Just a few months after it was seemingly on life support, Arkansas’ tradition of playing games at War Memorial Stadium will continue past 2018.
The Razorbacks have agreed to a deal that includes playing Missouri and their Red-White spring game in Little Rock in alternating years beginning in 2019 and extending through 2024, athletics director Hunter Yurachek announced Thursday.
Over that period, they will play the “Battle Line Rivalry” and – pending approval from the SEC – the spring game at War Memorial Stadium three times each. The deal is also contingent on stadium upgrades and benchmarks set by the UA.
Among the requirements set forth by Arkansas are replacing the artificial turf, updating the network broadcast infrastructure to meet minimum standards for the SEC Network, ESPN and CBS, improving WiFi in the press box, replacing all stadium audio speakers and implementing mobile ticket scanning at all gate entries.
The deal also requires at least 47,000 tickets to be sold for the Missouri games and revenue from those ticket sales to hit $2.1 million in 2019 and increase by $200,000 for each of the following games.
“As with any decision, I know that we will have differing perspectives on today’s announcement,” Yurachek said. “While it might not be a perfect solution for our constituents individually, it is the right decision to Arkansas collectively.”
The decision to continue playing games at War Memorial Stadium marks a dramatic shift from the growing sentiment that all Arkansas home games would be moved to the on-campus Reynolds Razorback Stadium when the current contract expires following the 2018 season.
With the renovated north end zone scheduled to open this year and poor attendance for games against FCS opponents the previous two games in Little Rock, all signs were pointing to the end of games in the state’s capitol.
However, athletics director Jeff Long was fired in November and replaced by Yurachek three weeks later. He and UA chancellor Joseph Steinmetz immediately began mending bridges with fans and alumni across the state.
“I know there’s a perception out there, I’ve heard about it often since I became chancellor about two and a half years ago, and that’s the perception that the university serves only Northwest Arkansas,” Steinmetz said during Thursday’s press conference. “I want to assure you that that’s not the case. We are here for all of Arkansas.”
Whether or not to keep games in Little Rock is one of the hottest topics in Arkansas athletics, earning the moniker “The Great Stadium Debate.”
Those arguing to move all home games to Fayetteville point to the revenue lost by playing games at War Memorial Stadium. Not only does it seat about 20,000 fewer fans and have fewer suites and boxes, but the Razorbacks also give up profits from concession and merchandise sales when playing in Little Rock.
On the other side of the debate are those who argue that the tradition is important to maintaining support in all areas of the state, as the Razorbacks are the only Power Five program and there are no professional teams in Arkansas. Traveling to games in Little Rock is much easier for fans in the southern and eastern parts of the state than to games in Fayetteville.
Arkansas first played in the state capital in 1906 and has had at least one game there every year since 1932. Beginning in 1948, those games were played at War Memorial Stadium.
Yurachek and Kane Webb, the Director of Arkansas Parks and Tourism, both touched on the complexity of the issue during Thursday’s press conference.
“As I have said many times over the past five months, if this were simply a dollars and cents decision, it would be an easy one for a director of athletics to make,” Yurachek said. “While providing the necessary financial support to our student-athletes is and always will be essential to our success, when it comes to the Razorbacks in this state, the investment is much deeper than a simple spreadsheet.”
Webb said: “In an era in which money seems to be the driving force behind every major decision in big-time college athletics – and it doesn’t get any bigger time than SEC football – this wasn’t a money decision. It required an appreciation and understanding of tradition and culture and a willingness to be uniquely Arkansas.”
Playing home games in off-campus stadiums has largely died off in college football. In the SEC, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Alabama and Auburn stopped playing games in Jackson, Miss., and Birmingam, Ala., between the early-1990s and early-2000s.
It was around that time that the number of games Arkansas played in Little Rock dipped to two per year as a result of the 2001 expansion at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville. Earlier this decade, that number dropped to one game per year.
“Sometimes we sell ourselves short with the uniqueness of playing games in Little Rock,” War Memorial Stadium Commission Chairman Kevin Crass said. “Some people view it as a negative; I view it as a positive.
“No other state in this country can say that games off campus in the capital city have survived. Where Jackson and Birmingham failed, Little Rock has thrived and survived.”
Arkansas hosts Ole Miss at War Memorial Stadium on Oct. 13 this season, with the Missouri games in Little Rock set to begin the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving in 2019.
