Really is just attacking the idea that football is essential for higher education and a jab at the Republican governor's purported fiscal conservatism in wanting to use state dollars to keep the old stadium up to date
http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/...-20180529/

(05-29-2018 09:51 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  Really is just attacking the idea that football is essential for higher education and a jab at the Republican governor's purported fiscal conservatism in wanting to use state dollars to keep the old stadium up to date
http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/...-20180529/

Lots of good points. Razorbacks are reluctantly coming back to LR, but for how long. War Memorial is better than Ladd, but not SEC caliber. ASU has no interest in playing in LR unless the city finds a way to get them some $$$. UALR would never fill WMS. If they ever wanted a football team, I think it would be better to have a 10k stadium near campus and move to the Southland then try to play BCS and use WMS.

Wow, this guy reads like a jaded douche who got cut from peewee football tryouts in 1987, took up the clarinet, joined the high school marching band, got swirlies from the starting QB, and never got over it

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And your posts reads like the opposite - from someone who can’t stand to see a view point opposite their own.

What's funny is he doesn't believe that people choose colleges based on things like football teams when I chose Georgia Southern over Southern Poly (now absorbed by Kennesaw State) specifically because I wanted to be in the marching band and go to football games.

(05-29-2018 02:39 PM)TrueBlueDrew Wrote:  What's funny is he doesn't believe that people choose colleges based on things like football teams when I chose Georgia Southern over Southern Poly (now absorbed by Kennesaw State) specifically because I wanted to be in the marching band and go to football games.

I grew up an Alabama fan and wanted to go to Alabama and be in the Million Dollar Band. When I was a senior in high school I took a class that changed what I wanted my major to be, and I decided I'd go to South Alabama instead. Alabama didn't have an undergrad program at the time (they do now) but in my head I wrestled with going to Alabama just for the football/marching band experience or going to South which had my major and offered scholarship. You know the story though, I chose USA. Interesting tidbit that relates to your point... I had taken the ACT a second time. It was the latest offering of the year. I took it to see if I could get additional scholarship monies. When I did I received a full paid scholarship offer to go to Troy. I had already decided to go to USA so I didn't accept it. But why would I have sent my scores to Troy in the first place? The Sound of the South of course. I stayed with USA though, because of major choice and other factors. But sports and band absolutely play a role in college decisions!

(05-29-2018 05:01 PM)SkullyMaroo Wrote:  

(05-29-2018 02:39 PM)TrueBlueDrew Wrote:  What's funny is he doesn't believe that people choose colleges based on things like football teams when I chose Georgia Southern over Southern Poly (now absorbed by Kennesaw State) specifically because I wanted to be in the marching band and go to football games.

I grew up an Alabama fan and wanted to go to Alabama and be in the Million Dollar Band. When I was a senior in high school I took a class that changed what I wanted my major to be, and I decided I'd go to South Alabama instead. Alabama didn't have an undergrad program at the time (they do now) but in my head I wrestled with going to Alabama just for the football/marching band experience or going to South which had my major and offered scholarship. You know the story though, I chose USA. Interesting tidbit that relates to your point... I had taken the ACT a second time. It was the latest offering of the year. I took it to see if I could get additional scholarship monies. When I did I received a full paid scholarship offer to go to Troy. I had already decided to go to USA so I didn't accept it. But why would I have sent my scores to Troy in the first place? The Sound of the South of course. I stayed with USA though, because of major choice and other factors. But sports and band absolutely play a role in college decisions!

Athletics does play a role, it creates awareness of the school as a choice but we've had colleges in what is now the US for 382 years and varsity athletics for just over 100 years.

Athletics being associated with colleges rather than clubs is just a fluke of geography, economics and demographics.

In Europe varsity athletics never really became much of a thing because clubs were so prevalent. More industrialized with greater population density and communities in closer proximity, workers would join clubs for the free time and play other local and regional clubs. In the US with more agriculture work clubs were less viable and many communities might have enough people willing to put together a team but traveling to the next town was much harder so university athletics filled the entertainment void, students had more free time to practice and travel.

I have no problem with UALR having football there IF THEY FIND A WAY TO PAY FOR IT WITHOUT MY TAX DOLLARS. They've already decided to use my money to prop up that terrible stadium by making it part of the state parks system. They are also angling for ways to tap local public money. Make no mistake, this isn't about UALR football. This is about Razorback football. These fools are so brainwashed by the Frank Broyles machine they think they can't survive without them. Screw the piglets. They don't want to play in Little Rock. UALR can have it if they can find the money. Otherwise, bulldoze it. The medical center next door needs more parking anyway.

I knew it was Brummett the first second I saw Arkstfan’s post. Brummett is so predictable.

(05-29-2018 02:35 PM)FoUTASportscaster Wrote:  And your posts reads like the opposite - from someone who can’t stand to see a view point opposite their own.

you're on a sports forum. This guy hates sports. His view point opposes all of ours.

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I applied to 4 schools. 2 had football, 2 did not. 1 school with football was a close-to-home fallback. 1 of the many reasons I chose App was because of football.

I chose uta because they had a good architecture school and that was my chosen career field. uta had a football team at the time but that was not much of a factor in my choice. I started out in mechanical engineering at Texas A&I and they had a terrific football program but I switched to architecture and only a few schools had programs in that so it didnt matter to me what their sports offerings were.

We have fine academic schools in the SBC and most everyone offers something unique to appeal to students. But none of the SBC members are gong to be confused for Harvard, Yale, Duke or Boston College (that the author used as an analogy). Athletics gets a school noticed by the casual student. ULM's victory over Arkansas caused a jump in requests for information about the school from potential students. Football, especially in the south, is king and is going the best chance for national exposure. Is it going to be the driving force for student recruitment? No. Can it help get your name out on the national stage? Yes.

