That's not the point. A major sports venue should have instant association with the city/area in which it lies. For example, most people, when they think of Louisville, they think of the Derby, Ali and Denny Crum, probably in that order. The name of the arena should reflect something like that. Or, name it after an individual donor or other historical figure. Not some tacky corporation that might disappear in a year (not that I'm saying that will happen with Yum, but the original name of the Astros' stadium was Enron Field, and Baltimore's NFL stadium has had about 10 different names, all tacky).

 

Perhaps it should be called the Denny Yum! center and all will be happy!

Louisville really is an awesome asset to our Commonwealth. I hate that the rest of the state views our city the way they do, but can deal with their feelings. Like anything else, I bet those that hate on us the most, have never been here for any sort of substantive amount of time.

 

I'll admit, I used to hate the thought of Louisville before I had to spend a good deal of time up there, but I love it now. Great city and great people. :thumb:

We could possibly get the SEC Tournament back in Kentucky.

 

How does it make sense to play the SEC Tournament in Louisville?

 

As far as the this new venue being host to the SEC Tournament, I think it makes a lot more sense that some are willing to admit. 1993 was the last year that the SEC Tournament was played on the home court of a member school. Since that time the tournament has been hosted by Atlanta, Memphis, New Orleans, Nashville, and St. Petersburg.

 

According to Google Maps, the average driving distances from each of the member schools to the host city is as follows: Atlanta - 296, Nashville - 325, Memphis - 345, New Orleans - 457, St. Pete - 671.

 

Louisville at an average distance of 448 miles is actually closer than two of the former host sites. Combine that with a brand new state of the art arena, and I could see the city of Louisville making a serious bid to land the tournament if they would choose to do so.

 

Obviously history has shown that the SEC is going to want to play the majority of the tournaments in Atlanta, which makes sense as it is the closest to each school on average and the closets non home arena to 5 of the 12 schools overall.

 

But given that the SEC likes to have a change of pace every couple of years, I believe that Louisville would not be out of question as a potential destination at some point in the future.