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football Edit

Coffee: UKs ticket timidity is puzzling

Some things to mull over...
What is a good way to describe University of Louisville fans?
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Do you like the overused 'nation' tag that is tired and a little overblown for me? Are you comfortable with 'Card Nation' or Cardinal Nation'? Frankly I find that term somewhat trite and simply a copy of other schools.
How about 'Cardinal Fanatics'? Does that fit your perception of the fans that cheer for UofL? To me it conjures up a vision of some crazed nut case ranting and raving about his team. In my mind not acceptable for Louisville fans that try to keep their relationship with athletic teams in perspective and have lives to live outside of sports.
Would you like 'Cardinal Congregation' or 'The Louisville Group'? How about the 'Bird Gang', 'Cardinal Assemblage' or 'The Louisville Flock'? Flock goes well with the bird theme.
How about we just stick with 'Louisville Fans'? I think that best describes the interchange between the University of Louisville and it's followers.
I already belong to one nation, the good ole USA and that's enough for me. Cardinal fans like to cheer for their team and follow them all around the country to away games, but their whole lives are not devoted to 18-22 year-olds playing sports.
Cardinal fans are some of the best in the nation. Of course every school feels that they have the best fans in the country, but that's what they are: fans. Some fans lose perspective and go overboard in their support for their school, denigrating other schools and resorting to destructive behavior toward rivals of their school.
Hopefully Card fans are above that banal activity and enjoy cheering on the Cards and leaving it at that.
On to other topics: For the second straight time the University of Kentucky returned 2,000 tickets to the UofL-UK football game in PJCS. It's not unusual for visiting teams to return part of their allotment when traveling to away games.
What makes the UK actions so bizarre is the timing and the talking. The timing is strange because it is three months before the deadline for returning unsold tickets. In 2012 UK also returned the tickets earlier than necessary.
The talking refers to the constant chatter about how many UK fans live in the Louisville area. Supposedly thousands or hundreds of thousands of Big Blue fans live in the Derby City and, according to some, UK fans outnumber Card fans.
If that's the case why aren't they buying tickets to the rivalry game? I can understand returning tickets for games hundreds of miles from your fan base, but why can't a school sell tickets with thousands of fans in the same city as the game?
Add Kentucky's ticket timidity to the fact that Coach Stoops refused to attend the Governor's Cup festivities and it leaves you wondering, "What's going on?"
The Governor's Cup is a charitable activity that benefits a Kentucky non-profit but the Kentucky staff refused to take part in any of the festivities. To me this is a sad situation.
Was this decision a result of people in charge that don't appreciate the role that the UK/UofL football game has done to elevate high school football in Kentucky? Is it a result of a refusal to admit that Louisville is Kentucky's equal or superior when it comes to football? Is it an attempt to thumb their nose at Louisville and continue the 'little brother' behavior of the Rupp era?
Whatever the reason it was an infantile move by the folks in charge in Lexington.
It's time to realize that Louisville is the nationally recognized top program in the state of Kentucky. Trying to ignore the Cards is not going to change reality.
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