Halfway through another one of those long hot summers and, thus far, UofL has managed to avoid any of those mid-summer controversies that seemed to plague UofL over the last decade. One of those boring long hot summers, thank goodness.

Six weeks to go, however, keeping the fingers crossed.

College athletics being what they, disruption of the status quo is a constant threat, often lingering beneath the surface, capable of surfacing at any time. No word from the NCAA about the after effects of the FBI probe and how Louisville basketball will be impacted.

The University of Louisville baseball team kept the excitement going until late June, reaching the College World Series for the fifth time in 13 seasons. This time making to college baseball’s final four before losing to Vanderbilt, the eventual national champion.

Not much else for UofL fans to get excited about unless one closely follows  the recruitment on unpredictable teenage athletes. The most significant news has been the announcement from Athletic Director Vince Tyra that approximately 42,000 seats are being painted at Cardinal Stadium this summer.

Apparently the threat of Cardinal Stadium losing the cabooses that emerged in mid-March has gone away. The UofL Athletic Association was threatening not to renew the leases of the 14 cabooses, making only about $15,000 annually in that prime space.

The word from a source close to the situation told Card Game this week that “Maury (Buchart, who owns the cabooses) is keeping them, the U has kinda let it go. too many big donors complained, status quo for a while.”

So that’s good news, at least on the game day atmosphere front. Maybe not so great from the revenue raising side.

Stay tuned. Dog days of summer straight ahead.

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By Charlie Springer

Charlie Springer is a former Louisville editor and sportswriter, a public affairs consultant, a UofL grad and longtime fan.