Open practice in Louisville on Sunday cancelled

The University of Kentucky planned to stage an open practice Sunday in Louisville’s Freedom Hall. It’s been cancelled.

The Kentucky Exposition Center announced the cancellation and declined to explain.

UK Coach John Calipari issued a statement several hours after the announcement.

“We originally planned a practice at Freedom Hall on Sunday afternoon to give our guys a chance to practice in an arena that we will compete in later this season,” Calipari said. “The passion of our Kentucky fans in Louisville made it impossible for the word not to get out about the practice at Freedom Hall. Due to the publicity created by several media outlets, we will no longer be able to conduct a preseason practice off campus this weekend. We will schedule an open practice at Freedom Hall and make sure all our fans in Louisville know about it.”

NCAA rules prohibit schools from publicizing a pre-season practice. Such open practices can be publicized during the season.

So why was the practice cancelled?

Perhaps UK feared that the publicity surrounding the practice could be viewed as a possible rules violation.

The University of Louisville could have blocked the practice. U of L’s women’s team has an exhibition game Sunday afternoon against Northern Kentucky University. By contract, that game gives U of L the rights to Freedom Hall the entire day and night.

But U of L did not block the UK practice. “Louisville had nothing to do with this,” U of L spokesman Kenny Klein said.

Here’s another possible factor. The Kentucky Fair & Exposition Center has a crowded schedule of events on Sunday. There’s the Kentucky Flea Market in the West Wing. There’s a Kenny Woods Gun & Knife Show in the West Hall. There’s an International Construction and Utility Equipment Expo. And the Kentucky Kingdom amusement park has its Halloween Fright Fest from noon until 8 p.m.

Concerns about crowd control led to a request that UK move its practice from 6 to 7.  Instead, UK decided to cancel the practice.

UK spokesman DeWayne Peevy said the cancellation led to angry calls to the school. But UK wanted to get the word out on the cancellation to prevent fans from going to Freedom Hall expecting to see the Wildcats practice, he said.