With all of the talk about renovating Pauley and what it might mean for the UCLA program, I thought this article on Louisville considering a new arena might be relevant. First, it shows just how prevalent new arenas are becoming - it seems like every school is renovating or building arenas (or at the very least, considering these types of projects). Perhaps more interesting, the article provides many financial details about Louisville and its athletic department. For example, the Louisville men's basketball team generated $17 million from Freedom Hall this past year (twice as much as it did four years ago), which makes up about half of the entire athletic budget. And this is only from the facility itself, so revenue from things like media fees and sponsorship deals are not included in this figure. A couple other interesting tidbits: first, if you want courtside season tickets to Louisville games and you have not had them before, you have to pony up $150,000 payable over five years (plus pay $1500 per seat plus the cost of each ticket). and secondly, it turns out that because Louisville is jumping to the Big East next year, the school is in negotiations with Conference USA to determine how much money Louisville should receive for its run to the Final Four - theoretically, the school could end up being paid nothing. ouch.