No college arena tour would be complete without a trip to Lexington and Rupp arena. This place scores points merely for being the home of the Kentucky Wildcats, traditionally one of America's most prominent college basketball teams (and the--believe it or not--even MORE successful multiple national championship wielding UK Cheerleaders). Having said that, however, I must admit to being rather disappointed with the arena itself as a physical space. Architecturally it's nothing more than a large squarish structure -- complete with visible corrugated metal in the roof! The entire upper deck is--of all horrors--BLEACHER seats (and I mean honest to goodness, long strips of planking-with-no-back bleacher seats)! Located in downtown Lexington, it's also not an on-campus arena. Considering these factors it's easy to see why UK lays claim to annually drawing the most b-ball fans. The ease of driving into a central urban locale -- not to mention the fact that the vast majority of the 23-odd thousand are crammed into that upper deck -- certainly diminishes the impressiveness of that stat (when comparing such to typical, large on-campus arenas in quintessential, smaller college towns). Were Rupp a conventional arena with theater-style seating (complete with back and arms) throughout, it would hold significantly less -- in fact that capacity would be reduced to WELL under 20K. IMO, a program like UK (and most especially its avid fan-base) simply deserves better. As much as I hate giving Rupp a rating of 2 out of 5, it's simply unavoidable in a world that includes such a 5-star palace as the Smith Center in Chapel Hill (in all honesty there's simply no favorable comparison to be made between the two, physically speaking -- the DeanDome being vastly superior in every conceivable way). Nonetheless, the atmosphere is unsurpassed! And Rupp Arena--along with all of the great state (or commonwealth, as it were) of Kentucky--is an essential stop for any true fan of the sport.