

I am little surprised that I hadn't seen this posted on here already. So I guess the responsibility falls to me to report what I know.

Mayor Jim Gray is holding a press conference today at 1:00 p.m. in the Cox Street parking lot behind Rupp Arena to announce...... well nobody really knows. There is a lot of speculation that there will be an announcement about a new arena being built or major renovations to Rupp.

I have placed a few phone calls to friends of mine that usually have the scuttlebutt on City Hall and I have heard from each of them that it is just a press conference to confirm the creation of the Task Force Mayor Gray campaigned on to discuss the possibility of a new arena.

Here is the thing. If this is true, then it would be extremely anti-climatic and an uncharacteristic misstep for the Gray administration. There is a lot of excitement in Lexington today because of the Cat's win last night. You will have a lot of disappointed people if the Mayor gets on the microphone to just announce that we are going to talk about a new arena. Yawn.

I did have one friend that speculated with me that it is possible, not likely but possible, that a deal has already been reached and following the excitement of last night, they have moved the time table up for an announcement.

So that is what I know. Not much, but wanted to share what I could. I am hoping that Gray continues to be Super Mayor and surprise everyone by digging the knife a little deeper into Louisville by announcing that the best arena in the Commonwealth will soon be in Lexington. Of course reality will probably be a little more prosaic and we will just learn that the discussion we all knew was going to happen, was in fact actually happening.

UPDATE:

Props to Joe Sonka of Barefoot and Progressive for the information.

A committee is established to study possible new arena. Privately funded. The Chairman will be Brent Rice (a lawyer that I personally know. His area of expertise is Real Estate, Public Utilities and Government Services. His is a good fit). The report is due early next year.



Here is a map of possible locations.



