Mark Story of the Herald-Leader asked yesterday if Kentucky fans owe an apology to this season’s special class of football seniors.
There was a noticeable lack of attendance for Saturday’s Senior Day given some of the milestones UK has accomplished this season.
According to Story, fans don’t owe an apology and here’s why:
Before its 2015 football season, the University of Kentucky re-ticketed its entire football stadium as a result of a $110 million renovation that modernized the venue formerly known as Commonwealth Stadium and added premium seating areas.
For a lot of longtime UK fans with whom I interact, that 2015 re-ticketing was a seminal experience in their Wildcats fandom.
Priority in choosing new seats, as well as in picking what stadium parking lot one had access to, was determined by one’s standing with the K-Fund, the primary fund-raising arm of UK Athletics.
A fair number of UK football backers who felt like they had shown loyalty by renewing their season tickets through “thin and thin” lost their seats and their traditional parking areas because they had not donated enough money to UK Athletics.
Progress comes at a cost, so I’ve never criticized that process. It had become abundantly clear that Kentucky needed to enhance its facilities if it was ever going to become more competitive in the cutthroat world of Southeastern Conference football.
But once you have unequivocally shown your fans that their value is determined by how much money they are worth to the university, it’s hard to then turn around and make emotional appeals to fan “loyalty.”
