Moving ASU-Mizzou game would be breach of faith
Roy Ockert Jr.
July 6, 2014
While Athletic Department officials at Arkansas State University ponder moving a long-awaited home football game five hours from home, the reaction among supporters of the program has been largely negative.
In January 2013 ASU signed a home-and-home agreement to play the University of Missouri — first last fall at Columbia and then in Jonesboro on Sept. 12, 2015. That was considered a major milestone for the A-State program, which has long played at least one or two elite teams of college football annually, but only on their own turf.
That tends to beef up a schedule and provide a badly needed, large paycheck. But the game results, with a few rare exceptions, have been mostly one-sided. Last year ASU even sent its coach ahead to Auburn, where his new team trounced the Red Wolves 38-9. Mizzou also won 41-19 and paid ASU $250,000.
The latter was a relatively small payout, and the Missouri contract calls for ASU to pay the visitors the same amount for the 2015 matchup. ASU will get $1 million to play at Tennessee this fall, then $1.3 million for a game at Southern Cal next year and another $1.3 million to return to Auburn in 2016.
Let’s be realistic: Nobody expects the Red Wolves to win those games. The home team wants a “breather” between much more difficult games in its own conference.
ASU would be hard-pressed to defeat Missouri any year, anywhere. That’s not to say it can’t happen; Texas A&M fans learned that A-State may not be a “cupcake.” But it’s hard to compete against the programs with virtually unlimited resources.
Nevertheless, getting one of the “big boys” to come to Jonesboro was a coming-of-age sign, both in the ASU program’s reputation and its ability to compete.
Athletic Director Terry Mohajir made the first public announcement of the Missouri agreement at a meeting of the Kiwanis Club of Jonesboro. “That is a tremendous treat,” he said. “From where we are, having a team like Missouri ... it’s fantastic.”
ASU fans were similarly ecstatic.
Now, though, Mohajir has an offer in hand from the St. Louis Cardinals and the St. Louis Sports Commission to move the 2015 game against Missouri to Busch Stadium. Because he has signed a confidentiality agreement, he can’t say how much they would pay, but he told an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter that it’s more than the record $1.3 million expected from Southern Cal in 2015.
At that Kiwanis meeting Mohajir said something else that bears on this issue: “We're good enough they can come here and play us. It’s our duty to try to take care of the season ticket holders here first and expand our season ticket base. We want to try to have to the premier teams in Jonesboro ...”
He was answering a question about possibly playing a big-name opponent in Little Rock, but the principle applies. Only now it’s a matter of money, rather than taking care of the season ticket holders.
Mohajir told The Sun that “our most ardent fans say they support” moving the game. Apparently I’m not ardent enough. I would consider it a breach of faith with season ticket holders — and I am one — who have faithfully paid for packages that sometimes included the likes of Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Alcorn State.
I love Busch Stadium, the Cardinals and St. Louis almost as much as ASU and Jonesboro. I go to several Cardinals games there almost every year. That said, Busch III, like most modern baseball stadiums, wasn’t built for football. When Southern Illinois and Southeast Missouri played football there last year before a crowd of 14,618, the footing was reported as terrible and afterward the outfield turf had to be replaced.
The latter would be the Cardinals’ problem, and apparently they’re willing to take the risk. But injuries would be the teams’ problem.
No matter how many ASU fans would make the trip, it would not be a home game for us. I attended the Mizzou “home game” in Kansas City a few years ago — it was called that because ASU needed numbers to satisfy some ridiculous NCAA edict — and ASU fans were outnumbered worse than General Custer at his last stand.
Presumably, the “home game” in St. Louis would not be part of our season ticket package. Instead we would pay extra and maybe get a replacement game with UAPB, or just one less game.
If it’s such a great thing, why hasn’t Mizzou given up one of its home games to play in St. Louis? Heck, we could have gone there last year.
Mohajir has suggested that perhaps the City of Jonesboro could use funds from the city Advertising and Promotions Commission to help ASU make up for “lost funds” if the game isn’t moved. Hotel taxes have been used for more questionable purposes, but no funds are really lost if the contract is simply fulfilled.
Nonetheless, I recognize that ASU officials must take financing into consideration at every opportunity, and Mohajir is an excellent athletic director who is charged with just that. Winning isn’t everything and does not necessarily pay the bills.
So I would make the trip to St. Louis, if necessary. But it would seem like a step backward, not forward.
Roy Ockert is editor emeritus of The Jonesboro Sun. He may be reached by e-mail at royo@suddenlink.net.