📍 Lexington, Kentucky
🏀 Home of Kentucky Wildcats women’s basketball

A tribute to Bluegrass State veterans of foreign wars, Kentucky’s Memorial Coliseum opened in 1950 and quickly rose to prominence as “The House That Rupp Built”, becoming a focal point in college basketball lore. The Coliseum – once home to the Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball team and now the home court of the school’s women’s squad – remains the oldest Division I sports venue in the state and, at one time, was the largest basketball arena in the South.

The building originally had a capacity in excess of 12,000, though it now seats only 6,200 after several recent renovations. The most recent refreshes wrapped up in 2024 and saw a complete modernization of the historic – but aging – coliseum.

The upgraded venue now features a large center-hung videoboard and new chairback seats, boasts an end zone club area over the main atrium and was even retrofitted with air-conditioning.

Outside the seating bowl, the arena’s concourses also received a heavy facelift. Gone were the old, grey-brick passages, replaced by a modern and sleek whitewashed design. The long stairways are full of panels detailing Coliseum and Wildcats history, with the lyrics to “My Old Kentucky Home” emblazoned overhead and the glamorous Kentucky wordmark ever-present throughout the building.

The Kentucky men dominated the court at the Coliseum for 26 seasons before leaving for larger digs at Rupp Arena in 1976. Primarily under the leadership of coach Adolph Rupp, for whom their new home was named, the ‘Cats only lost 38 games at old Memorial Coliseum, assembling one of the best records in college basketball. The venue, in turn, hosted NCAA Tournament games on 10 occasions. The Coliseum also hosts the school’s volleyball, gymnastics and cheerleading teams.

But now it’s the Kentucky women who have been hooping in these hallowed halls, calling the arena home since the program restarted in 1974. The Lady Wildcats, while not as decorated as the men, have had their fair share of success, competing in the NCAA Tournament nearly 20 times and advancing as deep as the Elite Eight in their four most prosperous seasons.

As a passionately followed team and one of the most standout programs in women’s basketball, the Wildcats’ cultivated atmosphere at Memorial Coliseum is cacophony of sights and sounds. From the pyrotechnics and smoke machines set off during player introductions, to the echoes of the iconic “Call to the Post” bugle, games at Lexington’s most sumptuous basketball arena make for an experience that is uniquely Kentucky.