The University of Arkansas at Little Rock said Wednesday that it is thinking about adding a football team and a marching band.
A feasibility study will “assess whether the university should consider adding” football and marching band programs.
The study is to be a collaboration among UA Little Rock, the city of Little Rock and the state Department of Parks & Tourism. It will use an RFP process to hire a firm to conduct the study, with the three partners paying equal costs for it, the university said.
Chancellor Andrew Rogerson and UA Little Rock Athletic Director Chasse Conque “have fielded questions about bringing back a football program since Rogerson joined the university last September,” a university news release said. It cited a student petition with 1,000 signatures favored a football program.
“Since that time, I’ve heard from many other students, alumni, community members and business leaders who have expressed their interest in a Division I football program in greater Little Rock,” Rogerson said in a news release. “As a scientist, I have a high regard for data, so conducting an objective study seems like the right approach to determine if a football program and marching band would be a wise and meaningful addition to the university and our community.”
Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola said bringing football back to the city “would be yet another opportunity for our citizens, students, and alumni to rally behind our university.”
“The availability of War Memorial Stadium is a natural asset,” he said. “However, we want to make sure that the economic and community potential that many of us perceive with a football and marching band program actually plays out on paper.”
Kane Webb, the director of the state Parks & Tourism Department, said War Memorial would be a “natural, ideal home for the Trojans.”
“The timing of this is good, too, as the stadium is currently undergoing an outside study of its own to help us best plan for the future,” he said. “We will let the data drive the decision, but the potential of UA Little Rock football is certainly worth taking a hard look at.”
The study will examine initial and annual costs, staffing, playing venue, facility construction and economic and student enrollment impacts.
“We’ll learn a lot through this study, and I am anxious to see the data,” Conque said. “The interest from our students and other stakeholders in the community is evidence that we are in the midst of exciting times for Little Rock Trojan athletics.”
Conque said the study would take six to seven months. The university plans to take the study results to the university’s faculty, staff, students, alumni, board members, as well as athletic department supporters and city and state leaders.
UA Little Rock is part of the University of Arkansas System. The University of Arkansas Razorbacks football team is a Division I football team that competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The team plays in the Western Division of the Southeastern Conference.
The Razorbacks’ home stadium is on the UA campus at Fayetteville, but the team also plays at War Memorial Stadium. The number of those games has dwindled in the recent years. Earlier this year, Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed legislation that moved the stadium’s governing body, the War Memorial Stadium Commission, into the Parks and Tourism Department.
The Little Rock Trojans have been in Division I athletics since the late 1970s and joined the Sun Belt Conference since 1992. It is one of two full-membership universities in the Sun Belt that do not field a football team.
The last Trojans football team disbanded after the 1955 season, when UA Little Rock was Little Rock Junior College. In 1957, Little Rock Junior College became a private, four-year university called Little Rock University. It joined the UA System in 1969.
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