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![]() The KFC Yum! Center logo [top] and the convention center in 2011 as seen from Main Street in Downtown Louisville | |
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Address | 1 Arena Plaza |
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Location | Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. |
Coordinates | 38°15′27″N85°45′14″W / 38.25750°N 85.75389°W |
Owner | Louisville Arena Authority |
Operator | Anschutz Entertainment Group / ASM Global |
Capacity | Basketball: 22,090 Volleyball: 21,500 End stage: 17,500 Max: 22,090 |
Surface | Multi-Surface Denny Crum Court [1] |
Construction | |
Broke ground | November 28, 2006 [2] |
Opened | October 10, 2010 |
Construction cost | $238 Million [3] |
Architect | Populous (formerly HOK Sport) [4] Louis and Henry Group [4] C.L. Anderson Architecture [4] Jill Lewis Smith Architects [4] |
Project manager | PC Sports [5] |
Structural engineer | Walter P Moore [6] |
Services engineer | Smith Seckman Reid, Inc. |
General contractor | M. A. Mortenson Company [6] |
Tenants | |
Louisville Cardinals (NCAA) Men's basketball (2010–present) Women's basketball (2010–present) Women's volleyball (2011–2017) Louisville Xtreme (IFL) (2021) | |
Website | |
kfcyumcenter.com |
The KFC Yum! Center [7] is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Downtown Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It is named after the KFC restaurant chain and Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC. Adjacent to the Ohio River waterfront, it is located on Main Street between 2nd and 3rd Streets and opened on October 10, 2010. [8] [9] The arena is part of a $450 million project that includes a 975-car parking structure and floodwall.
The Louisville Cardinals men's and women's basketball teams from the University of Louisville are the primary tenants of the arena complex. [8] The U of L women's volleyball team began using the arena as a part-time home in 2011, [10] and made the arena its main home in 2012. [11] With 22,090 seats for basketball, it is the largest arena in the United States by seating capacity designed primarily for basketball, [lower-alpha 1] and the second-largest used for college basketball, behind the JMA Wireless Dome at Syracuse University, a venue built to house football and lacrosse in addition to basketball. The arena's current attendance record for a sporting event is 22,815, set March 9, 2013, against Notre Dame (men's basketball). The current attendance record for any event is 23,085, set March 9, 2019, when Metallica played their WorldWired Tour. [13]
From April to May 2021, it was home to the Louisville Xtreme of the Indoor Football League, [14] [15] but they were voted out of the league after five games. [16]
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Early arena planning focused on two potential arena sites: one owned by the Louisville Water Company bounded by Liberty Street, Muhammad Ali Blvd, 2nd and 3rd Streets, and one owned by Louisville Gas & Electric (LG&E) on the waterfront between 2nd and 3rd Streets on Main. [17] In March 2006, University of Louisville men's basketball coach Rick Pitino stated he would not coach in an arena built at the water company site. [18] This came at a time when the House budget committee earmarked funding for the arena only if it was built at the water company site. Others, including Papa John's Pizza founder John Schnatter, a major donor to the U of L athletic program, criticized the LG&E location due to its higher cost. [19]
On March 3, 2006, Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher, flanked by Louisville mayor Jerry Abramson, announced at a rally in Frankfort his strong preference for locating the new arena at the LG&E site along the Louisville riverfront as it was "undoubtedly the best site for economic development" and would give the state a good return on its investment. Kentucky senate president David L. Williams pledged to remove the site preference from the budget proposal. [19]
About two months later on April 23, 2006, the Louisville Arena Authority released the design for the interior. [9] The number of seats increased from the original 19,000 to 22,000; it would be divided up between 11,348 seats in the lower bowl, with the remainder on the upper tier. The seat width also increased from 19 to 20 inches. Also included in the release was a proposed sports bar that would be located on the main concourse; it would be open year-round and have views of the Ohio River. The number of suites would increase to 72 that would be located on two levels between the main and upper concourses; they would be twice as large as those in Freedom Hall. A public plaza and concourse along Main Street was also revealed. [9]
Prior to the release of the design, an arena report urged the facility to incorporate energy-saving elements into the construction. [20] Other recommendations included the avoidance of large, blank walls, the inclusion of public art, and the provision of year-round uses inside the building.
