A new indoor football facility is something coach Mark Stoops has wanted for his team for several years. (Vicky Graff Photo)
John Calipari has done his best to push UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart into allocating more money for basketball facility upgrades. Calipari has insisted one reason for the program’s demise — no Final Four appearances since 2015 — is that the “wow” factor is gone for UK basketball facilities.
Facilities are important, but not that important and I think Barnhart is doing the right thing by not giving in to Calipari’s demands. Barnhart has said he’ll consider what Calipari wants but also made it clear in an interview with Jon Hale of The Courier-Journal that other coaches need facility upgrades also.
Top priority is a new indoor football facility that will also create a better indoor track facility. Currently UK football and track share an indoor facility but a new indoor facility will have a full 120-yard football field once fundraising is finished.
“Our track issue in our indoor (facility) was a safety issue,” Barnhart told Hale. “We’ve had players that have physically gone down hitting that track and skidding. It’s not safe.
“We can’t run (football) practices safely. That building was 30 years old. It’s a little different than some of the other things we’re talking about, so we had to fix that.”
Barnhart estimated that the upgrade will impact over 200 athletes. A new basketball dorm would impact 10-12 players.
Barnhart cited financial concerns and not overextending UK’s finances — and remember that UK is one of the few self-supporting athletic departments in the nation.
“Making sure we’re just not doing something to say we did it, that there’s a purpose behind it,” Barnhart told Hale.
Makes sense to me. Probably doesn’t make sense to Calipari, but it should and the basketball facilities UK has now are just fine.
Plus, I tend to think NIL is going to impact recruiting/program success more than any facility upgrade will.
3 Responses
Good for Mitch Barnhart, it was the right decision. Football has earned the upgrades by the way, and the new facility will certainly help more athletes in other sports too, not just a few basketball players.
Yep, losing first round games in the Dance won’t pay for much.
Mitch ! Thanks for doing the right thing for a change
Cal is the issue why we haven’t made to the final four . And the only reason. . Mark has proven himself over and over . Build whatever mark wants he’s you
Money maker . FOOTBALL will be so competitive for years to come under Mark Stoops .. keep him happy
Kentucky deserves to be a FOOTBALL SCHOOL ALSO .. maybe someday we will find a Basketball COACH that’s has a fire in his gut to be the BEST
We don’t have that . He has proven that time and time again .. look at we’re we are at NOW !!!