David Pryor knew he was beat. He knew it from the start, but he spoke from his heart, picked up support from Cliff Gibson, but they went down strongly but quietly Thursday as the University of Arkansas board of trustees voted 8-2 for a $160 million expansion to Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
It wasn't denied the project most likely will be more in the neighborhood of $200 million when completed.
Before doing the math, which shows that is more than $60,000 for each of the proposed 3,000-plus additional seats -- all in luxury suites most of us will only see through binoculars -- understand a big part of that money is for the new athletic facility that will have underground parking so, as one former trustee said, it will keep the administration from getting wet.
Yes, several former board members, in a Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette guest editorial and letter to the statewide Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, urged the current board not to spend $160 million on football.
Rather, they asked to consider using it for updating actual academic buildings, raises for underpaid teachers and professors, and other things such as science equipment.
Like Pryor and Gibson, they were ignored.
In the aftermath, and judging by comments, emails and texts, this campaign might not have won a statewide election.
Numerous negative comments have been heard and read, and some of those directed at Athletic Director Jeff Long are not flattering.
Like, Long is a money-grubber, a Yankee, an athletic director with too many layers between him and the real fan base, and a guy out of touch with the state of Arkansas.
Well, the fact is, Long was doing what he is paid to do -- look out for the athletic department. That's why he's called the athletic director.
The president of the UA system, Donald Bobbitt, and Chancellor Joe Steinmetz, who opened Thursday's meeting supporting the expansion, were apparently 100 percent on board. Their titles are above that of athletic director.
How this particularly large expense will help win more football games and produce more revenue remains to be seen, but it seems a foregone conclusion that when completed it would be almost impossible to play any more games in central Arkansas.
It is obvious fans are not going to support their Hogs in War Memorial Stadium against teams such as Alcorn State, but then again, fans in Northwest Arkansas wouldn't either.
There is no doubt downsizing to one central Arkansas game is having an effect on the Razorbacks Nation in central, east and southeast Arkansas.
The Razorbacks are not necessarily losing fans who went to school in Fayetteville, but more likely the fans who felt like they were part of what was once a statewide program.
If the UA wasn't feeling some sort of pinch, then why did the Razorback Foundation recently announce it had hired two women to run a new satellite office in Little Rock. The Foundation tried to hire a former Razorback, but the salary was more in line with a recent graduate.
It's also not going to help the UA that the $120 million bond issue was awarded to a banking institution headquartered in Boston, rather than one of the great financial institutions in Arkansas, according to multiple sources. J.P. Morgan apparently was the low bidder but just barely.
Pryor, a former Arkansas governor and U.S. senator, spoke out for the University of Arkansas but not against the Razorbacks. He got one supporter, Gibson, but that wasn't enough.
The eight trustees who voted for the expansion might have gotten it right, only time will tell.
Sports on 06/19/2016