JEFFERSONVILLE —
It’s Friday night in the Cincinnati area and fans are streaming out of Great American Ball Park after watching another win by the resurgent Reds.
Many of the fans will head across one of two bridges that book-end the downtown baseball stadium — or perhaps hop on a water taxi — headed for their cars, hotels or bars of the Newport-Covington, Ky., area. The south shore of the Ohio River there has cashed in on the still-fairly-new downtown ballpark, as well as Paul Brown Stadium, home of the NFL’s Bengals.
The same migration across the river of people and money can happen here. It should happen here, with the near-completion of the KFC Yum! Center in downtown Louisville.
Despite a corporation-induced name that doesn’t quite have the ring of Great American Ball Park, the arena looks like a winner based on a media tour I was a part of Thursday. You can read coverage and see photos and video of the tour at newsandtribune.com
In just more than two months, The Eagles will help open the arena, and there are sold out University of Louisville basketball games and other events to follow.
The announcement last week of a water taxi service — similar to the one between Cincinnati and Kentucky — from Jeffersonville to Louisville for games and events is a good sign Jeffersonville realizes the opportunity before it. In conversations I’ve had with city leaders, I think they understand the economic opportunities a 22,000-seat arena a mile across a bridge with pedestrian access can mean. If no other agencies are taking action, at least the city which stands to benefit most from the crowds — after Louisville, of course — is doing so.
But why ask or expect government to do what you can do for yourself, Southern Indiana business owners and operators? With easy access to the arena, you have the restaurants people want to eat at, the hotels for them to stay in and shops for them to discover.
New restaurants and bars are spreading around the arena along Main Street in Louisville. You can bet they’ll have drink and food specials before and after games. Hoosier establishments would be wise to do the same and promote those through advertising and social media.
If you’re a hotel near the riverfront, a shuttle service to and from the arena would be a good way to land overnight stays from people who might want a view of the Louisville skyline rather than to be a part of it.
The unique shops on Spring Street could hand out coupons to some of those people eating and staying along the Jeffersonville riverfront, with hopes that out-of-towners might stop in their shop the next day.
A huge, oddly shaped opportunity has been placed before your eyes. The Louisville Arena Authority built the structure in as convenient a place to Southern Indiana as possible without dropping it directly on Riverside Drive. There’s even a great view of the Indiana shore from the glass-covered north side of the arena.
Those eating at the sports bar behind the glass will have a clear vision of Southern Indiana. I’m hoping that vision is reciprocated from us by realizing the opportunities the downtown arena brings.
— Shea Van Hoy is editor of The Evening News. Reach him by phone at 812-206-2130 or via e-mail at shea.vanhoy@newsandtribune.com
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VAN HOY: Arena should be a big deal
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