If you haven’t heard, the Cincinnati Bearcats are close to approving renovation to the program’s outdated Fifth Third Arena a.k.a the Shoemaker or The Shoe. With the newly renovated Nippert Stadium set to be finished before the upcoming football season starts, the university can turn its attention to the basketball arena.
Both moves have been long overdue, but with the Bearcats looking to sneak into the Big 12 in the future, these are necessary moves whether added or not.
With the big renovation right around the corner, the big question is where will the Bearcats play basketball during the one year renovation?
Here are the options that keep popping up:
Cintas Center- Xavier Musketeers home court
BB&T Arena formally Bank of Kentucky Center- NKU Norse home court
Cincinnati Gardens – Historic arena used by UC during The Shoe’s construction
US Bank Arena – Home in the past to NCAA tournament games
Personally I think two of these options should be crossed off the list immediately; the two? Cintas and Cincinnati Gardens with the reasons being – why would UC want to help out rival Xavier? That would be a jab that UC students and fans would never be able to recover from. I will say Cintas is the best venue out of the four, but it can’t happen. Cincinnati Gardens is a dump and hasn’t been used on a consistent basis since the Bearcats use to play there in the late 80’s. Wrestling doesn’t even come there anymore, but hey to each its own.
The last two should be at the top of the list – BB&T Arena and US Bank Arena. BB&T is the second best of the four options and the one that makes the second most sense. Would Bearcat fans want to travel to NKU, which is about 10 minutes away from Clifton? I don’t know! US Bank Arena is the third best place, but the first best option in my humble opinion. This is the place the Crosstown Shootout was when the brawl between UC and Xavier happened post 2011.
Having worked events at US Bank Arena, it isn’t the most impressive, but it’s on the banks and has the room to hold all of the fans. Parking may be more with this option, but win or lose the fans can go get wasted right after and catch some great city views.
If my opinion counts during renovation, the Bearcats Men’s and Women’s team will be playing downtown at US Bank Arena. Once they set this in stone we will inform you on the updates.
The UC Bearcats should move to the Big 12 since it only has 10 teams in it and take Connecticut with it opened up the route to New York and the big box office up that way. I mean with Connecticut have the number one girl’s basketball team in the country an ok football team and boys great basketball team make them a package deal for ever 12 goals. But for 14 to 16 Memphis Tulsa Temple Owls Houston or SMU 1/16 teen/even or army. Have a north and south like the SEC and one hell of a conference. 1 super conference and leave all the turtles in the Americans I’ll put my money on the teams an the super conference.