The University of Arkansas System board of trustees on Thursday voted 8-2 to press ahead with a $160 million expansion of Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
The board voted on the final morning of a two-day meeting at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute on Petit Jean Mountain. Two members voted no: David Pryor of Little Rock, a former U.S. senator and Arkansas governor; and C.C. “Cliff” Gibson III of Monticello, the founder of Gibson & Law PLLC.
Pryor had previously expressed doubts about the plans and had sought more information on the costs and benefits of the expansion, which will be funded through athletic revenue, donations and proceeds from a bond issue. Before Thursday’s meeting, he distributed prepared remarks expressing his opposition.
More: View the athletic department’s presentation outlining the expansion (PDF).
In the document, published by the Arkansas Times here, Pryor said the stadium expansion amounts to a “monumental commitment of resources” that, in effect, puts the stadium expansion — and not its students — as the university’s highest priority. He cited the “nuclear arms race of college football.” And he said the expansion “defies common sense and fairness.”
“Should we ever decide to issue bonds for classrooms, labs, scholarships, tuition or faculty salaries, count me as a supporter,” he said.
On Wednesday, Tyson Foods Inc. Chairman John Tyson and four other former UA trustees questioned the expansion in an op-ed published by the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. They said the board should slow down expansion plans and even questioned the fundamental need to add stadium capacity, citing few sellouts.
But trustee Ben Hyneman of Jonesboro, president of Southern Property & Casualty Insurance Co., said it was best to view the expansion “as an investment in the future of the Razorback athletic program and the university as a whole.”
In prepared remarks, Hyneman said the project will meet demand for premium seats and help increase ticket revenue. He said no taxpayer money or tuition dollars will be spent on the expansion, and added that investment in college athletics isn’t mutually exclusive with investment in academics.
“We also know that maintaining a high major [sic] athletic program has benefits that reverberate throughout the university. High quality athletics helps admissions, alumni engagement, overall university fundraising and community economic development,” Hyneman said. “As a trustee, it is my hope and goal that all parts of the university are supported in a way that allows them to reach their full potential. As a major conference school, our university must continue to reinvest revenues into its athletics program in order to compete on a national level.”
Poll: Tell us what you think. Should the UA board have voted on the expansion?
The UA board in January approval preliminary work on the project, which will redesign the north end zone, including the Frank Broyles Athletic Center, and add at least 3,000 seats, including club seats and lodge boxes, and bring total stadium capacity to 75,000. In April, the board approved CDI Contractors LLC of Little Rock as the project’s general contractor. The athletic department would like to have the stadium ready for the 2018 football season.
In the proposal (PDF) approved by the board on Thursday, the athletic department outlined how it will fund the expansion:
- $10 million from the athletic department for design and pre-construction, which is happening now.
- $10 million in unrestricted reserves from the Razorback Foundation.
- $20 million in donation commitments for new suites at the stadium, delivered via the foundation.
- $120 million bond issue, amortized over 20 years “entirely from athletic revenues,” which the athletic department will ask the board to approve at a future meeting.
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