Can UA Fort Smith start and sustain a football program?

[cbhawg03]

FIFY.  If UAFS has money burning a hole in its pocket, they need to spend it on more academic programs.  A football team would be a money-losing proposition.  Besides, I have not heard any drumbeats regarding starting a football team other than on this thread.

They are putting in new academic programs, masters program in nursing management, and talks of a masters program for business and criminal justice.

No way, shape, form, etc... will there be a football program at UAFS though anytime soon.

[thirrdegreetusker]

They would lose money, like 95% of all football-playing colleges. But if "sustain" includes subsidies from the taxpayers (directly or indirectly) then, sure, they could sustain just like UCA, ASU, ATech, UAPB, etc.........

[booogaga]

If UAFS had a football team no one would go to games. Too many other teams close by that play on Saturdays. Plus it would cost a fortune.

[jmb1973]

I cannot imagine this ever working out well.

Agreed. Fort Smith can't manage to attract or keep industry with any sort of efficiency, football should be the last thing on their mind.

[PEtrader]

I've seen more interest and support for a UAFS football program on this thread than in Fort Smith or in the halls of the UAFS athletic department.

Halls?  You mean there are more than one?

[sooeey pig pig pig]

I've never said Dog parks weren't a good idea for dogs and their owners. We've had Dogs ourselves............My whole problem is when taxes are used to pay for them.

^^prefers crime, lower property values, and lower quality of life to city park improvements and free activities for families, especially poor families.  to each his own, i suppose. 

what town do you live in, by the way?

[jmb1973]

While it is a silly conversation, it becomes sillier when people confuse UAFS with the City of Fort Smith.

And, as said before, the only place UAFS football is being discussed is here - on a thread brought back from the dead. It is not being discussed in places that really matter for it to actually happen.

UAFS is in Fort Smith, a city on the decline. I'm intelligent enough to understand they are separate entities sharing a geographical location. I am also smart enough to understand that in order for this to be successful there would have to be a tremendous amount of local support. You don't see programs starting up in areas that are gripped with economical distress. These are places you see colleges shuttering football programs.

Acting as if the City of Fort Smith and its citizens won't need to be an integral part of this fictional venture is silly.

[jmb1973]

While it is a silly conversation, it becomes sillier when people confuse UAFS with the City of Fort Smith.

And, as said before, the only place UAFS football is being discussed is here - on a thread brought back from the dead. It is not being discussed in places that really matter for it to actually happen.

It's also the off-season, threads come back from the dead. Threads get deleted. Its what we do. Tell your Dad I said Hi. I miss him some days.

[DeltaBoy]

LRJC shuttered football in 1955. It didn't join the UA system and become UALR until 1969.

Yes Scott but when we approached the System in the mid 1980's we were told UA said no Football at UALR without a vote of the State Legislature. We were told that by at that time Chancellor James Young  And the talk of merging started in the 1950's and UA said NO FOOTBALL so to remove that roadblock to the merger the LRU wanted they killed the Football Program.

[DeltaBoy]

Don't confuse him with facts.

I got the FACTS! 

[Inhogswetrust]

^^prefers crime, lower property values, and lower quality of life to city park improvements and free activities for families, especially poor families.  to each his own, i suppose. 

what town do you live in, by the way?

Bartlett TN........low crime, great property values that didn't tank in 2008 and have continued to go up overall, good parks (yes there is a dog park), decent schools (since they now have their own school district), good roads, great quality of life, clean, good activities or at least close by. ALL done by fairly low taxes in general. You CAN have a good city without high taxes but it requires an informed, active citizenry and politicians as neighbors held accountable instead of the "professional politician" stereotype, which we have ironically despite several of our city leaders having been in office a long time. when we moved here we had looked at a few other towns close by such as Germantown, Collierville and Lakeland but decided on Bartlett.

[ricepig]

Or the college dropped football in 1955 because it was shifting from a junior college to a four-year university beginning in 1957.

More inappropriate facts

[jmb1973]

More inappropriate facts

It's ok, he used too much punctuation and correct grammar. DB can't read it.

[DeltaBoy]

Or the college dropped football in 1955 because it was shifting from a junior college to a four-year university beginning in 1957.

Jimmy Karam  told me it was because the folks involved in the merger said NO MORE Football.

[DeltaBoy]

People tell all sorts of tales.

I find it difficult to believe they would drop football 14 years before the merger at the behest of the UA Board. It's much more likely the move from JUCO to four-year university as the reason, since the shuttering of football happened in the same timeframe.

Well other people within the UALR system who were on the staff at time period who hung around campus told us the same thing.  And the reason it took so long to merger was opposition from other state colleges like UCA and ASU.  Read the this article.

http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=1157

[sooeey pig pig pig]

Bartlett TN........low crime, great property values that didn't tank in 2008 and have continued to go up overall, good parks (yes there is a dog park), decent schools (since they now have their own school district), good roads, great quality of life, good activities or at least close by. ALL done by fairly low taxes in general. You CAN have a good city without high taxes but it requires an informed, active citizenry and politicians as neighbors held accountable instead of the "professional politician" stereotype, which we have ironically despite several of our city leaders having been in office a long time. when we moved here we had looked at a few other towns close by such as Germantown, Collierville and Lakeland but decided on Bartlett.

