Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3Question: Talk about the future of Rupp Arena and your thoughts on a new arena.John Calipari: I think they’ll do a new arena. I think they will, and I think within the next four or five years that will be a reality, mainly because of the pride and it’s needed. How old is the arena? You’re talking 30-something years. Question: How important are corporate suites?Calipari: The only thing I said when they talked to me is I think you need, if you can understand what I’m saying, dugouts. So in other words, you’re not sitting in the suite watching the game. The dugout on the baseline is behind your seats. That’s where your suite is, and if you want to come out, you come out and sit in your seat to watch the game. Why is that? Because it doesn’t raise our upper deck through the roof. How many suites can this area (fill)? You want to have football suites and baseball suites and basketball suites? Can this area absorb 400 suites? Because obviously this is us right here. There may be Cincinnati and some other areas (that help). So now you’re looking at dugout suites. How many suites that is, I have no idea. You just don’t want the upper deck. What makes Rupp what it is, is the upper deck isn’t 17 miles away. Those people that have those seats between the in-lines in the first four rows in the upper decks have great seats. You don’t want those seats to be bad seats. I think they’re taking that into consideration as they’re doing it. The first things I’ve seen, the drawings, were with dugouts on the baseline. Question: Is that something maybe like Pitt has?Calipari: Yeah, but theirs are different. They’re back there, but the seats are separated. They’ve only got 12,000 seats. Here they’re going to ask for 30,000. So what happens is, that’s the door to their suite and then the seats are way up here. They’re talking about these seats are right here, down the suite, you walk back in it and it’s behind.

Question: So basically you’re sitting on top of your suite?Calipari: Yeah. You’ve got 25,000 seats. It’s a different deal. FedEx Forum is an unbelievable building. I told everybody upstairs it’s a great seat – and then I went up there. When I looked at people on the floor, they were that (small). When I looked at those people, (they were that small). And I want to tell you the scoreboard is below. So you’re sitting with the scoreboard below you. You add those boxes and it rises. This building, the aura of the building is that people from Eastern Kentucky who drive three hours to come sit in those seats, you’ve got to make it even better for them.Question: You’ve mentioned pride as one of the reasons there will be one eventually. They’re getting one down the road. Do you think that will move things faster?Calipari: That will move people, but we’re competing against ourselves. We’re not competing against Louisville or anybody else, I don’t believe. Maybe I’m being arrogant there. I just think that this program, how do you make this better? One of the statements I had, I want every high school player in the country saying, ‘I want to play at Kentucky,’ as a sophomore and ninth graders. We have kids right now in the top of this class that we are not offering scholarships to and they say we are. They’re calling and they’re saying, ‘Can I come to Midnight Madness?’ No, you don’t even have a scholarship here. And they’re top 10, they’re top five. We have who we want, and it’s what you want. To play at Kentucky is something special.Question: How much did last year have to do with that?Calipari: That’s why I said it (was a special year at the NBA Draft). And everybody got crazy and wanted to make statements about what I said. When you look at the next five years, the impact that that will have on this program, you can’t even gauge it. You can’t gauge it.