Alms to the Boar: Blame the Fans for Program’s Lack of Success
Robert Shields
The mantra for Razorback football this season is supposed to be “Get Ready,” and I hear many fans emphatically saying that “This is the year.”
But the UofA athletic department and its fundraising hound known as the Razorback Foundation also believes “This is the year (to announce a huge cost increase)” and is saying “Get Ready” to open your wallets.
Why? The athletic department is moving away from the seating system of the past that was successfully implemented by Frank Broyles to gamble on more of a “what have you done for me lately” approach to seating priority that for better or worse will be remembered as a watershed moment in the Jeff Long era.
Most knew this was coming as you could tell someone up there had blown wind for some time. As a matter of fact, some writer just a few weeks ago wrote, “Don’t laugh, because they will resort to anything to squeeze more money out of you” and “The answer probably is a call from a UofA telemarketer asking for your entire wallet” continuing with “The UA has to find another way to be successful besides holding the fans upside down and shaking them until more change falls out of their pockets.”
Those were just a few gems from my foreshadowing column of two weeks ago.
This past week, Razorback fans got the notice in the mail explaining to ticket holders what they must do to maintain their ticket priority for the 2011 season. Many fans saw their burden increase by hundreds of dollars at a time when many in the private sector have been laid off, are taking a pay cut, or are just trying to hold on to what they have.
If you are living in the real world, which apparently does not exist inside the Broyles Center, you know the economy has not recovered and that times are tough for a lot of people, especially in an already poor state like Arkansas.
Some honestly believe Arkansas can outperform their SEC brethren in fundraising even though its stadium is smaller and has only sold out one time since expansion thanks to an overabundance of $125 indoor club seats that few fans are willing to pay for.
The list that the UA athletic department provided showing Arkansas ranked ninth in athletic department budget has a direct correlation with where Arkansas ranks in the SEC in football attendance, which is, you guessed it, also NINTH. Razorback fans are already showing up in numbers that rank them ninth-best in the SEC. What do you think those numbers are going to be if another cost hurdle is put in front of them?
I tell you right here and now if it’s all about money, the UofA has already lost. To win, the UofA has to out compete in other ways besides money because the economics of it say this state doesn’t have the money to win that battle.
The story being told last week was that improvements need to be made at the UA’s already Olympic-looking sports complex, and in particular the football locker room has to be updated. Updated with what? Making sure each player has a plasma TV in their locker with satellite hook-up? I can promise if the UofA did it, in the end, Florida’s players would have bigger plasma screens with DVR capability. You have to ask yourself, do you really want a player with the kind of character who is going to base his decision to attend college on a locker room?
But don’t despair, Hog fan. The UofA still wants you. You just have to prove your love a little more by digging deeper in your bank account. “Sacrifice” was a buzz word many people were using last week, as if this were Lent and you were skipping lunches in order to add money to your box for starving children. Many people are willing to “sacrifice” to send their kids to private school or pay for college. But “sacrifice” isn’t something you should have to do to attend a football game.
The UofA mouthpieces admitted last week that they have been receiving calls about the increase. Is that supposed to be a surprise? The UofA will shoulder the complaints, though, because it is gambling that if an individual season ticket holder falls by the wayside as a result of this scheme, there is corporate money waiting to pick up the slack -- and the 40-yard-line seats.
As stated by me months ago, a corporate season ticket holder is easier to deal with than an individual ticket holder. At corporations, when the invoice arrives, the assistant sends it through to accounting, while an individual ticket holder will stick it to their refrigerator with a magnet for months until it’s drop-dead time or they get a reminder.
It did not go without notice that the Razorback Foundation has pushed up its pledge deadline for donations from the traditional May 15 date to March 1. Not a bad plan if you’re going to shake out the dead wood because it’s better to do it sooner rather than later if you have to find new bodies.
Yet, I still hear some fans who vociferously argue that we have to pay for the type of program we want. Even Rick Schaeffer, the homer’s homer, stated on the radio that revenue will not guarantee success. People, if that were the case, Oklahoma State with T. Boone Pickens’ money would already be competing for the national championship. You see what an influx of $500 million has done for that program in the wins column -- nothing.
The UA’s latest narrative is the story of the beaten fan – it’s their fault the program is not where it should be. If they would have done more, loved a little more, given a little more, made some “sacrifices” in their personal lives, the program would have become what it dreamed it could be.
There was a Star Trek episode similar to what is happening in Razorback Nation. Dr. McCoy’s ex-girlfriend was really an alien sucking all the salt out of all his friends, yet he was in complete denial. Similarly, the Razorback Program is just sucking the life out of its supporters, and most are in denial. In the end, McCoy had to make the decision to see “Nancy” for what she really was and shoot her with his phaser.
Virtually every sports person in the Incestuous Razorback Press Clique, with the lone exception of Jim Harris from ArkansasSports360.com, has spiritedly defended the move as if they were working for Jeff Long, which struck me as odd until I really thought about the reason why -- none of these guys have probably ever had to buy their own season ticket or give a donation to get it. Instead, they feed off the free food in the media room and sit in air conditioning at games back slapping each other for being big shots. It is hard to take one after the other of these guys as they tell us this is the right thing to do with our money when they don’t do the same.
Tommy Smith of 103.7’s morning show grumbled about it a bit, and my hunch is that he has to buy his own tickets. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Rick Schaeffer was almost apologetic on the radio about the increase for the UofA. I think in the future Schaeffer needs to make a disclosure statement any time he talks about the UofA because he is the beneficiary of the Program as a paid broadcaster on its radio network. Newspapers have to make such a disclosure if they end up writing about their parent company, as does TV. Maybe every media member needs to disclose their perks received for covering UA athletics.
Often the best medicine for tyranny is disobedience. My suggestion to fans is to pay your ticket order form the moment you get it next year, but don’t pay the donations and then see what happens. If nothing else, it could end up in an extremely interesting court case as you paid the stated price on the ticket and did not get what you paid for. It will be the equivalent of Dr. McCoy shooting his phaser at Nancy.
My latest book, “Daphne and Her No. 2 Ticonderoga,” is now available at
https://www.createspace.com/3473391. Answer the call and purchase this book.
Send your suggestions for better things to do with your money than send it all to the Razorback Foundation to
fromthebench@yahoo.com.