On May 21, 2007, the Louisville Arena Authority voted unanimously to remove a hotel from the arena project. [8] The 425-room hotel, which was envisioned as one way to pay off the project, was deleted because other revenues to cover the $252 million construction cost were projected to be higher than expected. The hotel would have also taken land away from a public plaza along Main Street. The Greater Louisville Hotel and Lodging Association also supported the measure, stating that downtown Louisville had enough projected rooms. [8]
The hotel was expected to contribute $1.3 million in annual lease payments, but other sources of revenue were hoped to cover the $573 million in total debt over 30 years on a $339 million bond issue for the arena. Originally, the Kentucky Finance Cabinet projected $211 million in new tax revenues in 2005. [8] A more recent and comprehensive survey was completed recently and the projected revenue increased to $265 million. The other sources of revenue to cover the deletion of the hotel include: [8]
The removal of the hotel would allow for a wider Main Street plaza and would allow for new features, such as a Washington Street entrance. [8] It would also allow for more design flexibility and would lend itself to host after-hour concerts and other events on the plaza.
On April 19, 2010, it was announced that Louisville-based fast food chain Yum! Brands would pay $13.5 million for the naming rights [21] and would sell the products of three of its chains—KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell—in seven concession stands within the arena. [7]
![]() | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (September 2015) |
The arena's features include an integrated scoring and video display system, which includes large LED video displays within the seating bowl, with the display and control system provided by Daktronics.
As a result of the subtracted hotel and the revised projected revenues, the arena, which would have lost $123,000 a year originally, might turn a small profit. [8] The arena would generate $9.2 million a year in rent, merchandise, concessions and other revenues, along with funds from a $2 ticket tax on every Louisville men's basketball game during the first 30 years of the arena's operation. The arena would spend just under $9 million a year, generating an annual profit of $196,000.
Another reason for the revised operating expenses is the reimbursement fee that the Louisville Arena Authority must pay to the Kentucky State Fair Board for the arena's impact on Freedom Hall. [8] The decrease in revenues, from $1.3 million to $738,000 during the first 10 years of operations of the new arena, is the result of a revision taking into account fewer events for the center.
On May 28, 2007, it was announced that the Louisville Metro Council was to propose an arena-financing deal that would save city taxpayers $3.4 million/year, or $100 million over three decades. [22] The proposal, required the arena officials to exhaust other revenue sources, such as naming rights and luxury suite sales, before asking the metro government to pay more than its minimum pledge. The minimum pledge was $206 million towards the construction of the arena in annual installments between 2010 and 2039. Under the deal, the Louisville Arena Authority can ask the local government for up to $3.5 million more a year to cover the debt only if at least five other sources are drained. If the Louisville Arena Authority would have to use additional city funds for two straight years, the Louisville Metro Council has the right to audit the arena's revenues.
The financing agreement allowed $339 million in bonds through the state of Kentucky's Economic Development Finance Authority to be issued to construct the $252 million arena. [22] The total debt on the bonds, $573 million over 30 years, will be paid through several sources. These include the city's $206 million commitment, $265 million from a tax-increment financing district, $179 million from advertising rights inside the arena, $63 million from luxury box sales, and at least $37 million in arena naming rights. The tax-increment financing district will allow part of the anticipated growth in state taxes to help pay for the arena. The arena's share of that revenue is capped at $265 million, although the project will be able to use the excess revenues to pay down the debt. It is expected to generate $574 million over 20 years.
In September 2008, financing was completed for the new waterfront arena.
On May 3, 2007, construction began on a new electrical substation for Downtown Louisville. [23] The previous substation, located on the block of River Road, Main, 2nd and 3rd Streets, was relocated across the street at 3rd and River Road. The new substation, projected to cost $63 million, was completed in October 2008, at which time the land that housed the old substation was transferred to the Louisville Arena Authority for construction of the new arena. Work started on the new arena in November 2008. The complex was officially completed on October 10, 2010.
In June 2010, Gov. Steve Beshear and Mayor Jerry Abramson announced a new $3 million streetscape improvement project directly underneath the Clark Memorial Bridge, a three-block area from Main Street to River Road, which will be transformed into a plaza. This includes a new decorative lighting system under the refurbished Clark Memorial Bridge, wide sidewalks, seats, new pedestrian and festival areas, and extensive plantings, making this an inviting promenade for the new KFC YUM! Center. The project will be completed in time for the October 2010 opening of the arena. [24]
In 2010, the glassed-in skywalk system, called Louie Link, was extended across 3rd Street from the new $16 million Skywalk Garage, an eight-level, 860-space parking facility on 3rd Street, to the new KFC Yum! Center.
