Pittsburgh Newspaper

[CommodoreCard]

Went to the game last Saturday.

Kudos to the city of Pittsburgh as they still have a real newspaper in their town.

Got a free copy at the hotel where I was staying. Front page was the Pitt - UofL game and the Penguins game. Buried on page 2 was the Penn State game.

Louisville has twice the fanbase and 100% more spirit than our friends at Pitt. Our Panther friends ,though, do not share their hometown paper front page with the state school down the road as we do here in Louisville.

The front page should belong to the University of Louisville and the University of Louisville alone. They don't even report on IU anymore and the high school coverage sucks. The Courier-Journal is a sad piece of *hit. It has turned into a pro UK bird cage liner.

 

[Louisvillian]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. No way does Miami have to share equal coverage with UF in the Miami Herald nor does Ohio St get the same coverage as UC in the Cincinnati Enquirer. You can also pick up a copy of the Memphis Commercial Appeal and see that Memphis gets top billing over anything going on at UT.

What you said about Pittsburgh is also true about Memphis, Cincinnati and Miami, none of them have near as passionate a fanbase as The University of Louisville has and yet we have to share 50-50 with UK the coverage in our home city newspaper. Ridiculous.

All of it tells me that there are too many UofL fans still supporting the CJ for them to want to change. Just glad I'm not one of them anymore.

 

[CATFANFOLIFE87]

Far too many UK fans in Louisville for the paper to ignore. They could do as you're suggesting and lose half of their subscribers but they won't have a paper for long if they do that. The paper is divided 50-50 because the city is close to 50-50

 

[kozmas]

I agree with you all and that is why I don't get the rag at home or online. I am amazed how much they have alienated the Louisville fan base. Imagine how many more papers they would sell if they embraced the University of Louisville and their fan base. This is a case where dumb and dumber are in charge.

 

[CommodoreCard]

So you are telling me there are no Penn State fans in Pittsburgh? I saw a few of them sitting at the game wearing their Penn State gear....you know, kind of like Kentucky fans do at Louisville games. And UK is not 50-50 in the Louisville Metro. I don't care how much love juice you lap up from Matt Jones...it just isn't true.

 

[Louisvillian]

The paper is divided 50-50 because the city is close to 50-50

The city of Louisville is nowhere near 50-50. More like 62/38 or no more than 60/40. I live and work in every corner of Louisville Metro.

And as others have mentioned before, you don't think Cincinnati has a huge portion of Ohio St fans? I'd be willing to say with the tradition and success of Buckeye football it's possibly a majority. Still the hometown newspaper is just that. You can still cover both.

 

[BPGhost]

50/50 - what a joke! Where are all of those yut fans when they can't sell their allotment of football tickets? Hell, they don't even have a basketball game here anymore because they couldn't sell more than 12K tickets - lol.

 

[epittm]

Went to the game last Saturday.

Kudos to the city of Pittsburgh as they still have a real newspaper in their town.

Got a free copy at the hotel where I was staying. Front page was the Pitt - UofL game and the Penguins game. Buried on page 2 was the Penn State game.

Louisville has twice the fanbase and 100% more spirit than our friends at Pitt. Our Panther friends ,though, do not share their hometown paper front page with the state school down the road as we do here in Louisville.

The front page should belong to the University of Louisville and the University of Louisville alone. They don't even report on IU anymore and the high school coverage sucks. The Courier-Journal is a sad piece of *hit. It has turned into a pro UK bird cage liner.

Commodor, your view of the coverage of Pitt vs Penn St. may have been skewed a bit because it was game day and Pitt has been doing well his year. It's a sore spot for Pitt fans as to the amount of coverage PSU gets in the paper, on the TV stations, and on the radio talk shows in Pittsburgh. Penn State is 3 hours away, but one would think it is located within Pittsburgh itself the way they are covered in football. Basketball is different because PSU is bad in BB so their coverage is not as much. If Kentucky gets as much coverage in Louisville as PSU gets in Pittsburgh, then I can fully understand your disgust.

Went to the game last Saturday.

Kudos to the city of Pittsburgh as they still have a real newspaper in their town.

Got a free copy at the hotel where I was staying. Front page was the Pitt - UofL game and the Penguins game. Buried on page 2 was the Penn State game.

