It is the largest arena in America built primarily for basketball - 22,090 seats on the Ohio River, with a roof that cascades toward the water like the falls the city was founded on. The KFC Yum! Center, at 1 Arena Plaza in downtown Louisville, opened on 10 October 2010 as the home of the University of Louisville Cardinals. The arena was a generation's civic project: after decades atop Louisville's wish list, a state task force launched the 238-million-dollar build in 2005-06, with Populous designing the undulating riverfront form on a former brownfield. The Eagles played the first concert on 15 October 2010, and the Cardinals sold out their first scrimmage nine days later. The naming deal was pure Louisville: hometown Yum Brands - parent of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut - took the name for 13.5 million dollars over ten years. The construction program set standards too, with a Pipeline Project that trained local and minority workers, over 3,500 of whom built the arena ahead of schedule and under budget. The records tell its double life: the sporting attendance mark is 22,815 for Louisville-Notre Dame in 2013, but the all-time record belongs to music - 23,085 for Metallica's WorldWired tour in March 2019 - and the building's concert calendar runs from arena rock through country and hip-hop as the state's premier indoor stage, with AEG/ASM operating. Practical notes: the arena fronts Main Street's Whiskey Row, whose 1860s bourbon warehouses have been reborn as distillery experiences, hotels and restaurants - the pre-game economy the arena was built to ignite; parking spreads across downtown garages, and the Second Street bridge walk gives the best approach view of the cascading roof. The building's premium inventory reflects its college-basketball economics: 72 luxury suites, party suites and thousands of club seats ring the lower bowl, and the arena's lease with the University of Louisville was long among the most generous in college sports - a point of repeated public debate as the arena authority refinanced its bonds. The seating flexes by event, from the full 22,000-plus basketball bowl down to curtained half-house configurations for theatre-style shows, and the flat floor handles everything from NCAA tournament weekends and conference tournaments to monster trucks, ice shows and graduation season.

Type: Stadium / Arena

Address: 1 Arena Plaza, Louisville, KY, United States, 40202

Website: https://www.kfcyumcenter.com

Cover Charge: 1

Capacity: 22090

Opening Date: 10/10/2010

Serves Food

Accessible