The Task Force meetings were not without controversy. At first, task force member and University of Louisville athletics director Tom Jurich, along with University of Louisville president James Ramsey and Task Force member John Schnatter (founder of Papa John's Pizza), were ardently opposed to a downtown site and supported instead a campus arena, or a new arena built near Freedom Hall at the Kentucky Exposition Center. Jurich and Ramsey would later support the waterfront site. Schnatter, joined by fellow task force member and Humana co-founder David Jones, strongly supported a new arena at the water company site, located four blocks down 2nd Street, or the Exposition Center, which was the cheapest option. They paid over $200,000 for a study that showed the water company site would be much less expensive than the riverfront site. However, the two dropped their lobbying effort after it did not seem to change the minds of the rest of the task force. [25]
Date | Main performer(s) | Tour / Concert name | Attendance | Revenue |
---|---|---|---|---|
November 10 | Justin Bieber | My World Tour | 15,943 | $374,638 |
Date | Main performer(s) | Tour / Concert name | Attendance | Revenue |
---|---|---|---|---|
February 11 | Kid Rock | Born Free | 17,500/17,500 | |
October 11 | Taylor Swift | Speak Now World Tour | 14,848 | $1,003,828 |
Date | Main performer(s) | Tour / Concert name | Attendance | Revenue |
---|---|---|---|---|
November 2 | Justin Bieber | Believe Tour | 16,384 | $1,158,153 |
Date | Main performer(s) | Tour / Concert name | Attendance | Revenue |
---|---|---|---|---|
December 12 | Beyoncé | The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour | 14,979 / 14,979 | $1,746,575 |
Date | Main performer(s) | Tour / Concert name | Attendance | Revenue |
---|---|---|---|---|
March 14 | Maroon 5 | Maroon V Tour | 17,645 / 17,645 | $1,484,359 |
June 2 | Taylor Swift | The 1989 World Tour | 16,242 / 16,242 | $1,863,281 |
Date | Main performer(s) | Tour / Concert name | Attendance | Revenue |
---|---|---|---|---|
January 16 | Madonna | Rebel Heart Tour | 14,558 | |
April 20 | Justin Bieber | Purpose World Tour | 16,496 | $1,513,138 |
Date | Main performer(s) | Tour / Concert name | Attendance | Revenue |
---|---|---|---|---|
July 21 | The Smashing Pumpkins | Shiny and Oh So Bright Tour | ||
September 22 | Maroon 5 | Red Pill Blues Tour | 13,909 / 17,767 | $1,219,048 |
Date | Main performer(s) | Tour / Concert name | Attendance | Revenue |
---|---|---|---|---|
January 25 | Alan Jackson | Tour | ||
March 9 | Metallica | WorldWired Tour | 23,085 | $2,531,895 |
March 12 | Kiss | End of the Road World Tour | 14,638 | $1,444,057 |
April 4 | Kenny Chesney | Songs for the Saints Tour | ||
May 8 | Tool | Fear Inoculum | ||
August 3 | Shawn Mendes | Shawn Mendes: The Tour | ||
October 9 | Phil Collins | Not Dead Yet Tour | ||
October 11 | Thomas Rhett | Very Hot Summer Tour | ||
October 17 | Carrie Underwood | Cry Pretty Tour 360 | ||
October 22 | Celine Dion | Courage World Tour [26] | 12,465 | $1,531,237 |
November 2 | Chris Stapleton | Chris Stapleton's All-American Road Show Tour | ||
November 6 | The Chainsmokers | World War Joy Tour | ||
November 9 | Keith Sweat | Louisville Soul Music Festival | ||
November 11 | Slayer | The Final Campaign | ||
November 6 | For King & Country | Burn The Ships Tour | ||
December 7 | Gaither Homecoming | Gaither Christmas | ||
December 11 | Luke Combs | Beer Never Broke My Heart | ||
Date | Main performer(s) | Tour / Concert name | Attendance | Revenue |
---|---|---|---|---|
February 14 | Brantley Gilbert | Fire't Up Tour | ||
March 10 | The Lumineers | III: The World Tour | ||
Date | Main performer(s) | Tour / Concert name | Attendance | Revenue |
---|---|---|---|---|
November 28 | For King & Country | A Drummer Boy Christmas | ||
December 11 | Pentatonix | The Evergreen Christmas Tour 2021 | ||
Date | Main performer(s) | Tour / Concert name | Attendance | Revenue |
---|---|---|---|---|
March 11 | Billie Eilish | Happier Than Ever, The World Tour | 16,003 / 16,003 | $1,714,580 |
April 16 | Elton John | Farewell Yellow Brick Road | ||
May 20 | Kid Rock | Bad Reputation Tour | ||
Date | Main performer(s) | Tour / Concert name | Attendance | Revenue |
---|---|---|---|---|
April 20 | Morgan Wallen | One Night At A Time Tour | ||
July 25 | The Chicks | The Chicks World Tour 2023 |
Date | Main performer(s) | Tour / Concert name | Attendance | Revenue |
---|---|---|---|---|
