A lasting memory from the days when the University of Louisville played football at the fairgrounds was the deafening roar of thousands of fans stomping their feet in unison on the aluminum bleachers.
The old Cardinal Stadium may not have been pretty or resembled a football complex but it could be a noisy place, sometimes creating problems for opposing quarterbacks. It was the place where Howard Schnellenberger coached for 10 seasons, leading UofL to the Fiesta Bowl, daring to dream of a real home for Louisville football.
The word from the Kentucky Exposition Center Friday is that the bleachers from the old Cardinal Stadium will be disassembled in the next couple of months and sold for scrap. That would include the aluminum bleachers on the east side which were added in the late seventies, increasing stadium capacity from 21,000 to 36,000 seats.
The grandstand areas of the stadium were closed earlier this year when they were ruled unsafe for fans. Concerts during the state fair were held on the artificial turf, presumably the same turf when UofL played football there. The Kentucky Fair Board would eventually like to tear down the stadium and replace it with an amphitheater or storage facility. The board has been unable to get the money from the Kentucky General Assembly to get that done.
Apparently it hasn’t occurred to any of the Fair Board members that those old chair back seats on the covered side of the stadium hold a lot of sentimental value to UofL football and Louisville Red Birds fans.
At least put the chair backs up for sale. You’ll get a lot more money from fans than you will from the scrap dealers.
Definitely a lot of childhood memories in that place.
Put me down for some seats too.
Is anybody involved in this process listening to the demand?
I would take 2-4 of the chairback’s or a bleacher maybe to put on the deck or in the backyard by the fire pit.
I would love to hv my old seats in the crunch zone!
Put me down for two of those chairbacks. Those were some fun days.
I ABSOLUTELY! would LOVE to have a section of the seats from the old Cardinal Stadium! Please make this happen somehow! I have some of the best childhood memories from those seats from watching Redbird games, seeing the Cardinals/Reds Expo game, several concerts, some highschool football games and of course watching Cardinal football games with my dad. I’m sure thousands of other people feel the same way.