Freedom Hall is a multipurpose
arenaAn arena is an enclosed area, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theater, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators. The key feature of an arena is that the event space is the...
in
Louisville, KentuckyLouisville is Kentucky's largest city and county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's estimated population as of 2008 was 713,877 , with a population of 1,244,696 in the Louisville...
, on the grounds of the
Kentucky Exposition CenterThe Kentucky Exposition Center , formerly Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center , is a large multi-use facility in Louisville, Kentucky, United States...
, which is owned by the Commonwealth of
KentuckyThe Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. Kentucky is a Southern state situated in the Upland South, although the state is infrequently placed, geographically and culturally, in the Midwest. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a...
. It is best known for its use as a
basketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of 5 players try to score points against one another by placing a ball through a
10 foot high hoop under organized rules...
arena, serving as the home of the
University of Louisville CardinalsThe Louisville Cardinals are the athletic teams representing the University of Louisville. A member of the Big East Conference since 2005, they are known nationally as traditional powers in men's basketball, women's volleyball, cheerleading and dance team...
men's and women's teams since 1956 and as home of the
Kentucky ColonelsThe Kentucky Colonels were a member of the American Basketball Association for all of the league's nine years. The Colonels won the most games and had the highest winning percentage of any franchise in the league's history, but the team did not join the NBA in the 1976 ABA-NBA merger...
of the
American Basketball AssociationThe American Basketball Association was a professional basketball league founded in 1967. The ABA ceased to exist with the ABA-NBA merger in 1976.-League history:...
from 1970 until the
ABA-NBA mergerThe ABA-NBA merger was the merger of the American Basketball Association with the National Basketball Association, which after multiple attempts over several years finally occurred in 1976.- Origins of ABA-NBA competition :...
in June 1976.
Freedom Hall was completed in 1956 in the newly opened Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center located 5 miles south of
Downtown LouisvilleDowntown Louisville is the largest central business district in the state of Kentucky and the urban hub of the Louisville, Kentucky Metropolitan Area. Its boundaries are the Ohio River to the north, Hancock Street to the east, York and Jacob Streets to the south, and 9th Street to the west...
.
Freedom Hall is a multipurpose
arenaAn arena is an enclosed area, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theater, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators. The key feature of an arena is that the event space is the...
in
Louisville, KentuckyLouisville is Kentucky's largest city and county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's estimated population as of 2008 was 713,877 , with a population of 1,244,696 in the Louisville...
, on the grounds of the
Kentucky Exposition CenterThe Kentucky Exposition Center , formerly Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center , is a large multi-use facility in Louisville, Kentucky, United States...
, which is owned by the Commonwealth of
KentuckyThe Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. Kentucky is a Southern state situated in the Upland South, although the state is infrequently placed, geographically and culturally, in the Midwest. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a...
. It is best known for its use as a
basketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of 5 players try to score points against one another by placing a ball through a
10 foot high hoop under organized rules...
arena, serving as the home of the
University of Louisville CardinalsThe Louisville Cardinals are the athletic teams representing the University of Louisville. A member of the Big East Conference since 2005, they are known nationally as traditional powers in men's basketball, women's volleyball, cheerleading and dance team...
men's and women's teams since 1956 and as home of the
Kentucky ColonelsThe Kentucky Colonels were a member of the American Basketball Association for all of the league's nine years. The Colonels won the most games and had the highest winning percentage of any franchise in the league's history, but the team did not join the NBA in the 1976 ABA-NBA merger...
of the
American Basketball AssociationThe American Basketball Association was a professional basketball league founded in 1967. The ABA ceased to exist with the ABA-NBA merger in 1976.-League history:...
from 1970 until the
ABA-NBA mergerThe ABA-NBA merger was the merger of the American Basketball Association with the National Basketball Association, which after multiple attempts over several years finally occurred in 1976.- Origins of ABA-NBA competition :...
in June 1976.