January 3 | Travis Scott | Circus Maximus Tour | ||
April 13 | AJR | The Maybe Man Tour | ||
April 22 | Bad Bunny | Most Wanted Tour | ||
The arena held Kentucky's first UFC event on March 3, 2011, for UFC Live: Sanchez vs. Kampmann . [27] The UFC returned to the arena on June 8, 2024, for UFC on ESPN: Cannonier vs. Imavov . [28]
KFC Corporation, doing business as KFC, is an American fast food restaurant chain that specializes in fried chicken. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, it is the world's second-largest restaurant chain after McDonald's, with over 30,000 locations globally in 150 countries as of April 2024. The chain is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, a restaurant company that also owns the Pizza Hut and Taco Bell chains.
The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. Chartered in 1798 as the Jefferson Seminary, it became in the 19th century one of the first city-funded public colleges in the United States. The university is mandated by the Kentucky General Assembly to be a "Preeminent Metropolitan Research University".
The Louisville Cardinals are the NCAA athletic teams representing the University of Louisville. The Cardinals teams play in the Atlantic Coast Conference, beginning in the 2014 season. While playing in the Big East Conference from 2005 through 2013, the Cardinals captured 17 regular season Big East titles and 33 Big East Tournament titles totaling 50 Big East Championships across all sports. On November 28, 2012, Louisville received and accepted an invitation to join the Atlantic Coast Conference and became a participating member in all sports in 2014. In 2016, Lamar Jackson won the school its first Heisman Trophy.
John Hampton "Papa John" Schnatter is an American entrepreneur who founded the Papa John's pizza restaurant chain in 1984. Schnatter started the business in the back of his father's tavern after selling his car and using the proceeds to purchase used restaurant equipment. As of 2017, his net worth was more than $1 billion.
Freedom Hall is a multi-purpose arena in Louisville, Kentucky, on the grounds of the Kentucky Exposition Center, which is owned by the Commonwealth of Kentucky. It is best known for its use as a basketball arena, previously serving as the home of the University of Louisville Cardinals and, since November 2020, as the home of the Bellarmine University Knights. It has hosted Kiss, Grateful Dead, Chicago, AC/DC, WWE events, Mötley Crüe, Elvis Presley, The Doors, Janis Joplin, Creed, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, Coldplay and many more. As well as the Louisville Cardinals men's basketball team from 1956 to 2010, the arena's tenants included the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association from 1970 until the ABA-NBA merger in June 1976, and the Louisville Cardinals women's team from its inception in 1975 to 2010. The Kentucky Stickhorses of the North American Lacrosse League used Freedom Hall from 2011 until the team folded in 2013. From 2015 to 2019 it has hosted the VEX Robotics Competition World Championship Finals yearly in mid-April.
Downtown Louisville is the largest central business district in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the urban hub of the Louisville, Kentucky Metropolitan Area. Its boundaries are the Ohio River to the north, Hancock Street to the east, York and Jacob Streets to the south, and 9th Street to the west. As of 2015, the population of downtown Louisville was 4,700, although this does not include directly surrounding areas such as Old Louisville, Butchertown, NuLu, and Phoenix Hill.
The Galt House Hotel is a 25-story, 1,310-room hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, established in 1972. It is named for two consecutive nearby historic hotels, both named Galt House, erected in 1835 and 1869; the first was destroyed by fire in 1865, and the second, demolished in 1921. The Galt House is the city's only hotel on the Ohio River.
The Kentucky Exposition Center (KEC), is a large multi-use facility in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. Originally built in 1956. It is overseen by the Kentucky Venues and is the sixth largest facility of its type in the U.S., with 1,300,000 square feet (120,000 m2) of indoor space. KEC has two arenas, almost 700,000 sq. ft of Class A exhibit space, nearly 500 acres of outdoor planning space. A majority of the 1.3 million square feet is contiguous.
