I can’t see Barnhill still being around 30 years from now. It’s already 70 years old, the big renovation was 45 years ago, it needs a lot more work, gymnastics is moving out and it wouldn’t surprise me if volleyball follows. I think they’ll do what Texas did – build the new arena somewhere else and raze the Erwin Center after the new place was finished.
Wild Hog Band was a big part of the Barnhill atmosphere that kept the crowd into a frenzy & a big part of our home court advantage. Making BWA equally loud as Barnhill was a goal of JFB but never the same except for perhaps the '94 season. As discussed in a prior thread here, beer ads during tv commercial breaks & timeouts make more $. Most would still say Barnhill was a more exciting college BB experience.
Agree Barnhill will be long gone in 30 years. Even with UofA space constraints & no adjacent land (especially in 30 yrs), still don’t see building the next arena off campus. For that reason, expect BWA site & basic structure as being permanent.
There’s still land in south Fayetteville near Baum that could be turned into an arena. Which might also facilitate a solution for the parking/traffic issue with its proximity to I-49.
I don’t deny that the William Tell Overture and Robken running around like a maniac was a lot more fun than an ad for Ford trucks, but the absence of WTO doesn’t keep me at home. And if we were still in Barnhill WTO wouldn’t be there either.
Impossible for us to know what it will be 30-50 years from now. Not many of us will be around to see. However, the UA doesn’t have to go “off campus” to build a new basketball arena. As Swine said, there is a lot of land south of campus. Even some that doesn’t belong to the UA can be bought. They could also build something just south of BWA where Carlson Terrace used to be.
At some point I wouldn’t be surprised to see the UA condemn some of those little houses north of campus between Maple & North St. Or it might eventually buy all the land where Fayetteville HS sits.
That could increase attendance for non-conference particularly mid week games early in the season.
Based on projected growth for Fayetteville & NWA, who knows what land will be available or affordable? Doubt students will go off campus for BB games. The practice fields north of MLK & west of Arkansas Rd may eventually be tied up for campus dorms, academic buildings, & parking garages IF they choose to grow.
I won’t be sitting at home during Hog BB & other sports events once I get relocated to NWA.
You keep bringing up Kentucky. Rupp is off campus. So is the Poultry arena; the Cockpit (student section) was pretty lively when I was there. It was the upper deck that was sparse. The listed attendance that afternoon was 11,558; my eyeball estimate from my seat, where I could see the entire upper deck, was about 10K BIS.
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I’m not going to say he will do it, but I admit it concerns me. Rex Nelson (ADG columnist) commented upon learning of his fellow Ouachita alum’s appointment to the BOT, that he’d do more to help UALR’s capacity to grow as a research institution. I’m paraphrasing but he said something like, “No need for Fayetteville to have all of it.”
I feel 100% opposite. I’m all for UALR being a great teaching institution, but I think the state & university system would be better off if we concentrated on making the UA flagship campus a premiere university in all respects. Research, teaching, etc. (I’m annoyed ASwho is building a veterinary school. The UA should have done that.)
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Yep. That’s a land grant school kind of thing (Auburn, Okie Lite, Moo U, Georgia, LSU, Florida, TAM). We are land grant. Jonesboro Tech isn’t.
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UofA would need to invest in more student parking garages on campus & at the new off-campus arena. Traffic on & around campus is bad enough as is, but perhaps Fayetteville traffic & roads will change for the better in 30 years.
Texas coming into the SEC with a new $338 Million dollar on campus Arena and all of the other updated arenas in the SEC means it is time to bring the Bud up to a new higher standard to remain competitive.
I have no problem dropping the overall attendance to 16,000 which matches the one in Austin in seating capacity. That should improve the parking problem AND increase the home court advantage replacing the empty seats, fewer and more in demand seating and with increased number of high dollar generating premium seats. At the same time, they need to shift the students to be all along the court across from the teams and scorer tables and just behind the Gucci Courtside seats. Then they raise the seats behind them so they are free to stand and go crazy without upsetting the old folks behind them. Have a similar “step up” in the seating on the side behind the teams and let those front seats be press row so they are out of sight of the cameras and they can clearly see the action even if the fans stand in front of them so they do not have to have the courtside best seats in the house like they do in many arenas.
Please get rid of the embarrassing gigantic exit in the middle of the court right behind the TV reporters during any of their closeup chit chats.
A building originally designed for 24,000+/- should have no need to increase toilets or concessions or parking to handle a max of 16,000.
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Totally agree. The state does not have the $ to spread expenditures among multiple schools & needs to focus R&D expertise at one primary campus. Arkansas industry is already investing big $ for R&D at the Fayetteville campus in hopes that will compete for & attract state & federal funding for R&D. That will in turn offer the most benefit for Arkansas industry & in-state jobs. The state should do the same.
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The new Texas arena is 10,000ish capacity for basketball, but has tons of bells and whistles. Average attendance this year was 10,558.
Most ut friends here claim that ut is a football school, not basketball. They are fair weather fans so don’t expect much from them in terms of attendance - unless they are winning. Their success in football lately is debatable.
Well, if the benches and scorers table are moved to that side, that exit will be behind the scorers table (and you’ll see it every time the refs go over for a review). I suppose they could do a complete rework of the south side and get rid of that tunnel, but then the exit on the east end would have to be enlarged too.
Point is, 10,558 is a sellout at the Moody Center, or darn close. Talk about downsizing, they downsized BIG TIME.
But it does reinforce your point that Fallopian fans don’t really care about basketball. The Moody Center has an upper deck and can hold 15K for concerts. But they block off those seats for basketball, don’t even try to sell them.
That’s the basketball configuration. The white dividers above the suites are blocking off the upper deck.
Unpopular, and unlikely, option: BOK Arena in Tulsa. The OU-Arkansas game sells quite well, and skews heavily towards the Hogs. Adding that as an OSU home game, and then the return in BWA would be a good idea. It also might create an opportunity for a “neutral site” game with a team that wouldn’t normal travel into the state of Arkansas without a guaranteed return game. UA could lead the marketing of a 4-team festival with a couple of blue bloods joining UA on the menu.
Again, not likely to happen (probably really bad optics, too, but ideas are free and it doesn’t hurt to explore outside the box), but a way to get more butts in seats than Pine Bluff, Hot Springs, and (possibly) Barnhill.
I suspect, however, if Barnhill can be made to work, the nostalgic appeal will win over.
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Well, as I mentioned, that NC schedule during the renovation offers the option of a couple of NC roadies without forfeiting the revenue from two extra BWA games, because BWA isn’t available. OU will be on our SEC schedule then, possibly home and home. Play someone in the Big 12, maybe Kansas or TCU or Baylor, with the return game in the remodeled arena. I don’t think Okie Lite would agree to play us in Tulsa with the return game in BWA. If they’re going to play us, it would either be two in Tulsa or one in Stillpatch and one in Fedvul.
Going into the wayback machine, Eddie Sutton and Dean Smith scheduled a home and home 40+ years ago, and Deano wanted no part of Barnhill. So Eddie said, okay, but we won’t play in Chapel Hill then either. So the series ended up being Greensboro and Pine Bluff, and we all remember what happened in PB.
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Those white dividers are an embarrassing commentary on ut & their poor fan attendance (with 52k total enrollment). ut is much different school & fan base today vs 30+ years ago - especially when compared to aTm & other schools. Perhaps ut expects SEC to renew their fan passion.
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I doubt it. I think they decided there was a market for a 15,000 seat concert facility in Austin (which is fast approaching 1 million residents) but not a 15,000-seat basketball building. But if that ever changes, the seats are there, so no expansion/renovation needed.