A&P offers ‘Quick tally’ of university economic impact
by October 25, 2012 6:55 pm 120 views
A “quick tally” of the economic impact of the University of Arkansas includes information that the economic impact so far in 2012 from home Razorback football games is $40.842 million – a figure similar to the debt listed in the bankruptcy proceedings of Head Hog Coach John L. Smith.
The impact, provided by Marilyn Heifner, executive director of the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission, noted that the 2011 impact from Razorback football home games was $49.526 million.
Heifner said Maudie Schmitt, chairman of the A&P Commission, had asked for the impact estimate.
“In HMR collections, Chartwell’s is our largest single contributor. In 2011, they collected $47,046.57 and thus far in 2012, they have collected $36,911.72,” Heifner wrote in an e-mail sent to commissioners and the media on Thursday (Oct. 25).
Continuing, Heifner noted: “Additionally, in 2011, Sodexho, which runs the UA concessions, collected $18,311.54 and thus far in 2012, they have collected $8,773.97 (traditionally, their largest collections are in the last three months of the year and last year those collections run approx.. $10,000).”
The football impact could have been higher. A Razorback loss to University of Louisiana-Monroe caused the ESPN GameDay crew to not come to Fayetteville for the Alabama matchup.
Texas A&M athletic director Eric Hyman said in a recent ESPN report that when he was said athletic director at South Carolina, the estimated “publicity value” of ESPN’s "College GameDay" coming to campus was about $5 million.