Louisville Gardens is a multi-purpose, 6,000-seat arena, in Louisville, Kentucky, that opened in 1905, as the Jefferson County Armory. It celebrated its 100th anniversary as former city mayor Jerry Abramson's official "Family-Friendly New Years Eve" celebration location. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Louisville Museum Plaza was a 62-story skyscraper that was planned for Louisville, Kentucky, United States. By August 1, 2011, despite the expenditure of public funds on its behalf, its developers had officially announced that they were abandoning plans to build it. The 703-foot (214 m) tall skyscraper was projected to cost $490 million and contain a 1-acre (0.40 ha) public plaza and park, condominiums, lofts, a hotel, retail shops and a museum. If built, it would have replaced the AEGON Center as the tallest building in Kentucky. The avant-garde design of the skyscraper was chosen by New York City REX architect Joshua Prince-Ramus. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on October 25, 2007, and construction at that time was expected to be complete by 2010. Delays disrupted the project. Prior to announcing that the project had been abandoned, Craig Greenberg, one of the project's four developers, had stated that he was "hopeful that construction will start this year [2010]" and that he also expected the project to be completed by late 2012.
The Ohio River Bridges Project was a transportation project in the Louisville metropolitan area involving the reconstruction of the Kennedy Interchange, the completion of two new Ohio River bridges, and the reconstruction of ramps on Interstate 65 between Muhammad Ali Boulevard and downtown Louisville.
The George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge, known locally as the Second Street Bridge, is a four-lane cantilevered truss bridge crossing the Ohio River between Louisville, Kentucky, and Jeffersonville, Indiana, that carries US 31.
Since it earliest days, the economy of Louisville, Kentucky, has been underpinned by the shipping and cargo industries. Today, Louisville is home to dozens of companies and organizations across several industrial classifications.
The West Main District is one of the five districts of downtown Louisville, Kentucky. The district, or a portion of it, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as West Main Street Historic District, due to its containment of some of the oldest structures in the city. The buildings of this district boast the largest collection of cast iron façades of anywhere outside New York's SoHo district. The district also features "Museum Row", a collection of several notable museums located within just a few blocks of each other.
The Louisville Cardinals men's basketball team is the men's college basketball program representing the University of Louisville in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) of NCAA Division I. The Cardinals have officially won two NCAA championships in 1980 and 1986 ; and have officially been to 8 Final Fours in 39 official NCAA tournament appearances while compiling 61 tournament wins.
Louisville, Kentucky is home to numerous structures that are noteworthy due to their architectural characteristics or historic associations, the most noteworthy being the Old Louisville neighborhood, the third largest historic preservation district in the United States. The city also boasts the postmodern Humana Building and an expanding Waterfront Park which has served to remove the former industrial appearance of the riverfront.
The Louisville Xtreme were an indoor football team based in Louisville, Kentucky, with home games at the KFC Yum! Center. They began play as the Kentucky Xtreme in the Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL) in 2013 and 2014. Midway through the 2014 CIFL season, the league removed the team's membership and the Xtreme temporarily suspended operations. After playing the 2015 season in the semi-professional Minor League Football Alliance (MLFA), the team rebranded as the Louisville Xtreme in 2017. In 2020, the Xtreme were added to the American Arena League (AAL) but cancelled its season citing the COVID-19 pandemic. For the 2021 season, the Xtreme were announced to be joining the National Arena League, but instead joined the Indoor Football League three months later.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
Jim Host is an American businessman best known for founding Host Communications, a pioneering collegiate sports-marketing and production services company that was acquired by IMG in 2007 for $74.3 million. Host sits on the National Advisory Board of the College of Communication and Information at the University of Kentucky.
The 2018–19 Louisville Cardinals men's basketball team represented the University of Louisville during the 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team played its home games on Denny Crum Court at the KFC Yum! Center in downtown Louisville, Kentucky as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference. They were led by first-year head coach Chris Mack who was hired on March 27, 2018, after it was announced interim coach David Padgett would not be retained. They finished the season 20–14, to finish in 7th place. In the ACC Tournament, they beat Notre Dame in the Second Round before losing to North Carolina in the Quarterfinals. They received a at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament and received a 7th seed before losing to 10th seed Minnesota in the First Round.