FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas Razorbacks Athletic Director Jeff Long said he was disappointed with the announced attendance of 36,055 at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock for the season opener against Florida A&M last Thursday.
"We had hoped for more, obviously," Long said Wednesday after speaking at the Northwest Arkansas Touchdown Club. "The crowd gives the team energy and excitement. It lifts the team. I hope people aren't going to be upset with me when I say disappointed. We were disappointed there weren't more fans."
Long said he believed the threat of rain was a factor in attendance.
It also was the second consecutive season the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville's only game in Little Rock was against a Football Championship Subdivision team. The Razorbacks beat Florida A&M 49-7 after beating Alcorn State 52-10 last season.
"We thought that moving the game to Thursday night would create an energy on the opening night of college football," Long said. "Create a little more juice to the game against an FCS opponent."
Florida A&M was the next-to-last game Arkansas is contractually obligated to play in Little Rock, where the Razorbacks have played at least once annually since 1933.
Arkansas' contract with War Memorial Stadium calls for next season's game to be against an SEC opponent, which will be Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, Alabama or LSU.
Long said on Arkansas' pregame show last Thursday that he and Chancellor Joe Steinmetz will need to make some tough decisions about the future of games in Little Rock.
While speaking to the Northwest Arkansas Touchdown Club, Long stressed that he and Steinmetz will make a recommendation to Donald Bobbitt -- president of the UA System -- along with the board of trustees.
"I guess I sort of riled some people up when I said the chancellor and I have a tough decision," Long said. "I'm a chain-of-command person. I deal with the chancellor at the University of Arkansas on a weekly, daily, hourly basis.
"So that's who I report to and that's who I communicate with. The chancellor reports to president of system, and the president has a board of trustees.
"In no way was I trying to remove the board of trustees from this decision. They obviously play whatever role they want to play in this decision. The chancellor and I will eventually arrive at a recommendation that we would take up the chain of command.
"It's a big decision. It's more than the AD's."
Long said there are no plans for the UA to buy out next season's game.
"Has someone said that that's an option? Yeah, probably," Long said. "Has there been any substantive conversation about buying out? Absolutely none that I've been engaged in. We believe in honoring the contract."
Long said there isn't a lot of time left to decide whether to continue playing games in Little Rock.
"Because we have to make the decisions about scheduling teams, and scheduling teams in Little Rock or Fayetteville," he said. "That's important to the opponents as well.
"We just need to be making that decision. I mean, it doesn't need to be made in a week or a month. It needs to be, hopefully in my opinion, made in the course of this season so we can continue to schedule our future games."
Arkansas has drawn crowds of less than 50,000 in five of its past six Little Rock games. The exception was 54,959 against Georgia in 2014. Other recent crowds were 46,988 for Alcorn State, 49,591 for Toledo in 2015, and 47,358 for Samford and 45,198 for Mississippi State in 2013.
"Giving the team the home-field advantage is important," Long said. "We see it at stadiums across the SEC. We see it in our own stadium here in Fayetteville, and we see it when the stadium's full in Little Rock that we have that home-field advantage there as well.
"Yes attendance is important ... I know some people think it's a dirty word, but generating revenue is important for our program. That's important for us to do the things we want to do just not in football, but all 19 of our sports, and it's important to the money we also give back to the university on the academic side."
Long, who will speak Monday at the Little Rock Touchdown Club, said he's hearing many different opinions about whether the Razorbacks should continue to play in War Memorial Stadium.
"There are lots of people suggesting lots of things," he said. "Look, that's to be expected. It's a passionate state. The Razorbacks are important to this state. There's a history and tradition.
"I'm not surprised by people wanting games to remain. I'm not surprised by those who feel all the games should be in Fayetteville."
Long said his hope is that whatever decision is made doesn't divide the state.
"I think that we've seen the issues that have been created over 20 years," Long said. "I hope we don't turn it into a statewide debate or referendum.
"There are certainly people that can make the decision and make it in the best interest of the university and the state and the system, and let's play ball."
Sports on 09/07/2017