History
Freedom Hall was completed in 1956 in the newly opened Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center located 5 miles south of
Downtown LouisvilleDowntown Louisville is the largest central business district in the state of Kentucky and the urban hub of the Louisville, Kentucky Metropolitan Area. Its boundaries are the Ohio River to the north, Hancock Street to the east, York and Jacob Streets to the south, and 9th Street to the west...
. In 1984 the facility was refurbished, including the lowered of the floor to allow maximum capacity to increase from 16,664 to 18,865 for basketball. It has been the full time home of Cardinal men's basketball since the 1957/58 season, with the team winning 82% of home games in 50 seasons. U of L has ranked in the Top 5 in attendance for the past 25 years, with 16 of the past 19 years averaging more than 100% of capacity.
In addition to being the home of the Cardinals, Freedom Hall has hosted
NCAA TournamentThe NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is a single elimination tournament held each spring featuring 65 college basketball teams. college basketball teams in the United States...
games ten times, including six
Final FourFinal Four is a sports term that is commonly applied to the last four teams remaining in a playoff tournament, most notably the NCAA Division I college basketball tournament. Typically it refers to a tournament format where four teams play two rounds of single-elimination games, resulting in a...
s between 1958 and 1969. The arena has also hosted 11 conference tournaments, nine
Metro ConferenceThe Metropolitan Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, popularly known as the Metro Conference, was an NCAA Division I athletics conference, so named because all of its charter members were in urban metropolitan areas in, or at least on the fringes of, the Southern United States...
Tournaments and two
Conference USAConference USA, officially abbreviated C-USA, is a college athletic conference whose member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports...
tournaments—2001 and 2003. It has also hosted the Kentucky High School State Basketball Tournament (also known as the Sweet 16) 23 times, including every year from 1965-1978. In 1984, the floor of the arena was lowered about 10 feet to increase the capacity of the arena from 16,613 to its current figure. In the 1996-97 season Freedom Hall averaged an attendance of 19,590 surpassing arena capacity. Freedom Hall hosts the Championship tractor pull every February during the National Farm Machinery Show.
Another famous event that occurs at Freedom Hall is the
Kentucky State Fair World's Championship Horse ShowThe World's Championship Horse Show, held at the Kentucky State Fairgrounds in Louisville, Kentucky, in Freedom Hall, is a large horse show that includes the American saddlebred, Hackney pony, and Standardbred. It is usually held annually in late August, coinciding with the dates of the Kentucky...
. In fact, Freedom Hall was designed for this event. The
North American International Livestock ExpositionNorth American International Livestock Exposition is a livestock show held each November in Louisville, Kentucky and lasts for two weeks. It is billed as the "world's largest all-breed, purebred livestock exposition", with nine major livestock divisions with competitors from the 48 contiguous states...
also is held there each November.
In November 2008 the
Louisville FireThe Louisville Fire was an arena football team that played its home games at the Brown-Forman Field in Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky. They were a 2001 expansion team of the af2. Their owner/operator was former Pro Bowl lineman and Louisville native Will Wolford. The team was somewhat...
of
af2AF2 was the name of the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football rules and style of play. League seasons ran from April through July with the postseason and ArenaCup...
ceased operations. The Louisville Fire was an Arena Football team who played in Freedom Hall.
On the lower level is the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame Walls of Fame where an engraved bronze plaque honors each inductee.
May 2009 Monday Night Raw was visting Freedom Hall.
| UofL Men's Basketball Attendance by Year |
| Year |
Average Attendance |
Games |
Percent of capacity |
| 1997/98 |
18,669 |
14 |
98.96% |
| 1998/99 |
19,055 |
14 |
101.0% |
| 1999/00 |
19,180 |
15 |
101.2% |
| 2000/01 |
17,457 |
16 |
92.53% |
| 2001/02 |
18,929 |
19 |
100.3% |
| 2002/03 |
19,037 |
18 |
101.0% |
| 2003/04 |
19,443 |
15 |
103.1% |
| 2004/05 |
18,746 |
17 |
99.36% |
| 2005/06 |
18,316 |
22 |
97.09% |
| 2006/07 |
18,488 |
20 |
98% |
| 2007/08 |
19,481 |
17 |
103.3% |
External links