Why Philips Arena?

[SacCat]

Seems like the South Regional Final should be at the Mercedes Benz Stadium (I’m assuming it could be set up for basketball) verses a small venue like Philips Arena. Previous years it was at the Georgia Dome where Cats fans could descend upon the city but this is going to be hard/expensive ticket to come by. It would also be a good prep for playing in a dome if we made it to the final 4. Atlanta lost a bunch of revenue with this decision IMO.

 

[JerseyCat84_rivals57050]

Seems like the South Regional Final should be at the Mercedes Benz Dome (I’m assuming it could be set up for basketball) verses a small venue like Philips Arena. Previous years it was at the Georgia Dome where Cats fans could descend upon the city but this is going to be hard/expensive ticket to come by. It would also be a good prep for playing in a dome if we made it to the final 4. Atlanta lost a bunch of revenue with this decision IMO.

Dome would be for a Final Four type event.

 

[loublue22_rivals308424]

a few years ago they said no more regionals in football stadiums, only FFs

 

[ukfan041]

Oh damn...I thought it was in Mercedes Benz Stadium too. Gonna definitely be tough

 

[anon_9qtxg60vqzy0y]

Seems like the South Regional Final should be at the Mercedes Benz Dome (I’m assuming it could be set up for basketball) verses a small venue like Philips Arena. Previous years it was at the Georgia Dome where Cats fans could descend upon the city but this is going to be hard/expensive ticket to come by. It would also be a good prep for playing in a dome if we made it to the final 4. Atlanta lost a bunch of revenue with this decision IMO.

Phillips seats 21,000. Although much smaller it will still be to UK's advantage with our crowd. Particularly now since Tennessee lost.

 

[65pacecar]

UK traditionally seems to struggle shooting in Domes, I think Phillips is a better venue for them.

 

[SacCat]

UK traditionally seems to struggle shooting in Domes, I think Phillips is a better venue for them.

Agree that it will be easier to shoot in a smaller arena but I saw online that Philips only seats about 18k for basketball games these days and that’s going to make for a hard ticket for cats fans.

 

[KyCatFan1]

It sucks that it is a prime location for us, but will be limited by seats. Our fans will have to buy up any tickets Arizona or Virginia fans bought.[roll] I look for us to play some neutral site games in domes in the future to give our guys more experience playing games at Final Four caliber venues. Cal seems to always be ahead of the game.

 

[The_Spirit_Of_Numbers2]

I mean, just being realistic. Uk is not a shooting team, less so than everyone else really.. They don't need to hit outside shots like most teams to begin with to even worry about something like that

 

[The_Catfather]

Virginia and Tennessee getting beat offsets the smaller venue. They would've had couple thousand fans each at a minimum with zero of them rooting for UK. As it is, Cincinnati is probably the biggest competition for tickets, and I'm not even sure how well their fans travel. Kansas State won't have much of a crowd, assuming they beat UMBC, Nevada wouldn't bring more than 100 people if they upset Cincinnati and Loyola Chicago presumably doesn't have a fervent traveling fanbase.

This worked out beautifully. We're headed to a Cat-friendly city with the two biggest fanbases that would've been competitors for tickets sitting at home.

 

[Rush2112 UK]

It did indeed work out beautifully, and in terms of a home court environment, this is ideal: it's a lot more intimidating to have a full house in an arena vs. a dome, which is so huge that it disperses crowd noise at floor level. Cincy, if they're in it, will have their allotment, and nothing more. Ditto Loyola and Kansas St.; UMBC would probably have less. The rest will be BLUE and WHITE, to the tune of 15,000+ Catlanta, indeed.

 

[KentuckyStout]

NCAA Ticket Exchange $394.75 per guest, lol.

 

[The_Spirit_Of_Numbers2]

Virginia and Tennessee getting beat offsets the smaller venue. They would've had couple thousand fans each at a minimum with zero of them rooting for UK. As it is, Cincinnati is probably the biggest competition for tickets, and I'm not even sure how well their fans travel. Kansas State won't have much of a crowd, assuming they beat UMBC, Nevada wouldn't bring more than 100 people if they upset Cincinnati and Loyola Chicago presumably doesn't have a fervent traveling fanbase.

This worked out beautifully. We're headed to a Cat-friendly city with the two biggest fanbases that would've been competitors for tickets sitting at home.

Loyola has a pretty good following from what ive seen in 5 games this year, especially right now. This is a once in a lifetime show for them. They will be there

 

[dgtatu01]

Hey guys, 1995 called and they want their UK worry back. Rick Pitino is not our coach and we don't shoot 20-30 threes every game. We drive the lane and score on layups and free throws for the most part. Playing in a dome is to our advantage not to our detriment.

 

[bigblueinsanity_rivals250340]

Hey guys, 1995 called and they want their UK worry back. Rick Pitino is not our coach and we don't shoot 20-30 threes every game. We drive the lane and score on layups and free throws for the most part. Playing in a dome is to our advantage not to our detriment.

Exactly. A done would benefit this team because it would bother other teams jump shooters

 

[melvinm]

It would be pretty hard to play in the GA Dome. Why? Because they already imploded it.

 

[BankerCat12]

It would be pretty hard to play in the GA Dome. Why? Because they already imploded it.

A bus got in my way and I did not see it.

 

[coach-2]

I mean, just being realistic. Uk is not a shooting team, less so than everyone else really.. They don't need to hit outside shots like most teams to begin with to even worry about something like that

They are shooting 40% from 3 over the last 10 games and 36% on the season.

 

[The_Spirit_Of_Numbers2]

What i mean is they just won a tournament game with zero.. no other teams could get away with that.. so it matters less to them than anyone left by far