UA games pared in LR

The University of Arkansas football team will continue to play in Little Rock beyond 2016, but the Razorbacks will play there only once a year.

To address future football scheduling concerns and to ensure that Razorbacks football games remain in Little Rock for two more years, the university and the War Memorial Stadium Commission announced Tuesday an amendment to their contract that will cut the number of games played in Little Rock from two games per season to one game per season through 2018.

The contract, originally signed in 2000, had called for two Arkansas games to be played at the stadium each season through 2016. The amendment means UA is guaranteed five games in Little Rock, where it has played annually since 1932, over the next five years instead of six games over the next three years.

“I didn’t at all consider this a negotiation,” University of Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long said during a news conference at War Memorial Stadium. “It was really a conversation. It was a conversation between people who understood that we were looking out for what is the best interest of Razorback athletics and our Razorback football team.”

The amended contract calls for the university to pay the War Memorial Stadium Commission $400,000 annually through 2016 to make up for revenue lost by having only one game at the stadium instead of two. UA will pay the commission $75,000 for use of the stadium and grounds through 2016, but not for 2017 and 2018.

The contract also calls for two games over the five-year period to be against Southeastern Conference opponents. Next year’s game will be Oct. 18 against the University of Georgia, a member of the SEC East Division. Future opponents will be decided on an annual basis by the university, Long said. The contract states the university has 18 months to notify the stadium of UA’s opponent.

Games at War Memorial Stadium this year included UA’s 31-21 victory over Samford, a member of the NCAA’s lower-tiered Football Championship Subdivision, on Sept. 7, and a 24-17 overtime loss to conference opponent Mississippi State last Saturday.

The agreement puts to rest, at least temporarily, talk that UA’s days of playing in Little Rock were coming to an end after 2016.

“The desire was to have games past ’16,” War Memorial Stadium Commission Chairman Kevin Crass said. “We’re just, quite frankly, thrilled to have this agreement signed and have the extension in place through ’18, which a number of people said wouldn’t happen. I’m pleased to say that it did.”

The eight-person commission that serves as the governing body for the stadium, which opened in 1948, passed the amendment by a unanimous vote during a morning meeting at the stadium. Four members were present and four voted by conference call to extend an agreement that Crass said he originally presented to Long “some months ago.”

Aware of Long’s scheduling conflicts and that there was no guarantee for games beyond 2016, Crass said he reached out to to see if Long would be open to a “creative solution that would satisfy his need and our desire.”

Crass said he didn’t believe that if the commission had not offered to amend the contract that Arkansas would be done playing in Little Rock after 2016, but Tuesday’s announcement made sure that didn’t happen.

“We wanted to end that debate if we could,” Crass said. “I think we’ve done that here.”

Long had not committed to UA’s future in Little Rock before Tuesday, saying after addressing the Little Rock Touchdown Club in September that he didn’t have any plans to discuss the contract until the summer of 2015.

Long, who has served as UA’s athletic director since 2008, said Tuesday that the SEC’s uncertain scheduling future was the biggest factor in agreeing to the amendment.

All SEC teams currently play eight conference games - four at home and four on the road - but the league is exploring the option of playing nine games starting in 2016. UA and Texas A&M also agreed to return their series to AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, beginning in 2014.

Under the previous agreement with War Memorial Stadium, that would mean in 2015 UA would play only two SEC games at Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville. The Texas A&M game in Arlington, Texas, would be considered a home game, as well as another SEC game scheduled for Little Rock.

Long said Tuesday that playing an additional game in Fayetteville instead of Little Rock could provide a revenue boost of $900,000 to $1 million for the university.

“I do want to say, that was not the focus of our conversation and our partnership,” Long said. “It was really trying to solve these scheduling issues that we have. It really wasn’t financially motivated at all.”

Commission members interviewed Tuesday said the amendment was met with little resistance and that they considered it necessary to secure the Razorbacks’ future in Little Rock.

“Do I like the idea that we’re not playing two games [in Little Rock]? No,” commission member Donnie Cook said. “I’ve been going to ball games out there for 40 years, and I remember the day when we played four out there. We all like to think we can hold on to certain things, but that’s not the reality.”

Brenda Scisson, a commission member from Little Rock, said she has an ongoing concern about attendance for games played at the 54,120-seat War Memorial Stadium. UA’s loss to Mississippi State on Saturday was played in front of an announced crowd of 45,198, the fourth-smallest crowd to attend a Razorbacks game against an SEC opponent at the venue.

“I was embarrassed by the crowd size at Mississippi State,” Scisson said. “For those fans that are saying ‘give us Little Rock games, give us Little Rock games,’ let those actions speak louder than our words. Back it up by coming and attending.”

There also has been a dip in UA’s average attendance for games played in Fayetteville. Average announced attendance for five games at Razorback Stadium was 67,723.6 this season, its lowest since 2003.

The Razorbacks are 3-8 overall and have lost all seven of their SEC games in their first season under Coach Bret Bielema, who also expressed concerns this season regarding travel to Little Rock and recruiting limitations that come with playing at War Memorial Stadium.

Crass said the $400,000the university will pay annually through 2016 will make up for the lost revenue, but it will not pay for use of the stadium in 2017 and 2018 so the commission will “have to work to find a revenue source for that,” such as other sporting events and concerts.

There were no college games played at the stadium other than UA’s two games this season, but Crass said the commission is open to any in-state college playing a game there. The stadium will host the Arkansas Activities Association’s high school football championship games in December, and Little Rock Catholic High School plays its home games there.

The stadium had an agreement for this year’s game between Arkansas State University and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, but the schools agreed to move the game to ASU’s campus in Jonesboro.

ASU Athletic Director Terry Mohajir reiterated Tuesday his willingness to play a game in Little Rock, but he said that it would have to be “the right game.” ASU last played at War Memorial in 2006, when it lost 35-7 to Big 12 Conference member Oklahoma State.

“There’s a myriad of scenarios that we would love to play a game in Little Rock every year,” Mohajir said. “We’re open to anything.”

Long said Tuesday’s announcement does not mean that the end of the state’s largest university playing some of its football games at one of the state’s largest football stadiums is inevitable.

“Certainly, there will be people that look at this many, many different ways,” Long said. “We didn’t look at it that way. … That decision is not made, and that decision is down the road in what will happen after 2018.”