UA hoops will return to Alltel after year off

BOB HOLT
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas won't be playing any basketball games in North Little Rock's Alltel Arena for the 2000-01 season but will return for "marquee games" in the following years, Razorbacks Athletic Director Frank Broyles said Sunday.
Broyles stressed the decision not to play in Alltel Arena in the upcoming basketball season has to do with being unable to schedule an attractive game, not because Arkansas has signed an exclusive marketing agreement with Southwestern Bell.
"That has absolutely nothing to do with it -- zilch," Broyles said. "If we rent [Alltel Arena] for a game, then we can put anything up that we want. Those are the rules."
Oklahoma State has agreed to play Arkansas in Alltel Arena in the 2001-02 season in return for the Razorbacks playing the Cowboys at Tulsa in 2000-01, and Broyles said that is the kind of matchup he wants to see for the Razorbacks in Alltel Arena (capacity 18,500) to ensure sellouts.
Broyles said he has met with Alltel Arena Board Chairman Bob Russell and made the commitment that Arkansas will arrange for one game a season in Alltel Arena against a big-name opponent, beginning with Oklahoma State in two years.
"When we couldn't get a marquee opponent in for this season, we agreed it would be better [to wait a year to play in Alltel Arena] rather than play two games down there that wouldn't draw a crowd," Broyles said. "That would be the wrong thing to do financially for us and for them [the arena board]."
Last season Arkansas played twice in Alltel Arena as part of doubleheaders with UALR. The Razorbacks' first games in Central Arkansas since the 1992-93 season drew 13,667 for Texas-Pan American and 16,144 for Centenary.
Broyles said that because Arkansas played two games in Alltel Arena that normally would have been part of its sold out season-ticket package, the athletic department lost about $75,000, even though the UA received 72 percent of the gate receipts.
Broyles said it wouldn't be a good financial situation for Arkansas, UALR or Alltel Arena to schedule more doubleheaders against similar opponents.
"What we've done is make a commitment to [the Alltel Arena Board] to play one game down there each year and get a marquee team, one of the best in the country," Broyles said. "We'll try and play it on a weekend where the people up here [in Northwest Arkansas] would come down, too, so we could fill up those 18,500 seats.
"We need it to be a game that people will come from all over the state to see."
Arkansas' basketball schedule hasn't been released, but figures to be finalized within the next few days. It is known that the Razorbacks' non-conference opponents will include Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Memphis and Texas A&M.

This article was published on Monday, July 24, 2000

RETURN to main page

Copyright and permissions
Copyright © 2000, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. All rights reserved.
This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.