I listened to Hunter Yurachek and his team’s comments to the Board of Trustees meeting tonight. Here were some things that stood out to me:
• Everything discussed today and the renderings shown were preliminary and based on the feasibility study that was conducted a few years ago. There are essentially three proposals on the table: one that would address critical needs like a new roof, new floor, new HVAC and other back-of-house areas; that renovation plus the addition of some new premium areas like loge boxes, bunker suites, new club areas and enlarging existing suites; and a proposal that would make the arena a multipurpose facility capable of hosting non-athletic events like concerts.
• BWA currently has 48 suites and 96 court-side seats, and those are the only premium areas.
• The hope is to select a contractor and architect in April or May. If everything goes well, the renovation would begin after the conclusion of the 2024-25 season. The team would be able to play games there by the 2026 SEC season and would play some non-conference games elsewhere that fall/winter.
• Renovations would result in the reduction of about 1,500 to 2,000 seats. The highest number of scanned tickets this year was under 17,000 for the Kentucky game and the expectation is for a 90% renewal rate for season tickets. This, Yurachek said, makes him believe no existing season-ticket holders would be pushed out.
• Matt Trantham said renovations are needed to maintain BWA as a top arena for another 30 years.
• One of the areas Trantham discussed was the permanent floor. He said most arenas now have portable floors and Arkansas’ is “very rare.” The hope is to make the BWA floor one that is portable and not exclusive to basketball. Remember the plan is to move gymnastics in after renovation.
• Trustee Tommy Boyer pushed back some on the idea of reducing seats. Yurachek said he believes it is good to have supply lower than demand. He cited Nashville’s arena, where the Razorbacks played last week, as having around 17,000 seats and serving a larger metropolitan area. Yurachek and some trustees toured Bridgestone Arena in Nashville last week to see what an arena built in the same time frame as BWA could look like after a large-scale renovation.
• Arkansas is hoping to have a 90-95% rate of tickets scanned after renovation.
• There was talk of the Donald W. Reynolds name coming off the football stadium after June 30, 2024. The Reynolds Foundation paid for naming rights for 20 years initially, and extended those rights for five years at a total of $5 million. The new naming rights for football will be shopped at $40 million for an undisclosed number of years.
• Arkansas plans to retire $78 million in athletics debt over the next six years, and all of its existing athletics debt within 14 years. Any new debt from the basketball arena would be retired over 20 years.
• This year’s athletics revenue is projected to be around $155 million with approximately 70% from football, 20% from basketball and 5% from baseball. New SEC revenues will increase the annual payout by more than $10 million, according to CFO Clayton Hamilton.
• Hamilton said the athletics department and Razorback Foundation have about $57 million in reserves right now. Some of that money will be used to pay for a new video board in the south end zone later this year, and some could go toward the planned soccer stadium renovation.
• Scott Varady of the Razorback Foundation said Arkansas hopes to launch a $125 million capital campaign that would be completed by 2028. He said other capital campaigns underway in the SEC right now include $500 million at Tennessee; $300 million at Vanderbilt and Georgia; $175 million at Ole Miss; and $120 million at Texas A&M.
• Kevin Crass, the new trustee who is also chairman of the War Memorial Stadium Commission, made sure to point out to Yurachek his thoughts that Central Arkansas games are great, presumably in hopes of landing the basketball games that can’t be played at BWA during renovation.