Top 15 rivalry game between Tennessee and Kentucky in Lexington?
One team looking for road revenge while the other is looking for the regular-season rivalry sweep?
Tuesday’s matchup between the No. 5 Vols and No. 15 Wildcats is the type of game that would normally have both Rupp Arena and Thompson Boling Arena alike sold-out to the brim. But that may not be the case for this particular meeting.
Lexington received snow all morning on Tuesday but it did stop around lunchtime. Currently, the city has a forecast of freezing rain “for the next several hours,” according to The Weather Channel.
The Winter Weather Advisory for Lexington could discourage some fans from going to the rivalry game, while others may not be able to go entirely.
“We’ve got snowstorms in Kentucky,” T.J. Walker of Big X Sports Radio said while speaking with Fox Sports Knoxville’s The Drive on Tuesday. “I think maybe you all are getting a little bit of it in Tennessee, but I think most of it is coming through Kentucky. I’m in Louisville and we’ve maybe gotten two or three inches, the roads really aren’t that terrible. But if you check out ticket websites, Rupp Arena, for a top 15 matchup, you will never ever find a cheaper ticket at Rupp. Especially a rivalry top 15 matchup with the Cats and the Vols. But you can get into the building for as low as maybe 30 bucks? 50 bucks? It wouldn’t be the best seats in the house but you can get some pretty decent seats for 70 or 80 bucks, which is just unheard of.”
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At the time of this pulication, Ticketmaster currently has its cheapest ticket for Tuesday’s game at $35 and the cheapest tickets in the lower bowl at $100 with verified resale tickets less than four hours to tipoff.
The weather may not stop the students from hiking across campus to see the game, but it could cause for a late-arriving or fewer-than-expected crowd on Tuesday night in Lexington. Conversely, though, perhaps more people will be encouraged to fill those seats because of the favorable prices for a big game. Few things can stop a determined college sports fan, after all. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Lexington’s current weather impact doesn’t seem to be nearly as bad, but it does remind of when an ice storm hit Knoxville just before Tennessee’s home game against Florida last season. Tennessee posted an attendance of 17,332 for that 5:00 p.m. game in the Food City Center in early 2024.
No. 15 Kentucky will host No. 5 Tennessee at 7:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday evening. Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for live, on-site coverage of the game from a snow-covered Rupp Arena.