Athletics can/will add to the overall college experience that most students desire. I will guarantee you that most everyone's fondest experiences from college is the social life/gatherings (athletic events, Greek life, parties). Homecoming events are centered around football. Lifelong involvement with the school is driven mostly through athletics. Let's face it.....you aren't getting together 20 years later to talk about that Econ 201 class you took.

(05-29-2018 11:02 PM)APPdiesel Wrote:  

(05-29-2018 02:35 PM)FoUTASportscaster Wrote:  And your posts reads like the opposite - from someone who can’t stand to see a view point opposite their own.

you're on a sports forum. This guy hates sports. His view point opposes all of ours.

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Actually Brummett doesn't hate sports. He hates the religion of sports. Those are different things.

Like when former Arkansas Governor and US Senator David Pryor tried to slow or stop the end zone project at Fayetteville pointing out that existing premium seating wasn't all sold out, that it would remove thousands of reasonably priced seats, and would tie up UA's capacity to borrow without negatively impacting its bond rating. Brummett reported what Sen. Pryor was saying as a member of the board of trustees.

Hog fans don't like that he points out the success level of UA athletics in light of the heavy spending the school does.

The LR football deal does deserve scrutiny.
The city owns the parking and puts zero skin in the game beyond collecting money and very occasionally maintaining the parking.
The state owns the stadium and needs to cough up around $17 million just to keep a Hog game every other year and a Hog practice in other years. To keep the property viable, they want UALR to increase it's already significant athletic fee in order to transfer some of that student money to the Department of Parks and Tourism to achieve the mission. In short they want UALR students to subsidize keeping UAF football in LR.
The school seems quite agnostic about whole thing but then again UALR is the one who has to increase operating revenue by $9 million annually in athletic to have football.

If you wade through the liberal pearl clutching, he has a real point at the end of the day. Would UALR be able to generate enough attendance and interest to have a viable football team? It just seems like a hard sell to fans who pretty much have a loyalty to some other team.

(05-30-2018 09:43 AM)cmaxwellgsu Wrote:  If you wade through the liberal pearl clutching, he has a real point at the end of the day. Would UALR be able to generate enough attendance and interest to have a viable football team? It just seems like a hard sell to fans who pretty much have a loyalty to some other team.

Not saying I think Little Rock should try to start football, at least not FBS football, but people said the same things about Georgia Southern in the 80's.

(05-30-2018 09:56 AM)TrueBlueDrew Wrote:  

(05-30-2018 09:43 AM)cmaxwellgsu Wrote:  If you wade through the liberal pearl clutching, he has a real point at the end of the day. Would UALR be able to generate enough attendance and interest to have a viable football team? It just seems like a hard sell to fans who pretty much have a loyalty to some other team.

Not saying I think Little Rock should try to start football, at least not FBS football, but people said the same things about Georgia Southern in the 80's.

While the faculty was against football for us, we also weren't asking the state to chip in to start it and provide a stadium with way more seats than we could fill. I should have added that it's a hard sell in this day and age. We went up against a lot fewer entertainment options back then.

(05-30-2018 09:56 AM)TrueBlueDrew Wrote:  

(05-30-2018 09:43 AM)cmaxwellgsu Wrote:  If you wade through the liberal pearl clutching, he has a real point at the end of the day. Would UALR be able to generate enough attendance and interest to have a viable football team? It just seems like a hard sell to fans who pretty much have a loyalty to some other team.

Not saying I think Little Rock should try to start football, at least not FBS football, but people said the same things about Georgia Southern in the 80's.

At a time when having some weights, a field, and coaches who made about the same or less than a full professor or department chair were the norm for a start-up.

Erk Russell was paid $47,000 a year to be head coach,

The initial budget for Georgia Southern football was $250,000. Adjusted for inflation, the entire football budget was less than Chad Lunsford's salary before tax matching and benefits.
https://www.si.com/vault/1981/11/09/8260...e-new-team

Starting up today takes a significantly larger investment.

I've been a UA-Little Rock supporter, booster, season ticket holder, etc. for over 35 years. I can't find a whole lot to criticize in Mr. Brummett's article. I tend to lean toward UA-LR football being a giant boondoggle if we decide to go that route. Sure, I will support it if it comes to pass- I'm just not sure it is a great idea at this point in time. We struggle to get 1500 folks for basketball, unless we are winning 30 games. How many fans will come out in the rain, heat, or cold to sit on uncomfortable metal bleachers to see a bad to mediocre football team? Did I mention that Little Rock is an awful sports town?

(06-01-2018 12:10 PM)mjs Wrote:  I've been a UA-Little Rock supporter, booster, season ticket holder, etc. for over 35 years. I can't find a whole lot to criticize in Mr. Brummett's article. I tend to lean toward UA-LR football being a giant boondoggle if we decide to go that route. Sure, I will support it if it comes to pass- I'm just not sure it is a great idea at this point in time. We struggle to get 1500 folks for basketball, unless we are winning 30 games. How many fans will come out in the rain, heat, or cold to sit on uncomfortable metal bleachers to see a bad to mediocre football team? Did I mention that Little Rock is an awful sports town?

Ever since the Great Stadium debate and the improvement in Razorback Stadium fans have voted with their wallets on playing in Little Rock. My favorite beef was the crowds had gone down because the fans wanted to see SEC teams not Sun Belt, MAC, and FCS. So they brought Georgia and ended up having to seriously discount tickets just to get them sold and even then there were quite a few empty seats visible on TV.