The Card Cathedral of the Future
Posted by frankpos on June 24, 2008
If you are going to replace Freedom Hall–one of the most historic and famed venues for college basketball in the country–
it better be with something special.
And…it appears that it is….
(Excerpted from the C-J and the U of L Athletic web site)
The Louisville Arena Authority Inc. approved a plan at its monthly meeting this morning to sell $360 million in bonds to finance construction of the planned downtown arena.
The authority is scheduled to price the bonds the first week of July and hopes to close on their sale the week of July 14, according to authority chairman Jim Host.
Money would be in the bank for the project by mid-July. The $249 million arena is being built at Second and Main streets and will have the University of Louisville’s men’s and women’s basketball teams as its primary tenants.
The one-and-a-half acre plaza will be located along Main Street between Second and Third streets. Its centerpiece will be a 45-jet fountain designed in the shape of a basketball.
Each of the jets contains lights programmed to illuminate the fountain in a range of color schemes.
The plaza also will offer viewing of an 18-foot-by-32-foot video board, mounted on the arena roof.
David Reed, a landscape architect with the Louisville firm QK4, said the “primary theme” of movement and references to the Ohio River, both of which are incorporated into the arena design, also were used in creating the look of the plaza.
Interior renderings for the 717,000-square-foot, 22,000-seat arena show a 14,000-square-foot grand lobby with high ceilings, terrazzo flooring and large glass windows looking over the plaza and parts of downtown.
A restaurant and sports bar is planned at the rear of the main concourse, overlooking the river. It would seat 600.
The arena has 71 suites, 70 loge boxes, four party suites and about 3,000 club seats, which recently went on sale.
Host said construction plans remain on schedule.
Demolition of structures on the planned arena block is expected to be completed by the end of August, with construction of the arena beginning in earnest in September.
A 26-month build-out is planned, which would have the arena ready for a scheduled debut in November 2010.
(Special thanks to TWill4Pres at Cardinal Paradise for the wallpaper “The Future”.)
Roaches? said
Roaches at Freedom Hall…and?…yes?…your point, sir?
Roz
frankpos said
Yes, 2004cardinal I’ll agree, the Hall has shown its age the last 10 yrs, relative to the new arenas.
But…even now, it still is one of the best arenas in the country–after 50 yrs!
I admit I like Canseco the best, but the Fedex Forum was great too–and this reminds me of the Forum, but with a better location (river) and a nicer plaza.
2004cardinal said
I know Freedom Hall has a great history, but in reality the place is a kind of a dump. I used to work for one of the entities that put on the games and we used to walk thru the joint to kill cockroaches. The place was great, but if we want to keep getting great recruits then we had to build a new place of worship. It looks great!