The “KFC Yum Center” is keeping its name

The Louisville Arena Authority has approved a new 11-year naming rights deal that will keep the “KFC Yum Center” as the “KFC Yum Center” for at least the next decade.

The agreement will provide slightly more money to the arena board each year to help pay off construction debt. Naming rights are just one revenue source for the construction debt that was refinanced in 2017.

Under the terms of the contract, Yum! Brands will pay an average of $1.48 million to the arena annually, said Leslie Geoghegan, the arena authority’s chairwoman. That compares to about $1.4 million a year during the initial agreement that ran from 2010 until this year.

Geoghegan called the deal a “major milestone.”

“As our founding partner, Yum!’s investments for the first ten years have allowed us to bring world-class events to Louisville, and we’ve really been very persistent over the last several months to renew this agreement.”

I have spent the last 10 years ignoring the exclamation point after “Yum,” a tradition I plan on keeping over the 11 years ahead.

The dream of “Andy’s TV Arena” will have to be put on hold until at least 2031.