Does that allow them to start practice a couple of days early?
on a thursday nite n Little Rock the crowd with be SMALL>
You may be right… But I don’t think that will be the case. Hog Fans will be champing at the bit for some football, the potential is there for a great turnout.
Also… If Our Team were to play a Thursday Game, then it may as well be the very first one of the Season. I would hate to see this happen after Bama and be healed/prepared for Auburn.
I would assume so. It probably means practice will begin Tuesday, Aug. 1.
I don’t go to LR games, but even if I did, I doubt that I would want to go on a week night.
Sheesh, I bet the crowd will be tiny.
At least for me, it makes it more likely that I’ll go. I live in LR and don’t normally go to the LR game because there are so many drunks. If the weeknight game cuts down on the golf course party, I’m all for it.
I bet you that it won’t be… It will be interesting to see what happens. 
And as someone who has enjoyed many, many games at both locations let’s keep the GSD down and just enjoy this game. Everyone knows that games in LR are coming to a close… Let’s enjoy it.
We’ve had Thursday night games in LR before. Most recently against the Chickens if memory serves. I don’t think we’ve ever had a Thursday night game in RRS though.
I really hope that you are right. But from my point of view, this particular issue has nothing to do with the GSD, but with the recent attendance at WMS.
This is much, much, much better than those crazy 3 PM games at the end of summer. It also spaces out until the next game with TCU. Positive result. Could care less about the golf course. That is for chasing a little ball around, not drinking.
I like it because I wasn’t looking forward to missing some of the opening week action because I was at WMS watching us beat a D2 team. This way we get to play under the lights in August, two days more to prepare for TCU, and I can enjoy the opening Saturday of CFB.
…and a slap in the face for LR as Long leads the Hogs away forever. All of the Health Department and UAMS employees that fill the War Memorial parking lot until 5:00 with no place to park, few students attending due to mid week timing, very little tailgating (WMS’ strongest aspect) because most people working the day of and the day after the game. If your goal was a half empty stadium on National TV, this is your perfect storm. A mid week game on campus would struggle to fill the stadium. A midweek game at a remote location has no chance and they knew this when they made this decision. Shameful!
Shameful? A slap in the face to Little Rock? That’s just silly.
The only thing the game ever had going for it was that it was the opener. This game was unlikely to be close to a sellout if they had it at 7 on Saturday night on a holiday weekend, given the opponent and the angst in the fan base after last season’s poor finish.
It’s the Thursday before Labor Day weekend, so quite a few folks will be off that Friday any way, and lots of students will ditch Friday classes to go home-meaning student turnout would not have been very good even if this game was played in Fayetteville. Some folks who had an interest in the game may find it more attractive to have the game Thursday night, freeing up the Labor Day weekend. On balance, maybe a Thursday night game draws a few thousand less than if it kicked off on Saturday night, but one way or another the stadium was not going to be close to full.
If we had drawn the 11:00 a.m. or 3:00 Saturday slots, I am not sure there would be any noticeable difference in crowd size. I suppose you also would be unhappy if they had scheduled it at 11:00 because many people would not want to tailgate at 9 in the morning. I tailgated on that golf course for thirty years or so(and it was almost always great), but letting tailgating for a Labor Day weekend cupcake be any kind of concern is just letting the tail wag the dog.
It actually will probably draw a bigger SEC Network audience being on opening night-when fans are starved for college football, then it would be buried on Saturday with lots of other cupcake games. The Conference decides on scheduling, and when any body in the conference plays one of these cupcakes, the game gets moved into the fringe spots for TV purposes. That’s part of what keeps all that media revenue flowing into the conference coffers, which in turn means that the football program makes money, which in turn keeps the athletic department from digging into taxpayer money.
I like the time slot and the day. I’ll probably go now. I wouldn’t for an afternoon game in the heat.
I was there when we played the chickens and that was a fun crowd!
I must say, these diverse opinions are interesting and - to me - somewhat surprising to read.
My immediate reaction when I heard that the opener was going to be in LR was that it was great, because although the foe was not an attention-getter, enthusiasm for the new season is always high for the opener. No losses yet. No games at all in 8 months. Throw in LR’s hunger for Razorback games (yes, though possibly waning due to inattention . . . I know!) and I thought it would be an outstanding crowd.
Moving it to Thursday? Well, that does pose some logistical considerations. But it also adds the panache of making it one of THE opening games of the new season in all of college football! Plus, it’s a night game. It will still be hot, but that’s better than those 3 PM kickoffs we usually get for openers.
I’d be surprised if it isn’t a sellout - or darn near close to one.
I guess we’ll find out!
Larger tv draw. Good possibility we will make it now.
back in the 70 80 90 attendance in little rock was very good even with bad facilites
I doubt if it will be a sellout or even close. Too many long term Hog fans are disappointed with the product and people aren’t going to take a day off to come to LR and see them against what should be a 2nd rate team. I feel for the people of LR because it is going to make the going home from work traffic pure hell. Markham and I-630 will both be buggered up and that will cause more traffic to spill over to the other routes.
Well, take the day off and go to the game, problem solved.