For the first time in Bud Walton Arena’s 32-year history, Arkansas has overhauled the way it handles its season tickets.
Most fans will be in different seats for the 2025-26 season and the various Razorback Foundation levels have new ticket limitations, according to an email distributed to fans Wednesday afternoon.
Essentially, those hoping to purchase season tickets will be placed into a virtual line based on their priority points — which are calculated, in part, by how much you donate and how long you’ve been a member — and will get to pick their new seats in that order.
In his first interview since the plan was unveiled, Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek told the Chuck & Bo Show that the Razorback Foundation received 187 phone calls between 1 and 5 p.m. on Wednesday. Forty people increased their donation level enough to jump one, two or three levels.
Why Some Fans Aren’t Happy
However, there has been at least some pushback regarding part of the plan that has, understandably, not been as publicized by Yurachek and the school.
During his appearance on the Chuck & Bo Show, which is co-hosted by Chuck Barrett and Bo Mattingly, the AD made a point that would seemingly appeal to the so-called common fan.
He explained that there are currently 2,900 accounts with season tickets within Bud Walton Arena and they believe they can increase that to 3,200-3,300 with “many of those occurring at the lower level of the Razorback Foundation giving because we’re chopping the number of season tickets that our high-end donors can purchase.”
It is true that the top-end donors will not be able to purchase as many tickets.
Previously, members of the Broyles-Matthews Platinum level ($20,000+ annual donation) were limited to a maximum of 18 tickets. Under the new plan, the most anyone can purchase is 14 — and that’s for the new Diamond level ($40,000+). Those in the Platinum level, which is now $20,000-$39,999, are limited to 10.
What Yurachek failed to mention is that the ticket limits trickled down to the low-end donors, as well. Here’s a complete side-by-side comparison of the various Razorback Foundation levels and how many tickets they were/are allowed to buy:
| Razorback Foundation Level | Previous Ticket Max | New Ticket Max |
|---|---|---|
| Broyles-Matthews Diamond ($40,000+) | N/A | 14 |
| Broyles-Matthews Platinum ($20,000-$39,999) | 18 | 10 |
| Broyles-Matthews Gold ($10,000-$19,999) | 14 | 6 |
| Broyles-Matthews Silver ($5,000-$9,999) | 12 | 4 |
| Super Hog ($3,000-$4,999) | 8 | 4 |
| Wild Hog ($2,000-$2,999) | 6 | 2 |
| Tush Hog ($1,000-$1,999) | 6 | 2 |
| Big Hog ($500-$999) | 4 | 2 |
| Big Red ($100-$499) | 4 | 2 |
| Razorback ($50-$99) | 2 | 2 |
As you can see above, fans used to be able to purchase up to four season tickets with a minimum $100 donation. To get that many now, you must make an annual donation of at least $3,000 — 30 times the previous requirement.
The minimum donation needed to purchase five or six tickets is 10 times its previous amount, going from $1,000 to $10,000.
Yurachek also pointed out that the actual cost of the season tickets — which is in addition to the annual Razorback Foundation donation and ranges from $365 per seat in the upper level to $615 per seat on the lower sidelines, according to WholeHogSports — is not changing.
He also emphasized that fans won’t have to increase their donation amount to ensure they’ll get tickets next season.
“You don’t have to give another dollar to be in the building next year,” Yurachek said. “Season ticket prices are not going up next year. We’ve already made that commitment. You give at your same giving level this year and you’ll be in the building — most likely not in the same seat, but you will be in the building.”
It sounds as though Yurachek said something similar to head coach John Calipari, who expressed his understanding that these kind of reseating plans — which he’s experienced at previous stops at UMass, Memphis and Kentucky — can be “painful,” but complimented his boss in how he went about it.
“I think he really thought it through,” Calipari told reporters Thursday. “Like if you have a seat, you’re going to have a seat. You may have to move a little bit, but you’re going to have your ticket, and that’s what he told me and I said, ‘We just can’t forget about those people who have been there, who had their father there, their grandfather there, that have been big supporters of this program.’ I think the administration has got that and they know it.”
Unfortunately, Yurachek again left out a key detail when explaining the plan on the radio and to his basketball coach.
While it is true that current season ticket holders can get tickets again in 2025-26 without increasing their donation, they won’t be guaranteed the same number of seats.
Families of four, five or six could be asked to donate as much as 10 or 30 times what they were before, as laid out above.
Why Arkansas is Doing This
There is never a great time to implement this kind of change, but it’s especially poor timing for Arkansas because the men’s basketball team is coming off its first losing season in 14 years and in the midst of a miserable 1-6 start to SEC play despite hiring a Hall of Fame coach and arming him with arguably the largest NIL warchest in college basketball.
