Arkansas’ 2022 soccer schedule contains seven video games in Fayetteville, essentially the most ever for a Razorback workforce.
One instantly thinks of the Nice Stadium Debate ensuing when UA officers grew to become more and more reluctant to play in Little Rock. “They will play all of them up right here some day,” a former co-worker, himself a UA graduate, stated in circa 1987.
Now comes a schedule together with house video games towards Alabama, LSU and Ole Miss, three dates value circling in any yr. And if he hasn’t modified groups by then, Bobby Petrino makes a Fayetteville homecoming subsequent Sept. 17. Think about the greeting he’ll get.
One other juicy nonconference date is Nov. 3 with Liberty, the place Hugh Freeze (previously of Arkansas State and Ole Miss) is constructing a stable program. Cincinnati (a present top-10 workforce) and South Carolina additionally go to the Ozarks subsequent yr.
Little Rock is down to 1 sport this yr (Missouri, which returns the go to in 2023) and none subsequent yr. Not that the capital metropolis ought to consider itself as a scorned lover. Cry if you happen to like, however enjoying in Battle Memorial Stadium now not makes financial sense for the Razorback program.
Extending an olive department to Little Rock and an in-state college, Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek booked a 2025 sport in Battle Memorial Stadium towards Arkansas State. One thought the plaster would fall off the ceiling within the Broyles Advanced earlier than that might occur. Maybe Yurachek simply regarded on the schedules and marvel why Arkansas performs some Solar Belt Convention groups (Georgia Southern most just lately) however not the one closest to house.
Little Rock columnist Wally Corridor sees Arkansas vs. Arkansas State as one thing of a state truthful with friendships shaped and previous variations resolved. State-funded Battle Memorial Stadium wants the massive gate, and all the cash stays at house. It is an concept whose time has come, and if this will’t fill the stadium, then we will change the dialog.
The Madhouse on Markham Avenue has hosted among the biggest video games in UA historical past. Opening in 1948, Battle Memorial Stadium initially served as a midway home for followers geographically remoted from Fayetteville. Followers might come to Little Rock extra simply and with much less worry than in the event that they drove two-lane highways by means of the Boston Mountains in every kind of climate.
John Barnhill, a Tennessee man who coached Arkansas after World Battle II, noticed the opportunity of a one-team state (Arkansas State did not enter his pondering). So did Frank Broyles, who wished the UA job thrice earlier than Barnhill made the decision to Missouri in 1957 after the one yr of apprenticeship as a head coach that the Arkansas man required.
The roads into Fayetteville had been so treacherous, nonetheless, that not till the Nineteen Eighties did UA set up lights at then-Razorback Stadium. As an example, motorists taking U.S. 71 from Alma encountered freeway indicators informing that 11 individuals had been killed on a stretch to Winslow. One remembers crawling down 71 on a snowy November 1991 night after a sport with Baylor.
In time, Arkansas’ inhabitants base shifted to the northwest, requiring adjustments in infrastructure. Coach Danny Ford, after the shock 1995 SEC West championship in his third season, noticed a day that soccer can be like Nolan Richardson’s basketball, NCAA champion the yr earlier than. “All we want,” he stated, “is to get our freeway constructed and our airport constructed.”
About air journey to and from Fayetteville in these days, Lou Holtz famously stated, “You do not purchase a ticket. You purchase an opportunity.” Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, in close by Highfill, supplied facilities that Fayetteville’s previous Drake Area couldn’t. Recruiting additionally prospered with Arkansas in a position to fly prospects in for an official weekend go to.
What’s now Interstate 49 (previously 540) supplied the lacking hyperlink. Arkansas followers might drive in four-lane consolation from, say, West Memphis. A lot of Arkansas nonetheless stays remoted from Fayetteville and it might be years earlier than the increasing of Interstate 49 from Texarkana to Fort Smith. However the concept of attending to Fayetteville for an 11 a.m. kickoff has develop into much less onerous. And staying over after an 8 p.m. begin extra sensible.
One other factor, Reynolds Razorback Stadium, with capability of 72,000 (as much as 76,000 with “short-term” bleachers atop the sound finish), dwarfs Battle Memorial Stadium (54,120). Arkansas as soon as made as much as 4 Little Rock visits per yr. The Razorbacks counted them as house video games however insiders knew higher. Leaving on Friday and spending the evening in, say, Scorching Springs, amounted to a street sport for the Razorbacks.
Arkansas pays Little Rock a rental charge for every WMS sport. No such cost is required for an on-campus sport.
And, Arkansas doesn’t get to depend a Little Rock sport as a recruit’s official go to. That guidelines out SEC video games, Arkansas choosing the bi-annual Missouri sport in Little Rock as a result of college students are away from campus for Thanksgiving. Increasingly, Little Rock opponents have included equivalent to Florida A&M and Alcorn State; additionally, Louisiana-Monroe and Toledo, which went house with good-looking checks and upset victories.
Talking right here for the working press, Battle Memorial Stadium has develop into terribly outdated. Eventually verify, the Wi-Fi service proved insufficient for right now’s digital age (unusual that they play on AT&T Area). And, once more on final inspection, the scoreboard clock continuously malfunctions. “Reset it to 2020,” a press-box wag howled one evening.
Little Rock, as soon as a lifeline to this system, has develop into the second metropolis in Razorback athletics. Arkansas, to its credit score, nonetheless throws the capital metropolis a bone from time to time. Assume we’ll ever see one other Razorback basketball sport in Scorching Springs or Pine Bluff?
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