Stadium Scoop Leads to Press Conference

We’d like to credit Dana Gieringer of the Morning News of Northwest Arkansas for getting the scoop on Aug. 28 that Frank Broyles, athletic director at the University of Arkansas, was trying to raise $50 million to $60 million for a new stadium expansion (see article page 19).

We heard about this a week before Gieringer’s article appeared and were chomping our fingers off hoping it wouldn’t get out so we could break the story in this issue. But when you work for a fortnightly publication, it can be tough getting a scoop.

Nine days before Gieringer’s article appeared, Rick Schaeffer, sports information director at the UA, told us he knew nothing about the proposed expansion. Two days later, Broyles gave a fundraising pitch for the stadium expansion to the Northwest Arkansas Council, a group of civic and business leaders.

Schaeffer says Broyles decided to hold a press conference Sept. 1 to announce the proposal because the New York Times was going to do an article about the futuristic, European stadium designed by Eisenman Architects of New York City. He didn’t mention that the Morning News had published an article about the proposed stadium four days earlier.