The Univ. of Kentucky was able to handle some "small glitches" during the re-opening of Commonwealth Stadium on Saturday night for UK's football game against Louisiana-Lafayette, and "for the most part, things went smoothly," according to Jennifer Smith of the LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER. Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart said of the stadium's $126M upgrades, "We've got some things we want to fix that we couldn't get to. ... Obviously some things we'll examine about how we operationally work, but at the end of the day it was a heck of a lot of fun." He said that it was an "emotional night" for him and many others who "poured countless hours into making the opener a success." Smith noted festivities included a "national anthem by singers from each of the commonwealth's 120 counties and many other extras." More than anything, Barnhart "enjoyed looking around from the top deck of stands to the new fancy suites and seeing people enjoying themselves." He said, "It was fun to see everybody having fun. That's why we built the thing. ... There were several comments that we felt like we were in an SEC-style stadium, had an SEC-style atmosphere. That's what we tried to do" (LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER, 9/7). Meanwhile, UK Exec Dir of PR & Marketing Jay Blanton confirmed that a drone "crashed into the southwest corner of the stadium, near the suite level" during Saturday's game. In Louisville, Kyle Tucker noted "no one was injured and no damage was done to the building." Blanton said that the drone "was not UK approved, rather privately owned and 'should not have been here'" (Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL, 9/6).
