses minus revenue of $431,836.10 actually came in just under the available budget of $433,000. He said UK was able to spend rather freely for this trip partly because its last exhibition tour, a 2010 trip to Canada, cost just $50,853.84. Also, the Wildcats have 21 home games this year, up from the usual 20, and one game typically brings in about $700,000.

But most importantly, Peevy said, UK knew that these Wildcats needed a challenge. They could have followed the other schools and gone to the Bahamas to face local—and mostly overmatched—all-star teams. But they determined there would be little value in that. They wanted a test.

"You look at anybody else who played a foreign tour, even in the Bahamas, they were all teams where maybe a 10th-grader might have been the best player on the team," Peevy said. "That wasn't worth it to us."

The Wildcats played six games over a grueling nine-day stretch, and the setup actually played a role in the birth of Calipari's unorthodox platoon system.

Near the end of the lengthy stay, there seemed to be a sense that the trip was dragging a bit, even at such a luxurious locale. Peevy said the team initially scheduled six games because coaches expected the Wildcats to struggle early, and that they would use the final days to find their way.

Instead, UK played well at the start. The games were mostly competitive, and Kentucky actually lost its final game of the trip, 63-62, to the Dominican Republic. Of course, it has not lost a game since.

It is hard to quantify if the expensive and excessive trip was worth it. But if this season ends with another national championship, the Wildcats might look back at the eight nights in the Bahamas as the root of their run.

Himmelsbach writes for The Courier-Journal.