September/October 2015 Issue
NCAA Division I football programs provide
major economic benefits to their home cities or towns,
and the same is true for smaller communities
with Division II teams. Arkadelphia demonstrates the
advantages of being home to two Division II teams.
Photography courtesy of Henderson State University
and Ouachita Baptist University
Top photo: Battle of the Ravine – HSU and OBU have held their long-standing rivalry since 1895.
It’s no secret that Arkansas Razorbacks home football games draw a lot of fans to Northwest Arkansas. Those fans cheerfully open their wallets and purses to pay for meals, hotels and souvenirs, contributing greatly to the area’s economy. Likewise, Jonesboro benefits from home-game weekends for the Arkansas State University Red Wolves, and Conway reaps the rewards of University of Central Arkansas Bears home football games. No matter the location, college football fuels economies in many towns across this pigskin-addicted state.
But the seasonal economic uptick isn’t limited to those larger cities and their schools with NCAA Division I football programs. Although it happens on a smaller scale, you’ll find the same phenomena occurring in many of Arkansas’ small towns that harbor institutions with NCAA Division II football programs.
From Boll Weevils to Bison and Wonder Boys to Muleriders, the Natural State’s small-college football programs play an integral role in bringing people — and their money — to small-town Arkansas on fall weekends.
To understand the importance of small-college football to a small city’s economy, you needn’t look any further than Arkadelphia. The city of fewer than 11,000 residents is home to both Ouachita Baptist University and Henderson State University, both of which field NCAA Division II football teams.
“We’re very blessed and fortunate to have the two schools,” said Arkadelphia Mayor James Calhoun. “And they’re not just your standard programs. They’re both high-class programs that consistently finish high in the standings.”
Longtime Rivalry
While a city like Russellville obviously benefits from Arkansas Tech University home games (the Wonder Boys averaged 5,105 fans per game and ranked second in attendance last year in the Great American Conference), the value of home football games to Arkadelphia with its two teams can’t be denied. The long-running rivalry game between the OBU Tigers and the HSU Reddies represents a case study in Arkadelphia’s football economics.
“It’s a huge impact,” said Ouachita Baptist Athletic Director David Sharp. “The Ouachita Baptist and Henderson State football programs are both big to the community. Of course, when they play each other, it’s really huge.”
“The Battle of the Ravine,” so named because of the kudzu-infested ditch that separates the campuses of Ouachita Baptist and Henderson State, started in 1895 and continues to be one of Division II football’s most notable rivalries.
The game has received considerable national media attention through the years, being called the shortest road trip in college football — the visiting team walks across U.S. Highway 67 to its rival’s stadium each year. There’s a long tradition of elaborate pranks perpetrated by students from both schools during the week leading up to this big game each season.
On the field, the series remains remarkably close, with HSU holding a slight two-game advantage in 88 meetings (42-40-6). But the biggest advantage goes to Arkadelphia merchants.
“It’s a big thing,” Calhoun said. “It’s built up in the community, especially in the business community. It’s a big draw to our community from an economic standpoint. There’s also a lot of publicity that draws people’s attention to the city of Arkadelphia.”
The Battle of the Ravine is so important that seven years ago it caused HSU to take the rare step of removing itself from its then-league’s television contract.
At the time, HSU and OBU were both members of the Gulf South Conference. Although not on the scale of the football powerhouse Southeastern Conference’s television contract with ESPN, the Gulf South Conference had negotiated a deal with Comcast Sports to broadcast GSC members’ games to a regional audience. Many of the games were scheduled for Thursday nights, a move designed to attract a larger television audience because of less competition from the huge lineup of televised football games on Saturdays.
But when Gulf South Conference officials moved the Battle of the Ravine from its typical Saturday time slot to Thursday night for the 2007 and 2008 seasons, HSU officials soon realized it was bad for business.
Economic Boost
Troy Mitchell, HSU’s sports information director, had a hunch that the Thursday night renditions of the classic OBU-HSU rivalry didn’t add up in Arkadelphia’s favor. So he reached out to local hotels and restaurants and put together an ad hoc economic impact study.
Mitchell discovered that hotel occupancy in Arkadelphia was running at about 92 percent on Friday nights when the Battle of the Ravine was held on Saturdays. Occupancy was 100 percent on those Saturday nights. But during the years when the Gulf South Conference moved the game to Thursday to accommodate television, hotel occupancy fell to 19 percent.
Attendance at the Battle of the Ravine was about 6,000 in 2007 and about 7,000 in 2008. By comparison, last year’s game at Henderson State drew 12,200 fans.
“When you’re talking about 4,000 to 5,000 more fans, that’s huge,” Mitchell said. “Those people bring money when they come to town. On Thursdays, they couldn’t come and stay because of jobs and school, and they didn’t spend as much money.”
In addition to the hotel occupancy rates, Mitchell estimated the money spent by visiting fans on meals and shopping while they were in town for the OBU-HSU football game. His study conservatively estimated that moving the Battle of the Ravine from Saturday to Thursday cost Arkadelphia about $850,000.
HSU and OBU also were paying $10,000 apiece to the Gulf South Conference as part of the Comcast television deal.
Mitchell presented his findings to administrators in the HSU athletic department, who pushed back against the Gulf South Conference’s insistence that the Battle of the Ravine be played on Thursday.
“The league commissioner wasn’t happy,” Mitchell said. “But we just said that it didn’t make sense.”
This year’s Battle of the Ravine is Nov. 14, a Saturday, and there will be all of the festivities typically associated with the game, including the Rally on the Ravine, a carnival that celebrates the long-running rivalry, as well as tailgating and cookouts.
Sharp, who has served as OBU’s athletic director for four decades, said he isn’t completely convinced that playing the Battle of the Ravine on Thursday had as much of an adverse effect on Arkadelphia’s economy as Mitchell’s research suggested. But he agreed that playing the game on Saturday was probably better for fans, alumni and the community as a whole.
Shifting Schedules
There’s potential for Arkadelphia to benefit even more from its unique position of having two Division II college football teams.
Sharp and HSU Athletic Director Shawn Jones have been working with Great American Conference officials to try to develop future football schedules so that the Reddies and Tigers play more home games on alternating weekends, a situation that would allow Arkadelphia businesses to reap the benefits of a home football game more weekends of the season. The conference recently added a 12th team to the league and will be adjusting all of its teams’ schedules after the 2016 season.
“We really want to try to alternate those home games,” Mitchell said. “There’s a rich tradition at both schools. One weekend with the rivalry game is great, but if we could get a home game in town for all 11 weeks during football season, you’re talking about a big impact on the community.”
HSU averaged 7,181 fans per home game last year, ranking the Reddies first in the Great American Conference and 10th nationally in all of NCAA Division II football.
Sharp said a conference football schedule with Ouachita Baptist and Henderson State playing more football games on alternating weekends would be good for Arkadelphia, but there are many logistical matters to consider, including the conference’s other 10 schools and their traditional season-ending rivalry games.
“You have to worry about everybody’s schedule,” Sharp said. “I’ve been here a long time, and there have been many times when we’re having a game here and Henderson State is having a game across the street at the same time. There have also been times when we play in the afternoon and they play at night. I’m not sure that there’s a perfect answer, but we can probably get it closer to having fewer conflicts. We would love to see that.”