Louisville is taking advantage of a sweet deal. The state owns Freedom Hall, and Louisville pays a rental fee. They collect annual fees for 20 luxury boxes, concessions and parking for each game. And they recently boosted the price for a luxury box up from$50,000 to $75,000.

Rupp Arena is owned by the City of Lexington, and Kentucky only gets of the revenue from signage in the Arena.

Lousville can also charge a yearly $1,500 PSL fee for courtside seats. That’s for current season ticket holders. If you are new, and want season tickets, you must also pony up $150,000, but they will let you pay that out over a five-year span.

There is a potential bonanza on the horizon for the Cards, as the new Louisville Waterfront Arena is scheduled to be open in 2010. The new 22,000 seat arena will triple the number of sky boxes to 60.

I kind of understand that it would be fun to have a 9,000 seat arena that you cram 10,000 into but the crowd has a lot more to do with the atmosphere than any building. You don’t need another building to have an advantage.

MH: Kentucky had over $12 million in gross revenue, with expenses coming in at just over $9 million.

Kentucky’s number is surprising. What was their gross revenue? With the ginormous Rupp Arena filled every night I would’ve assumed they’d be near the top.

Gratifying, in a greedy way, of course, to see UT now in the top 5. I guess that correlates both to solid popularity, and the current commercial astuteness, if not anal retentiveness, of the the athletic administration.