The Moody Center looks like it is in a state of perpetual construction.
I get that we had unused seats (I was surprised how many open seats there were for UK). That said, I sure don’t want to give up any of my 4, just because sometimes we didn’t use them (or not all of them).
I get that they want more demand than they have seats. But this last year, when I renewed my basketball tickets, there was not ONE seat available for me to move to (even if I wanted to move to worse seats, I couldn’t). If you are selling out, I don’t think you need to reduce seats. Just my opinion.
I know as to baseball they refuse to add seats as they want more demand than seats, But as someone who would buy 4 season tickets if I could, it is frustrating.
Riddle me this: In a 19,000 seat arena, we only got 17,000 attendance at best.
When capacity is reduced to 17,000, why do we think 17,000 will show up?
No matter the capacity, it’s common for a few less than that to show up. However, if demand exceeds supply by more than it does now, we’re likely to have something closer to 100%. Regardless, one of the purposes of the renovation is to increase revenue. There will be an increase in premium seats & those are likely to be full–and almost certainly sold. We’ll be giving up the worst/cheapest seats to add much more expensive seats. We could add capacity by eliminating the current luxury boxes, but that would be counterproductive even if the average crowds were bigger.
Back during the doldrums of the Heath/Pelphrey era, we weren’t averaging much more than 9 or 10k. Barnhill probably wouldn’t have been packed then, but it would have been much closer to capacity.
The principle of supply and demand is why you can justify lowering capacity. We sure wouldn’t be the first school with a huge arena to renovate and lower capacity. Tennessee eliminated about 4-5,000 seats in the late 2000’s and did it at a time when their program took a big step forward in excitement and interest level, right when Bruce Pearl made them suddenly rabid basketball fans. Auburn lowered capacity, Texas, Kentucky, and Florida did a little when the O’Connell Center became Exactech Arena.
Not possible. Why do you think he was put on the BOT?
Crass? Because a governor with no ties to UA (she went to Ouachita too) needed to appoint somebody from the second congressional district.
Hot Springs CoC could sponsor a mini-tourney in early December with night games after racing has started at Oaklawn. Double the fun.
And on the subject of creating demand by reducing supply, that would open the door to charging more for streaming services to watch the games. Another alternative would be a Razorback network. For a reasonable fee, one could watch all Hog sports on the huge Telly at home. Honestly, I would not automatically be opposed to that. The devil, as always, would be in the details.
No that’s not an option. The SEC owns all of our TV rights. Which is why Bevonet is going away when the Fallopians join. That’s also why we can’t do a pay per view any more on one early season football game.
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Now that the Austin metroplex has exceeded over 2.2 million residents & still rapidly growing, ut recognizes that they may soon be competing with pro sports teams looking to expand there. Furthermore, the Austin roadways, especially around campus, are so bottlenecked with traffic such that access to Moody & ut campus are big limitations for local fans & students, especially those living in the Austin suburbs. So, limiting the size of Moody may have been a realistic & practical move.
Agreed. Austin-San Antonio is definitely in the running (stadium in San Marcos?) if the NFL ever decides to expand again, and probably for MLB as well.
They manage to get 100,000 onto campus for EOE football games, though, so traffic and parking for 15,000 shouldn’t be that much of an issue if the interest was there. Or more like 13,000 considering a student section.
Accessing ut campus, especially for evening BB games during Austin rush hour, is an effort in futility, especially from I-35. The Saturday football games there are challenging, but at least the empty capital parking lots enable that.
With high rent costs, traffic, & distance to drive, ut has become an inner city college to its detriment, especially for non-affluent students. ut’s disjointed campus life & atmosphere are not what it used to be & not a desirable college experience for many. That may also reflect on their athletics.
Crass DOES have ties to UA. He went to UA Law School and he’s heavily involved in UALR stuff.
I’ve been around him some and we have common friends. Don’t worry, he is a Hog a fan. I’ve seen him at Hog Football games.
He was starting PG for Pine Bluff when they were state champs (teammate of US Reed), and played and coached Hoops at OBU.
I’m comfortable in saying he knows the importance of success of Razorback Athletics to UA and to the state as a whole.
He is a hog fan, but not necessarily as singularly a hog fan as many. There are people who are “State of Arkansas fans” first and “University of Arkansas fans” some distance back. I don’t know where Crass fits, but I worry. He did not go to law school at the UA. He went to UALR. That doesn’t necessarily define his views, but he may be less UAF-centric than you or I would be.
Yes, definitely less than us, but I don’t think he will be a problem.
Hope you’re right.
I think one of his sons went to UA and still lives in Fayetteville.