Louisville has twice the fanbase and 100% more spirit than our friends at Pitt. Our Panther friends ,though, do not share their hometown paper front page with the state school down the road as we do here in Louisville.

The front page should belong to the University of Louisville and the University of Louisville alone. They don't even report on IU anymore and the high school coverage sucks. The Courier-Journal is a sad piece of *hit. It has turned into a pro UK bird cage liner.

 

[CATFANFOLIFE87]

50/50 - what a joke! Where are all of those yut fans when they can't sell their allotment of football tickets? Hell, they don't even have a basketball game here anymore because they couldn't sell more than 12K tickets - lol.

UK has sold out 5 of its 7 home games this year so I'm not sure what you are talking about. If you're talking about the allotment for the UL game UK returned it's tickets over a month before the game last year. They were never advertised as being available so most assumed they weren't. The first I heard of them being available was when they were being returned. A lot of UK fans were mad at that the university for returning them so early without advertising them first. I don't think most fans on either side would go to an away game in the governors cup. There are enough people on both sides that don't know how to act to ruin the experience for the visitors.

The freedom hall game was a sellout every year before Cal got to Lex. UK used to schedule Indiana and ND regularly but when Cal was hired the season ticket holders started to complain that a good game was being played in Louisville instead of Lex so they started scheduling teams like Appalachian St there. Fans stopped going because the opponent was weak so UK ended it so they could include the game in the season ticket package and raise the price according to guarantee a certain number of tickets were sold. I've lived in Louisville my entire life and worked at louisville's biggest employers (GE, UPS) I know the fanbase ratio pretty well. It's no less than 60:40

 

[fredburgcard]

He's talking about the visitor allotment at Papa John's when the kittens play there. There were more Florida State and Clemson fans in Louisville than there were UK fans last year. And he's talking about the bball game they used to play every year at Freedom Hall but cancelled because they could hardly fill the lower arena.

I haven't seen Commonwealth filled this season. They may call it a sellout but there are plenty of empty seats.

In Cincinnati there are probably more OSU fans than UC fans. But as an earlier poster pointed out the Enquirer coverage is heavily skewed to the Bearcats. Yet in Louisville where there are clearly more UofL fans the CJ, at best, gives the Cards equal coverage to that school 70 miles away. The only thing I can figure is that the CJ is distributed widely in the state whereas the Enquirer is not distributed outside the Cincinnati metro area.

 

[CATFANFOLIFE87]

I haven't seen Commonwealth filled this season. They may call it a sellout but there are plenty of empty seats.

I've been to every home game this year except for Tennessee. The only games that had a noticeable area without fans were the Mizzou, EKU, and Charlotte. Mizzou probably drew 55k there were only empty seats in the very top corners of the stadium. EKU drew about the same but there was a decent number of EKU fans there. Charlotte only had maybe 35k there but it was cold, rainy, snowy, and a late game against a terrible team. When the game ended there were probably no more than 2k people there. UK fans have turned out in a big way this year. You can disagree but I was there. UL has had its fair share of games with disappointing crowds it happens on both sides

 

[Birdie King]

He's talking about the visitor allotment at Papa John's when the kittens play there. There were more Florida State and Clemson fans in Louisville than there were UK fans last year. And he's talking about the bball game they used to play every year at Freedom Hall but cancelled because they could hardly fill the lower arena.

I haven't seen Commonwealth filled this season. They may call it a sellout but there are plenty of empty seats.

In Cincinnati there are probably more OSU fans than UC fans. But as an earlier poster pointed out the Enquirer coverage is heavily skewed to the Bearcats. Yet in Louisville where there are clearly more UofL fans the CJ, at best, gives the Cards equal coverage to that school 70 miles away. The only thing I can figure is that the CJ is distributed widely in the state whereas the Enquirer is not distributed outside the Cincinnati metro area.

Bingo ! C-J goes farther out in the state where more UK fans reside. I still think we get better coverage then UK in the C-J.

 

[KerryRhodes]

Stopped buying the cj five years ago.

Dont watch local news either.

The split and rotation the local media does is pathetic.
Doesnt matter the need to sell to out of state readers. They 'll have to
accept the fact that a Louisville metro paper , will promote metro
Louisville FIRST, the rest of the State second.

Not the crappy rotation the crap journal provides.

