Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

2/8/2012 at 8:24am

War Memorial's days of hosting two Arkansas football games per year could be numbered.

War Memorial Stadium doesn’t want to leave anything to chance. That’s why the stadium commission is again exploring expansion options in hopes of remaining an attractive venue for Arkansas football games.

That’s the takeaway from a recent Associated Press article in which the news service visits with War Memorial Stadium manager Charlie Staggs. Currently, the commission is discussing ways to keep two Arkansas football games per year in the 63-year-old stadium.

"We couldn't survive without those two games that we have here," Staggs told the AP.

Arkansas is scheduled to have two games a year in Little Rock through 2016. But a number of factors have raised questions about the fate of those games beyond the current contract.

A facilities master plan calls for the expansion of Reynolds Razorback Stadium on the University of Arkansas campus. It seems unlikely the Razorbacks would want to put $78-plus million into a stadium expansion and keep two games in a much smaller venue in Little Rock.

Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long hasn't eased Little Rock's concerns on the issue of keeping games in Little Rock. He said when the facilities master plan was unveiled that he expected a decision on War Memorial to be “made in the future.”

A decision appears to already have been made to not keep the LSU game in Little Rock. Though Long and the school have not announced it will move back to Fayetteville, the “Battle For The Golden Boot” appears headed to Northwest Arkansas.

Sources tell us that Arkansas requested only the Ole Miss (Oct. 27) and Kentucky (Oct. 13) dates be held for the stadium’s SEC game. Louisiana-Monroe will be the non-conference game played in Little Rock.

Reasons for moving the game include a bigger venue, the advantage of hosting recruits on campus for the biggest game of the year and more space to work for national television crews.

Staggs said War Memorial will do whatever possible to keep a pair of games there annually.

"We're just sitting and waiting to see what they're going to do with us," Staggs told the AP. "We are going to see what we can do to entice them to stay with us.

''... We're doing everything we can."

For the full article go here.

Tagged: War Memorial Stadium, Charlie Staggs, Jeff Long, LSU Tigers, Arkansas Razorbacks , The Associated Press