This is the kind of publicity our program doesn't need

It’s embarrassing to be on this list, even though few are likely to see it (the article).

Can’t get to the Razorback Stadium part, our Internet is currently slower than me as a wide receiver. But I assume they are criticizing Razorback Stadium. Haven’t been back in years, but the upgrade years ago with the then impressive video screen, my son and I both said if we were a recruit we’d sign up then and there just on the stadium alone. And the fan experience was great too. If we’ve let it turn into a dump, shame on us. But if it’s merely that it’s not the latest and greatest, spending big bucks in times like this for that, now THAT would be an embarrassment.

Not sure how many 17-18 years olds are reading money wise. Heck, I’m not sure I ever heard of it.

Plus Arkansas is playing there every two years.

No argument that WMS needs a lot of upgrades to meet SEC standards. But as noted playing there only every other year makes spending that kind of money a moot point. Another stadium that needed a lot of work on my last visit (a few years ago) is Neyland Stadium home of EOE-K. RRS is heads above that dump. IMO

Nope - War Memorial.

I’m not overly concerned about it. Still, lists like this are widely distributed over the web (someone emailed it to me - have no idea how they came across it), and a 16 year old kid otherwise interested in Arkansas who read this may not realize that WMS is NOT our primary facility (I wonder how many out-of-state kids we reach out to have any idea where Fayetteville is on a map at the time of that first contact?)…or that we only play there once a year at this point…or that, the condition of the facility notwithstanding, the CROWDS there are very good and rowdy (for decent opponents).

WE all know these things, but we don’t need rival recruiters sending links to things like this to our recruiting targets/ That’s all…I’m not trying to revive the GSD, lol…

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WMS is a dump, but politics demand we continue to play there. They’re not going to spend any money to upgrade it, nor should they. I keep remembering Bradie James’ line about the rest of the stadium being in Little Rock. That’s no longer true, but truth doesn’t seem to matter much any more in lots of ways.

I doubt it comes up in recruiting much, if at all. The only thing that matters now is that no one can go anywhere on recruiting trips outside of a few that just get in a car and drive to Fayetteville to look around. Some have done that. If they are serious enough to do that, they are probably going to be Razorbacks.

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I wish it weren’t the case, but it’s a 75 year old concrete stadium that can’t easily be renovated. We don’t use it enough to make it economically feasible to bring up to modern standards. Neither can the state justify spending the money it would take to do that. Let’s face it, spending some $200M (or perhaps much more) to build or renovate a stadium that at most would be filled 2-3 times per year would be a huge waste of taxpayer money.

I love WMS. I hate that we’re giving up our strong central Ark presence, but the financial hits are huge. We just need to decide how much it’s worth to us to play in Central Ark in front of maybe 55k fans & how often we can afford to do it.

It’s been a while since we had anywhere near that many fans in WMS.

It’s a bit hard to take the article seriously when the author ends the quote with “says one Google reviewer.”

true. But it’s been a while since we had 70k in RRS, too. I’m counting on CSP to bring renewed enthusiasm to the program. Had this been a normal year & we played LSU last weekend at WMS, it would have been packed.

I think you’re right, and Sam is the man to get the fans back.

IMO, any young man who would say I will not play for you because of a seldom used stadium in Little Rock is not needed by the Razorbacks anyway. He probably has already had ten sacks of money offered. We would not need him.

Doesn’t matter how much you and I “take the article seriously”, jmets…hopefully, we know better.

As I stated before, a 16 year old potential recruit is probably not going to be as discriminating, in most cases…they don’t know what they don’t know…some may not realize that’s not our primary venue…

I’m not losing sleep over it - just would prefer to not be on that list, regardless of how credible it is or isn’t.

So, Jeff, do you think a full stadium next year is reasonable, or for sure the following year?

I’ll answer, if there is no restrictions on events come next September, than I guarantee Sept 11th will be full, after that, it will depend on the opponent and our play.

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Then I need to make my lodging reservations because I intend to be there.

While WMS isn’t up to par with newer stadiums, I don’t see it being a dump. It needs some work but they’ve made quite a few improvements. The restrooms are much better. The concourses are wider.

I’ve seen dumps.

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I think this year both Ole Miss and LSU would have been big crowds. Probably sold out LR and pretty well filled RRS.

Oh, that (relative) dump. Never mind.

The good news (other than I doubt many recruits will see that) is as we speak they are digging up our whole neighborhood laying lines and pedestals so our internet speed will go from
10 megabytes or megahertz or whatever it is to 400.

Now if only the post office could similarly speed up the delivery of the SI print issue :joy:.