 

[beantowncard]

If it weren't for people coming from Jefferson County, UK is looking at 30 - 35k attendance for home games.

 

[CommodoreCard]

The freedom hall game was a sellout every year before Cal got to Lex. UK used to schedule Indiana and ND regularly but when Cal was hired the season ticket holders started to complain that a good game was being played in Louisville instead of Lex so they started scheduling teams like Appalachian St there. Fans stopped going because the opponent was weak so UK ended it so they could include the game in the season ticket package and raise the price according to guarantee a certain number of tickets were sold. I've lived in Louisville my entire life and worked at louisville's biggest employers (GE, UPS) I know the fanbase ratio pretty well. It's no less than 60:40

No, the UK game wasn't a sell out every year at Freedom Hall before Cal got there....they didn't even sell it out when Pitino was there. Pitino even questioned the need for the game...9,000 against Tulane, UAB, etc while Tubby and the 2 drunks were there. If UK is so big and bad in the Louisville Metro then they shouldn't have any problem selling out Freedom Hall no matter who they play, I mean come on, you guys wait in line for practices..LOL. The last game against Notre Dame drew maybe 12,000. They sold out the IU games because IU had half the tickets. You are misinformed and the C-J is still bird cage liner. I stopped reading the C-J because it's crap. If they want to be a "state" newspaper then get the heck out of Jefferson County.

Maybe I'll give Pitt the benefit of the doubt because the Steelers were off last weekend.

 

[Guardman]

The CJ specifically changed its approach to one targeting Kentucky readers throughout the state, so that it had some chance of continuing a decent total circulation number. UK Sports is what binds the state and gives the best chance for the CJ to cultivate new readers -- by heavily pandering to Kentuckians who support and follow UK, while not pissing off UofL fans TOO much in the process. The CJ is willing to accept some slight readership loss in the Louisville Metro if it can capture even greater offsetting numbers of readers from the non-Metro. In my opinion, the CJ/Gannett strategy is failing miserably. The CJ is a poorly run paper --- in a dying news"PAPER" market (both macro and micro sense). Louisville as a metro city entity is absolutely hated and reviled by most out in the state. The CJ has little organic strength remaining except for its wounded German printing press which gasps and shuts down once a month. There are a total of about 9 writers left who can do a story in what is the remaining shell of a once-great American Newspaper. And the better CJ writers are shared with Gannett's USA Today, which is itself a sad shadow of a once great McPaper at this point. The editorial leadership at the CJ panders totally to liberal/victim interests in its attempt to motivate the formation of a new socialist order, and in so doing, loses anything they might hope to gain with their change to a UK sports emphasis. The State of Kentucky is, if anything, certainly NOT liberal. But it does like its UK.

The CJ will continue to try to save itself and its very few highly paid employees and leaders through use of any fair or unfair or reasonable/unreasonable tactics. It is awful to watch. Sad. Like a dinosaur sliding into the Devonian Muck, gasping for oxygen and sunlight.

 

[Panthertag]

That is a rare instance because the Post-Gazette loves Penn State...

 

[CardFan1130]

People still read newsPAPERS?

 

[tkdcoach]

Far too many UK fans in Louisville for the paper to ignore. They could do as you're suggesting and lose half of their subscribers but they won't have a paper for long if they do that. The paper is divided 50-50 because the city is close to 50-50

It's more like 1/3rd tops. You Mildcats are better at meth than you are at math.

 

[Bill Derington]

Having spent quite a bit of time in Memphis for work, the paper there is split between 3 universities.
Ole Miss gets as much coverage as Memphis and Tennessee.

 

[CATFANFOLIFE87]

No, the UK game wasn't a sell out every year at Freedom Hall before Cal got there....they didn't even sell it out when Pitino was there. Pitino even questioned the need for the game...9,000 against Tulane, UAB, etc while Tubby and the 2 drunks were there. If UK is so big and bad in the Louisville Metro then they shouldn't have any problem selling out Freedom Hall no matter who they play, I mean come on, you guys wait in line for practices..LOL. The last game against Notre Dame drew maybe 12,000. They sold out the IU games because IU had half the tickets. You are misinformed and the C-J is still bird cage liner. I stopped reading the C-J because it's crap. If they want to be a "state" newspaper then get the heck out of Jefferson County.

Maybe I'll give Pitt the benefit of the doubt because the Steelers were off last weekend.

