Second trip to the KFC Yum! Center …
Those third level seats are up there in the clouds. Several spectators murmuring about parachutes.
Keenly aware, apprehensive of the elevation. Definitely a sense of achievement getting to the seat, avoiding the nose dive, surviving one more time.
The apprehension is apparent on faces of the step climbers, a sense of their own mortality, regardless of age.
Watching a University of Louisville basketball game up there requires some adjusting. The returning players are almost recognizable, the newer ones next to impossible. Don’t count on the video board for much help. If you’re sitting on the wrong side, the court is shown in reverse and players are going in the opposite direction.
After settling in, catching one’s breath, third-level spectators are treated to the cold-air return ducts of the climate control system. Providing comfort to the folks in the VIP seats.
Upstairs, however, the cold air is relentless, no pauses or breaks, just a steady blast of chill. The next morning stiff neck kind of air. Right on your neck. And in your face.
Bring a ski mask and a sweater if the third level is your destination.
The HVAC system needs some serious modulation, at least for the upper level side seats. We sit in the top row directly opposite the Cards. I noticed the strong steady breeze immediately upon checking out my seats during the open house.
By coincidence, I sat in the very top row on the opposite side of the arena for the Eagles. Same air blast. After intermission, it was off. But then it got hot. Everyone got hot, based upon later reports from lower level folks. I assumed they had gotten a bunch of complaints about the wind storm and had shut off the top air flow. It kicked back in at the end of the concert.
I sat in the lower arena, near the top corner for the Red-White Game. No complaints. No air blast, fine temperature.
I couldn’t go to today’s game and haven’t checked with how things were for those who used our seats.
You can’t tell me a state-of-the-art arena does not have dampers or variable speed fan motors or some way of slowing that air movement down without shutting the system completely down. There’s really no excuse for this kind of major flaw not to have been already corrected before the first tour was offered.
Everyone who feels as we do should start writing to the Athletic Deptartment and KFEC management until it is fixed. I didn’t pay $1000/year privilege to buy tickets to these two seats for this! Virtually everything else is very impressive about the new arena!
Thanks Charlie 🙂
Charlie– you and your readers may want to ck out the videos and the usual great pics (140 of ’em) that Hell in the Hall photog, Matt Wickham took of the N Ky game : hellinthehall.com.
By the way…you’re still on our Card site list….ya, know
I hear ya, Frank.
Brrr, for real. But hey, once I realized the Cardinal Bird was NOT going to parachute onto the playing field, I was able to focus (with my binocs) on the young Cards on the floor. After about 5 minutes of play, with Buckles revving up the crowd, I overheard one nearby fan ask, “Samardo who?” And I absolutely loved hearing Sean Moth musically exclaim “ding” when Gorgui would score! Gonna be a fun season. Go Cards!
When I toured the Yum there were several open luxury boxes. I went into them to check out the view (my Freedom Hall seats were in the row in front of the boxes). I have to think while the boxes themselves are much larger and nicer than those in Freedom Hall the owners had to be in for some disappointment when they first viewed the court from their palaces.
The view from the luxury boxes is essentially equal to that from the first few row of the upper level at Freedom Hall, if that close.
I’m still trying to figure out the wonderful sightlines. Oh I guess they are if you have eagle vision.