So you already live in a yuppy town with all the nice amenities that create quality of life.  You already enjoy the correlative benefits from decisions that were made against your would-be wishes, not understanding that the reason Bartlett is nice is precisely because of the things you wish other places didn't have.

Perhaps you should try living in some Dump towns in Arkansas with low quality of life before you opine on what towns shouldn't do to make life worth living in them.  My family comes from small, dead towns in Southern Arkansas, and let me tell you that ANYTHING a town can do there to make it more livable -- I'll support to my dying breath.  Depressing doesn't even begin to describe some places in our state.

[LL COOL HOG]

So you already live in a yuppy town with all the nice amenities that create quality of life.  You already enjoy the correlative benefits from decisions that were made against your would-be wishes, not understanding that the reason Bartlett is nice is precisely because of the things you wish other places didn't have.

Perhaps you should try living in some Dump towns in Arkansas with low quality of life before you opine on what towns shouldn't do to make life worth living in them.  My family comes from small, dead towns in Southern Arkansas, and let me tell you that ANYTHING a town can do there to make it more livable -- I'll support to my dying breath.  Depressing doesn't even begin to describe some places in our state.

There are a lot of sad places in this state. It's really sad that others are not aware of it.

If UAFS had a football team no one would go to games. Too many other teams close by that play on Saturdays. Plus it would cost a fortune.

What other teams, and what do you consider a fortune?

[LL COOL HOG]

UAFS is in Fort Smith, a city on the decline. I'm intelligent enough to understand they are separate entities sharing a geographical location. I am also smart enough to understand that in order for this to be successful there would have to be a tremendous amount of local support. You don't see programs starting up in areas that are gripped with economical distress. These are places you see colleges shuttering football programs.

Acting as if the City of Fort Smith and its citizens won't need to be an integral part of this fictional venture is silly.

Fort Smith is a city that WAS on the decline. Growth in Education (UAFS) and Healthcare(clinic expansions, medical school) will attract citizens with higher income and different needs.  This was a major reason a team was brought up as a possibility among my peers. Graduates of WestArk with children entering college in the next few years. 

[Inhogswetrust]

So you already live in a yuppy town with all the nice amenities that create quality of life.  You already enjoy the correlative benefits from decisions that were made against your would-be wishes, not understanding that the reason Bartlett is nice is precisely because of the things you wish other places didn't have.

Perhaps you should try living in some Dump towns in Arkansas with low quality of life before you opine on what towns shouldn't do to make life worth living in them.  My family comes from small, dead towns in Southern Arkansas, and let me tell you that ANYTHING a town can do there to make it more livable -- I'll support to my dying breath.  Depressing doesn't even begin to describe some places in our state.

Bartlett is FAR from being a "yuppy" town which by the way is incorrect spelling. Suburban yes, yuppie no. I will readily admit I was a Yuppie a long time ago back in my younger days and many, many years before moving here. Quite a few retirees here as well as young families, older families and working blue collar as well as white collar. Many income levels demographically as well as education levels. If you want to discuss living or being in small dumpy or dead towns then fine. I bet you'd be surprise to learn I have done just that. I've worked in every area of the state of Arkansas except the extreme southeast but I do know that area fairly well. My dad is from the country outside Chidester in the Red Hill area and my Mom is from Hampton. One Grandfather worked grading roads for Ouachita County. The other worked his whole life in Sawmills. I was born and lived in Camden, lived in Eldorado as a kid and adult, lived in Malvern, Idabel OK as an adult and have traveled working in many small dumpy or dead towns throughout the south, midwest, east coast and southern plains. You don't have to tell me anything about south central and southwest Arkansas or East Tejas or eastern OK. I'm down in south Arkansas quite a bit visiting family. I have a lot of them down there. Sorry but you couldn't pay me enough to live back in Camden or ElDorado or Malvern or Idabel with or without a Dog park and I don't mean any disrespect to those that live there. A Dog Park and some of the other things I'm against government paying for philosophically will NOT make any of those places more livable. We can certainly agree there is a LOT of small depressing towns in Arkansas but that is true throughout the US. In my opinion they don't have to be a small town to be depressing either. Some big ones are as well.

[jmb1973]

Fort Smith is a city that WAS on the decline. Growth in Education (UAFS) and Healthcare(clinic expansions, medical school) will attract citizens with higher income and different needs.  This was a major reason a team was brought up as a possibility among my peers. Graduates of WestArk with children entering college in the next few years. 

Wow things must have really changed since I left last May. Congrats on reversing the trend.

[GoHogs1091]

Lol, I've seen plenty of footage on the news from the stadium, it's far from high demand.

You may have saw footage on the news from either the 3rd or 4th Quarters of the following game.

www.ucasports.com/news/2014/10/11/FB_1011142338.aspx