Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Imagine if instead of sending a DVD to Razorback donors pleading for them to Answer the Call to improve Arkansas’ athletic facilities, Jeff Long had gone to not just the donors and other Razorback fans, but all the taxpayers of Arkansas and told them “Raise taxes for new facilities or I’m moving the Hogs to Albuquerque.”

And then imagine SEC Commissioner Mike Slive saying something along the lines of “The facilities in Fayetteville are no longer viable. In order for Arkansas to continue SEC play, the facilities must be upgraded. We’d regret leaving but Albuquerque, despite their near-complete lack of tradition in college athletics, has the facilities and fans that would make a world-class home for the Razorbacks.”

Of course this is all absurd. The Razorbacks are sometimes referred to as Arkansas’ pro team, but they’re absolutely not. If they were, the above scenario could actually happen.

With Oklahoma City ascending to the NBA Finals, which began this week, I became curious to learn exactly how Oklahoma City managed to move the Seattle SuperSonics to Oklahoma and turn them into the Thunder. As you might imagine, it involved a lot of backroom dealing, lying to the public, and incompetent state and local politics. Basically all the juicy stuff you’d find in a standard issue of Arkansas Business. The striking thing is how differently major college and professional sports operate in terms of facility upgrades.

Long story short: owners of Seattle’s NFL and MLB franchises were barely able (after both threatening to move the teams from the city) to push through public funding to build new NFL and MLB stadiums, and when the owner of the Sonics tried to get the city to do the same for them, a local group known as, and I swear this is their real name, Citizens for More Important Things, led the public to vote against it. It should be noted, the city had paid $74.5 million to upgrade the basketball arena in 1995 and the public wasn’t convinced it was necessary to spend $220 million more in 2006 on another expansion or an entirely new arena.

This would be like if Bud Walton Arena, which has actually hosted basketball longer than Seattle’s KeyArena, was suddenly deemed unviable. The closest thing like this in Arkansas is when North Little Rock voters elected to fund Dickey-Stephens Park, and that was only after Ray Winder Field turned into your first car in high school. It was beloved, but old and never reliable to make it through the year. It was hardly a 19-year-old, still shiny arena.

And even if Bud Walton did need drastic renovation, you’d be unlikely to see Jeff Long in Little Rock pleading with legislators. Donors — you know, the folks that actually go to games — would be asked to Answer the Call. There may be another ticket price increase, but again, tickets are used by the people actually attending games. The non-attending public wouldn’t have to worry about it. 

Furthermore, professional franchises are owned by billionaires, and are generally located in large cities with presumably wealthier fan bases. Why can colleges get by on donations and general revenue while the standard operation for professional franchises is to charge the general public?

If the public did vote down a tax increase for a basketball arena or other athletic facility, the program wouldn’t move. It’s tied to the university. But if you’re the owner of the Sonics, you get frustrated and sell the team to Clay Bennett, a businessman from Oklahoma who swears he intends to keep the team in Seattle, only to watch the team move to Oklahoma City two years later. 

So never take for granted that the Razorbacks are a part of the University of Arkansas. The same goes for other schools. That, and that only, is why fans will never have to fear the possibility of their program moving away. College fans don’t have to worry about that type of political bullying. If the biggest issue to worry about is whether the Hogs wear black uniforms or if Pepsi is sold in the stadium, that’s not so bad.

If you’re choosing to cheer against Miami in the Finals because of the way LeBron James left Cleveland, you won’t be alone, but remember, at least Cleveland still has a team. When Clay Bennett left Seattle, he took the whole team with him.

Doc Harper is a regular contributor to ArkansasSports360.com and ArkansasExpats.com. You can email him at heydocharper@gmail.com and follow his thoughts and observations on Twitter @doc_harper.