They really don’t get it, do they? Here’s an article about how people are abandoning football games in droves – even in Alabama (enjoy the photo of a recent game) – and Alabama thinks the solution is to take out seats and replace them with a massive screen incessantly screaming advertising in the faces of people there to watch football. Another important part of the solution is to sell booze so that already pretty obnoxious people in the stands will become much more so, driving the few families that still attend games way far away from the stadium.
When your school can’t think of anything else to do with money, and when it’s run by dumb guys, you get this result:
Moody’s rated the University of Arkansas’ athletic revenue bonds for stadium expansion Aa2 with a stable outlook in 2016, citing 200% revenue coverage of the debt service. Since then, Razorbacks football attendance has slumped. The university saw a dramatic drop in attendance in 2018, a 2-10 season that ranks competitively as the worst in the team’s history.
“Something has changed,” said … an Arkansas native. “In a state like Arkansas where there is no professional team, the Razorbacks are the major attraction. To see attendance down like that is tough. It could squeeze them a little bit in a very competitive conference.”
… The university’s Athletics Department in 2016 issued $25 million of tax-exempt and $90 million of taxable bonds to expand Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium by more than 4,000 seats to a capacity of 76,212. The once-rabid Razorbacks fans never came close to filling the stadium in six home games in 2018, hitting a maximum of 50,988 for the team’s loss to the University of North Texas.
January 25th, 2019 at 2:25AM
Bankruptcy, baby!!!
January 25th, 2019 at 7:46AM
charlie: Yup. Next step.
January 25th, 2019 at 11:06AM
Wait, Arkansas lost to North Texas State????? Really????
January 25th, 2019 at 11:09AM
The apocalypse is upon us.
January 25th, 2019 at 1:41PM
So, if public unis are becoming financially insolvent, how is all that bond debt going to be serviced? Closing departments, restructuring labor contracts to get rid of pension obligations and health benefits? If any of yazz think that scenario is impossible, begin researching the bankruptcy of municipalities and county government, e.g., Orange County, CA. Who woulda thought one of the putatively richest counties in America would have gone BK? If it can happen there, it certainly can happen at the state flagship…