OK, first we will start with this: If you are expecting Arkansas State to bring a football game to Little Rock in the near future don’t count on it.
While playing in Little Rock is appealing to some in Jonesboro, and especially to the growing and more recognizable Red Wolves fan base in central Arkansas, too many factors are at play for A-State to present its brand at War Memorial Stadium.
And it all comes down to money.
When St. Louis and Kansas City were battling over the Red Wolves’ 2015 home game with Missouri, they both offered serious money for those games. KC was in around $2 million and St. Louis was at $1.5 million and was willing to offer more after athletic director Terry Mohajir told that group the game was staying in Jonesboro.
Mohajir said at the time he was strongly considering the offers because those amounts took all of the guess work out for an AD trying to fund a growing program. He knew what was coming in for those games. No risk, other than PR, was involved.
The problem with playing in Little Rock is there is no one group, be it the War Memorial stadium or some organization around that says it promotes sports in the area. You would need three things for it to happen.
First – War Memorial stadium would need to waive its rental fee or have a sponsor cover those costs.
Second: Someone around the city would need to guarantee the Red Wolves money, at least enough to cover what it could make at a home game plus travel costs. We are probably looking at close to $1 million there.
Third: Mohajir craftily used the Missouri game as the bait to sell sky boxes and premium loge seating in the rebuild press box at Centennial Bank Stadium. All of the boxes have been rented and that carries a seven-year guarantee. Mohajir, on the job about 2 years, also told the folks who rented the boxes the Red Wolves’ would play at least six games in Jonesboro each season.
Considering the estimated income a Razorback game has on Little Rock –we heard $3 to $4 million – you would think the folks who promote tourism in the city might consider changing the way it does business. And since it looks like the games from the Fayetteville school are on the cusp of going away, it might be time to revisit some things.
College athletics is now big business. It is all money driven on all levels.
Mohajir has said he would consider a game in Little Rock if the Red Wolves were able to schedule seven home games in one season. But he also said at the Central Arkansas game in 2016 he is in the process of taking FCS (we still prefer the tag 1-AA) games off the schedule there does not look to be any extra games to shop elsewhere. A-State will have four conference games each season since most of the games it schedules within its peer groups are home-and-home contracts.
And Arkansas State is not going to play UCA or UAPB in Little Rock. That horse is dead.
This is one of those subjects that pop up from time-to-time, a lot like the great stadium debate and the Red Wolves and Razorbacks playing in football. They make good radio talk but the truth is there are no changes on the horizon.
(Jeff Reed is editor of AStatenation.com)
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