LOUISVILLE, KY. (WDRB) -- Lots of loose ends today, so let's wrap them up here . . .
-- THE BOBBY PETRINO DRUMBEAT continues among University of Kentucky fans, and who can blame them? Last night, talking with Lachlan McLean, I said that I don't think UK would have anything to do with Petrino, as long as Mitch Barnhart leads the hiring, and I still believe that. But I also noted, something I hadn't been hearing elsewhere but experienced in dealing with Petrino, that his longtime animosity toward UK might prevent him from being interested. A couple of people who have been fairly close to him today agreed with that, one did not. Petrino not only had disdain for UK in his time in Louisville, but lacked respect for the program. Aside from tacking on a late touchdown, then taking a knee to "give Kentucky what they want," Petrino had no love for the Big Blue. In one of his first news conferences as Atlanta Falcons coach, he accosted a reporter wearing a UK shirt and advised him to "upgrade" his wardrobe.
But that's not the whole story. While I think Petrino would be best served by moving into a situation where the talent is already in the pipeline, there are some advantages to the UK situation. While Tennessee and Auburn could both have open positions (and both already are in the Petrino rumor mill), of the three schools, the UK coach would take over with the least pressure. And the UK coach might be the most likely to still be employed in three years. Petrino already knows the lay of the land here, would be recruiting in the same southeastern haunts he did with U of L, except now he'd be doing it with UK and SEC backing, and would do it, frankly, without the withering media spotlight that he'd face in Auburn or Knoxville or some more higher-profile SEC hangouts.
There's a danger, and I realize this, in making conclusions based on experiences that were long ago, especially when someone has been through as much as Petrino. Knowing him, if Tennessee or Auburn were interested, there's nothing in his makeup that would suggest to me that he'd settle for going to a lower-profile outpost in Lexington. However, he'd probably be smart to at least listen, and though some of his actions haven't been the most intelligent, and his career maneuvering has been anything but savvy at times, Petrino might well have matured to the point to at least listen to UK.
The one element of personality needed for a coach to make such a move, go to UK after coaching U of L, that deep resonant revolving to the spotlight, certainly exists with Petrino.
At the very least, it'd be fantastic copy for us in the sportswriting business in this state, and a fascinating turn of events to watch unfold. Bobby, I don't think, cared a great deal for me in his time here, and he wasn't an easy guy to work with. But I've had nothing but respect for his coaching ability, and regardless of where it is, hope he can get another chance and make good.
-- MONDAY NIGHT FALLOUT. Who says replacement officials are bad for business? Last night's 90-minute ESPN SportsCenter after the Packers-Seahawks game was the most-watched ever, delivering a 5.2 rating (6.46 million viewers). And this afternoon, I heard on FoxSports Radio tonight that ProFootballTalk.com did a million more page views than its usual Tuesday. With numbers like that, don't expect NFL execs to be too worried about replacement ref backlash.
-- NBA IN LOUISVILLE. Tim Sullivan of The Courier-Journal put Tom Jurich on the record today as being unhappy about city leaders meeting to talk about the NBA at the KFC Yum! Center and leaving U of L out of the party. U of L certainly has a stake. Here's why all of this is important -- while there's no team interested in the NBA at the moment, with the backing of city leadership (not to mention an NBA-ready arena), it's certainly easier to approach NBA teams and be taken seriously than it was in the past, when you might or might not be able to count on a decent reception when an NBA team turned this direction. However, the first question an astute NBA owner would ask when approached about Louisville is "what's the arena situation with the U of L lease?" The city needs to have an answer for that. So it would seem that sitting down and talking to U of L would be a more important early step than sitting around talking about how much you want an NBA team. Though from the looks of things, pressuring U of L through hand-wringing over arena shortfalls might be the main strategy.
It sets up a dangerous scenario for the city in which the city uses a shortfall to pressure U of L, but U of L has no incentive to avoid a shortfall. One thing I can add to the conversation on this -- if the city wants the arena free and clear, it can just figure out a way to extract those silos along I-65 near the Belknap Campus and figure out a way for U of L to build an arena there, and they could have as many NBA teams, arena football leagues and whatever else they wanted downtown and everyone would live (almost) happily ever after. (A few parties, I know, wouldn't.)
Regardless, I still say the best thing all parties could do is put their heads together and figure out a way to make all this work under the current setup, because that's the one we're likely going to be living with.
I wrote a piece about this very subject, with some background, a couple of weeks ago. You can read it here.
-- ARENA PERFORMANCE. One local business owner who I won't identify said it's a combination of things leading to the arena tax revenue shortfall. This person said Tax Increment Financing revenues were running short "because they expected more booked nights at the venue. It simply didn't happen. In addition, people in Louisville simply don't spend as much as what gets spent in other equivalent cities. You know that we have a ‘get it for free' mentality in our city. And yes, you are correct, more development around the arena was expected. It is simply so difficult to get things done from a real estate perspective considering the approvals, licenses, zoning not to mention financing that is all needed today."
But on the other side, this person said that revenue from inside the arena is lagging because, "although it was absolutely necessary to have them, it is simply too good a revenue split for U of L. You know the saying . . . sometimes when the deal is too good, and one side suffers, the relationship implodes. Let's see what happens in the coming months. Going to be very interesting."
-- ONE MORE C-J PLUG. Make sure to check out C.L. Brown's experience in "The Pit," U of L strength and conditioning coach Pat Moorer's workout for Cardinal players unable to go through practice. C.L. Is one of the few -- if not only -- Louisville media members who could deal with two days of this. I talked to him Sunday and he said he was still having trouble climbing out of bed days later. Good times.
-- WEBCAST WEDNESDAY. If you haven't caught it yet, make sure to take a look at our Wednesday morning SportsPage Live Webcast with Rick Bozich and me at WDRB.com. It's essentially a half-hour of live, interactive television, and you can catch the replay on demand anytime at WDRB.com. Today we'll look back at U of L's win at FIU (with highlights shot by the only Louisville station to make the trip to Miami for the game), UK's performance at Florida, we'll debate how WKU would do against U of L and anything else that reader questions ask us to take on. Hope you can join us live or delayed. You can check out past episodes here.
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