Long shouldn’t pass on The Great Stadium Debate

Get ready.

Like it or not, we’re going to have a few months of The Great Stadium Debate. Should Arkansas play football games at War Memorial Stadium or not?

Athletics director Jeff Long discussed it at the Northwest Arkansas Touchdown Club on Wednesday.

Considering the lack of attendance at last Thursday’s season opener against Florida A&M, he really didn’t have much choice. Attendance was announced at roughly 36,000. To these old eyes that must have included about 5,000-7,500 disguised as empty seats.

“We had hoped for more,” Long said.

The reality was he was clutching for some sort of answer of what to do in Little Rock when they put the game there. Attendance has been going steadily downhill over the last five years.

“We thought that moving the game to Thursday night would create an energy on opening night of college football and create a little more juice to the game against an FCS opponent,” Long said Wednesday.

Apparently, once again, nobody in Fayetteville talked to anybody in Central Arkansas that had much of a clue. Since it was announced, many fans considered that game to be a slap in the face more than anything else.

For a fan base where many in the age (and income range) to solidly support the program remember when four games a year were played there, scheduling Alcorn State last year and Florida A&M this season were just not acceptable.

The truth of the matter is Long is walking a political tightrope and, to a certain extent, not one he should be worried about.

When the Razorbacks played four games a year in Little Rock, Fayetteville and Springdale were nice towns, but not many people. Rogers and Bentonville were sleepy little towns.

As the population exploded over the last 15 years or so, things changed. As Frank Broyles rather inelegantly put it about that time, things were growing at a pace that the Hogs didn’t need anything but Northwest Arkansas.

That was after improvements to highways with a new interstate and airport that totally changed the dynamic. No longer did you have to negotiate two-lane highways for much of the trip from Pine Bluff to Fayetteville … it suddenly was all interstate, all the way.

Personally, I thought in 1978 they should fix up Razorback Stadium and implode War Memorial. Up until maybe 17 years or so ago when it rained you got wetter standing under the stands than you did in the stands.

The place was a dump.

It’s not a dump anymore, but it’s nothing close to an SEC stadium. They can talk about the warmth, coziness and whatever about War Memorial, but it’s still a WPA stadium that, because of federal regulations, can only be upgraded so much.

Long should just be honest with the fan base and say it’s not in the Razorbacks’ best interest to play games there anymore.

Instead, he’s trying to pass it on.

“We believe in honoring the contract,” Long said Wednesday. “We have a contract through ’18 and we have a contract to play an SEC game in ’18, so I fully intend … to honor that contract.”

Whether he would publicly admit it or not he’s fully aware contracts are simply the starting point for negotiations to break them.

And it appears he doesn’t want to be the fall guy.

Long will make a recommendation to chancellor Joe Steinmetz. The decision will ultimately rest with president Donald Bobbitt and the Board of Trustees.

“I hope we don’t turn it into a statewide debate or referendum,” Long said Wednesday. “There are certainly people who can make the decision and make it in the best interest of the university and the state, and the system.”

That was obviously more wishful thinking than reality. The ship has sailed on not having a debate on the whole thing. It’s also a debate that won’t go away, even after a decision has been made.

It would be nice to see Long step up and clearly make a statement about what’s in the Razorbacks’ best interests. He has the numbers. He knows any public backlash will be short-lived at best.

It’s time, Jeffrey, to step up and make that statement.

Don’t try to pass this one.

As the old coaches’ saying goes, three things happen when you pass and two of them are bad.