I can make up numbers too. I was at the ND and the UAB games sitting at the top of the arena and it was packed to the last row

 

[BPGhost]

I can make up numbers too. I was at the ND and the UAB games sitting at the top of the arena and it was packed to the last row

You're right. It makes complete sense that uk would cancel the game in Louisville after Cal became the coach - even though it was always a sellout.

When the two biggest days for the program are LOI day and draft night - who cares about those yut fans who can't afford gas to Lexington?

 

[ShortCreek]

I buy a CJ about 3-4 times a month. There are so many errors in it that their credibility is quite low. Not the quality it once was, sad.

 

[MirageSmack]

No, the UK game wasn't a sell out every year at Freedom Hall before Cal got there....they didn't even sell it out when Pitino was there. Pitino even questioned the need for the game...9,000 against Tulane, UAB, etc while Tubby and the 2 drunks were there. If UK is so big and bad in the Louisville Metro then they shouldn't have any problem selling out Freedom Hall no matter who they play, I mean come on, you guys wait in line for practices..LOL. The last game against Notre Dame drew maybe 12,000. They sold out the IU games because IU had half the tickets. You are misinformed and the C-J is still bird cage liner. I stopped reading the C-J because it's crap.

I was at the last ND game and it was a full house. So I guess they gave away a bunch of tickets if they only sold 12k. I quit going because that game was miserable with all the drunks, same reason I don't go to Cards games, I just hate games where the focus is on the booze more than the game. But I was in the rafters for the ND game and would have moved down if I found a seat.

 

[KerryRhodes]

Im buying a cj AND a lex Herald tomorrow

 

[CommodoreCard]

I can make up numbers too. I was at the ND and the UAB games sitting at the top of the arena and it was packed to the last row

Yep, I can make up numbers. I may have been a little off Catfan but not as much as you.

Here is the article from your very own Cats Paws.......Enjoy!


Kentucky's future at Freedom Hall?

• Matt May - Jan 2, 2012
• 0

Kentucky Newsletter

• 4
• 0

John Calipari would not go so far as to indicate the future of Kentucky’s annual ‘home’ game in Louisville has been determined but it is clear the event could be on the chopping block if attendance doesn’t improve.

Kentucky hosts Arkansas-Little Rock in Freedom Hall on Tuesday night, the home away from home game the program stages in Louisville as part of its desire to reach out to alumni in the area. Tickets still remain, a trend that has caused concern in UK’s athletics department and spurred Calipari to note that if fans want the game to remain as is then they need to show it by turning out for it.

“People got to come to it and make it something they want us to do,” Calipari said.

Attendance has seen a major decline in recent years, as only the showdown with Notre Dame last season drew a crowd within 3,000 seats of capacity in the 18,865-seat venue. That game, which was part of a SEC/Big East Invitational doubleheader, drew 17,404 fans. The only other game to bring out more than 14,500 fans over the past seven UK ‘home’ games in Freedom Hall was a 2009-10 win over UNC-Asheville (15,368). The 2005-06 Indiana game drew 20,084 but was technically a neutral site game with split ticket distribution between the two schools.

The average attendance for the aforementioned seven games Kentucky has hosted at Freedom Hall is just 13,450. Kentucky is averaging 23,317 fans at Rupp Arena this season. Calipari also dismissed the notion the opponent should have anything to do with the attendance.

“It's hard to say 'get us UCLA in there.' Come on, you can't,” Calipari said. “I know this: Little Rock at home, there will be 24,000 people there -- here in Lexington.

“Yeah we want to continue to do it, we want to reach out to our fans and get everybody an opportunity. This is an opportunity for people that are not season ticket holders. Can't get to a game? Here's a game. Let’s go. Get in there to see them. I think the great thing about our fans is they come to see us play. They're not just there to see the other team. They're there to see us play.”

ATTENDANCE OF LAST SEVEN ‘HOME’ GAMES IN FREEDOM HALL:
2010-11: vs. Notre Dame; 17,404
2009-10: vs. UNC Asheville; 15,368
2008-09: vs. Appalachian State; 10,173
2007-08: vs. UAB; 14,241
2006-07: vs. Chattanooga; 11,641
2005-06: vs. Iona; 13,794
2003-04: vs. Austin Peay; 11,526

Average Attendance: 13,450