For many fans who attended last year’s Arkansas football game at War Memorial Stadium, it was an unpleasant experience despite the Razorbacks coming out with a win — one of only four all season.
Sure, it was a 56-13 shellacking of Western Carolina, an outmatched FCS program, but the product on the field isn’t what sparked an uproar on social media.
Despite an announced attendance of just 44,397, the historic Little Rock venue dealt with long lines to get inside and at concession stands. To top it all off, the stadium ran out bottled water well before the end of the game.
To be fair, the issue with scanning tickets wasn’t entirely the fault of War Memorial Stadium. It was the first game of the UA’s mobile ticketing system, so delays were expected and also happened in Fayetteville.
However, the lack of water was inexcusable — especially when you consider the venue was far from capacity and kickoff was specifically moved up three hours in an effort to play the game before the hottest part of the day.
Fans voiced plenty of other complaints, which can be found in our column from last year, but the lack of preparedness was a common theme. This quite annoyed fan’s testimony makes that very plain:
What’s at Stake for Historic Arkansas Football Home
The Razorbacks will once again head to the state’s capital city to open the 2024 season, this time hosting in-state foe UAPB.
It’s another FCS opponent Arkansas is expected to blow out — BetSaracen currently has the Golden Lions as a 47.5-point underdog — and the game was moved to Thursday, Aug. 29, so it could be televised on ESPNU.
The 6:30 p.m. CT start time should help with the heat, but the Weather Channel’s current long-range forecast has temperatures reaching 95 degrees in Little Rock that day and the sun won’t set until about an hour into the game.
Throw in the low expectations after a 4-8 season and attendance will probably be down. The last time Arkansas opened the season against a bad FCS team on a Thursday in Little Rock was 2017 and it drew a crowd of only 36,055 for its showdown with Florida A&M.
That means War Memorial Stadium will be scrutinized even more and, with no Arkansas football games on the books past the historic Arkansas State matchup next season, it can’t afford to fumble the ball again.
War Memorial Stadium’s Plan
That fact doesn’t seem to be lost on those in charge of War Memorial Stadium.
According to some reporting by THV11 in Little Rock, there have been some changes at the venue to hopefully make it a much better experience for those who do show up for the game.
In an effort to fix the ticketing problem, War Memorial has increased the number of ticket scanners to 60, as well as upped the network speed on which the scanners operate — all of which will hopefully lead to a quicker entry process.
As for the heat, two large fans that are 18 feet in diameter were installed on either end of the venue, with smaller fans located at each concession stand. The goal of the fans is to create some air flow in the concourse, opposed to otherwise hot, stagnant air.
Finally, and this is probably the biggest addition after last year’s water bottle fiasco, War Memorial Stadium has installed “water monster” stations that hold 250 gallons of cold, fresh water. Fans will be permitted to bring in an empty water bottle or use cups provided to get that water for free.
It remains to be seen how things will play out next week, or if the future of Arkansas football in Little Rock continues past 2025, but War Memorial Stadium is at least making an effort to fix its mistakes from last year.
“It’s a big game for us, and it’s really important to us,” War Memorial Stadium manager Jon Latch told THV11. “We want to encourage our fans to come out this year and enjoy the game and have a great, wonderful experience and continue those War Memorial great memories.”
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See our latest here:
See the full report from THV11 here:
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