Kentucky this fall will open the 1865 Club at Commonwealth Stadium, which features luxury tailgating suites that can accommodate up to 30 guests. Each private suite will have approximately 300 feet of indoor entertainment space, with a kitchen, four HD TVs, heat and air conditioning, a full-size refrigerator and half bath. Each suite -- located outside the southwest corner of the stadium in the green space adjacent to the President's Pavilion -- will also have an outdoor entertainment space with a TV and exterior awning (UK). Full-season rentals are $50,000, but UK Dir of Strategic Communication Guy Ramsey said that he "expects that most rentals will be for single games." He said, “We envision this being a big thing for businesses to entertain clients." Ramsey said that "six of the temporary structures are being set up by supplier GameDay Traditions, but more could be built" (LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER, 4/19).
LOOK THE PART: In Philadelphia, Mike Jensen wrote one of the top priorities for Villanova "has to be the reimagining" of The Pavilion. The venue is the "home of Villanova's flagship program" in the men's basketball team, and it is "time it looked and acted like it." Villanova AD Mark Jackson said, "The building is falling apart. There are just things we need to do to upgrade it. ... I know what we're competing against." But Jensen noted Villanova is "not close to coming up with blueprints." Jackson: "We have to be aligned with the university vision first -- this is what we want to do. ... For me, going through a real strategic process that gathers data, gathers analytics, let that drive the scope, the design -- then we'll have to take it back to the board for approval" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 4/19).
A REAL FIXER-UPPER: In Akron, Rick Armon noted nearly three years after Canton-based Team 1 Marketing Group "bought the Rubber Bowl with grandiose plans to breathe new life into it," the former Univ. of Akron football stadium "remains vacant and decaying." UA "abandoned the facility when it opened the on-campus InfoCision Stadium the following year." The structural soundness of the stadium "is unclear," and the press box "looks like it might topple due to all the vandalism." The only portion of the stadium that "appears in good condition is the field itself." Team 1 President Sean Mason said that the company "still sees a future for the stadium." He said that Colorado-based AEL Capital Partners "is now leading the effort to revive the facility" (AKRON BEACON JOURNAL, 4/17).