Hunter Yurachek said the plan had been in discussions for more than a couple of years, which means they started during Eric Musselman’s heyday, and they believed it would be rolled out in conjunction with a major renovation to Bud Walton Arena.
The UA wasn’t granted that kind of flexibility, though, as looming revenue sharing pushed the renovation plans to the “side burner” and forced their hand with the reseating plan.
“We thought the reseat of Bud Walton Arena is necessary for us to reset that building, create some equity in how our seats are assigned, and obviously the bottom line is to generate more revenue from that facility, which is needed for us to continue to be successful competing in the Southeastern Conference,” Yurachek said.
In his defense, Yurachek is in charge of one of fewer than 20 self-sustaining college athletic programs, meaning it doesn’t take any money from the state or the University itself. Instead, the department generates all of its money from the SEC distribution (via the ESPN media rights deal and CFP/NCAA Tournament distributions), ticket sales and the Razorback Foundation.
That is about to come under significant pressure because of the House v. NCAA lawsuit settlement, which is expected to be formally approved in April.
Arkansas will be tasked with distributing about $21.5 million amongst its athletes as part of the revenue sharing aspect of the settlement, plus it is adding about $3.5 million worth of new scholarships as part of the new roster limits. That means it is on the hook for an additional $25 million beginning this summer.
“If we’re going to solve really what is a $25 million expense problem, we’ve got to pull some levers on the revenue side and we have to pull some levers on the expense side,” Yurachek said on the Chuck & Bo Show. “I want to be very clear, we’re pulling levers on the expense side. … This is not all on the burden that our fans are going to have to endure. We’re enduring it as a department.”
Yurachek said the UA has already cut $10-$12 million of “operational dollars” from its budget heading into the 2025-26 year. The department also hasn’t backfilled any positions in the last six months and they aren’t hiring any of the extra coaches the NCAA recently allowed to various sports.
At one point during his interview, Yurachek compared it to the financial constraints the program experienced during the pandemic.
Another way Arkansas is trying to increase its revenue is by creating the aforementioned new Razorback Foundation level for people who make an annual donation of at least $40,000.
That was the result of an in-house study that revealed Arkansas had the lowest elite donor level in the Power Four at just $20,000. While those figures may seem astronomical to the common fan, Yurachek said they’ve already had 40 people who extended their donation to reach that level in the just two weeks since it was announced.
The lowering of season ticket limits across the board is also a way for the Razorback Foundation to generate more revenue.
A fan who previously donated $1,000 in order to purchase five tickets now has a decision to make. He/she can choose to increase that to $10,000 and continue buying five tickets or they can remain at $1,000 and just purchase two, in which case three more tickets are suddenly on the market for another fan/donor to snatch up.
Of course, the third scenario is that fan cancels his/her membership altogether, in which case the Razorback Foundation loses that $1,000 donation, but it then has five tickets available – and there is apparently a waiting list.
Season tickets have sold out each of the last four seasons and, according to WholeHogSports, the only new ticket buyers this season were at the $5,000 or above level. There are presumably fans at lower levels chomping at the bit to purchase tickets – or at least that’s what the UA is likely counting on.
What it Means for Arkansas Fans
Even when peeling away Hunter Yurachek’s spin, which seemingly disregards families who are being asked to significantly increase what they give in order to continue buying their same number of tickets, it is clear the UA is trying to keep up with the times.
If other programs in the SEC are distributing the full $21.5 million to athletes and increasing their scholarship counts, Arkansas must do so, too, or risk being left in the dust.
He also at least appears to be trying to spread the burden amongst all parties: the school itself, the wealthy fans and the common fan.
Of course, that doesn’t make it any easier of a sell with the football team toiling in mediocrity and the basketball team floundering for the second straight season – something that even Yurachek admitted on the Chuck & Bo Show.
“I would agree right now in some sports, we’re not winning enough games,” Yurachek said. “That would be the first thing I would agree with them as the athletic director, and I think you’ve got some coaches specific to a few sports that would tell you the exact same thing.
“I’m not one to say we have to throw money at problems to make them better, but we need to continue to invest in our athletic programs. If we pull back because we don’t feel like we’re winning at the level we need to be winning at, then we’re never going to get to where we want to be, so we need to continue to invest in our programs.”
Ultimately, it will be up to each individual fan to determine how much, if at all, he or she can continue to invest in the Arkansas basketball program — not to mention the other programs on campus.
***
Listen to Hunter Yurachek’s full interview on the Chuck & Bo Show here:
More coverage of Arkansas basketball and the Bud Walton Arena re-seating plan from BoAS…
