Personal Foul?

It’s clear to us that a business arrangement between Lindsey & Associates in Fayetteville, the real estate and construction company founded by UA trustee Jim Lindsey, and Stephens Inc., the Little Rock securities firm, will not come to fruition. But it may not be for the reason people think.

Stephens Inc. president Warren Stephens’ position that University of Arkansas football games should not be moved from War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock to Fayetteville has been well documented. (For anyone who’s been living in a bubble for the last year, suffice to say, he’s against it).

So it raised some eyebrows recently when Stephens’ Northwest Arkansas office let negotiations lapse with Lindsey for some newly built office lease space on Millsap Road in Fayetteville.

Word from the Lindsey camp is that Stephens never followed up after reviewing some space modifications. The timing is ironic because negotiations apparently broke down in January, just before Lindsey and the rest of the trustees voted to move some football games back onto the UA campus.

Frank Thomas, a spokesman for Stephens Inc., said his firm simply discovered the space would not suit its needs. He said that determination was actually made before the new year, and that the stadium issue had nothing to do with the decision not to lease from Lindsey.

The fact that this is still hot conversation around town just goes to show how heated the stadium debate has been.