[Robert_J]

Originally Posted by bagelw

Believe it or not there are more people that don't care about the Hogs than you think.

I haven't met them. Even over here stuck between the Memphis Tigers and Ole Miss Rebels, I can't drive around without seeing a Hog sticker or license plate. No it's not like Fayetteville on game day (I miss those) but it is nice to see.

Originally Posted by Stormcrow73

Neither AR nor TX will beat the other on Saturday...game's postponed.

Thanks for the heads-up on that one. This guarantees that the weather in Austin will be bright and sunny on Saturday. That also gives me no reason to stay home. I can go watch my Boll Weevils beat up on the Fighting Okra of Delta State in Cleveland, MS.

Originally Posted by Stormcrow73

There are more hockey fans in AR than you probably imagine. Some of us are natives even and have our names on sidewalk at UofA. We'd still have a minor league team in LR if some bozo hadn't of decided to add a 2nd team in a competing league playing at Alltel concurrent with an existing franchise playing at Barton.

I was living in LR during that time. If you want to watch some hockey, drive to Memphis and head south on I-55. Southaven is the home of the Mississippi River Kings of the East Coast Hockey League. I never thought it would last but they outlived our AFL2 team.

-Robert

[Stormcrow73]

Originally Posted by Robert_J

I was living in LR during that time. If you want to watch some hockey, drive to Memphis and head south on I-55. Southaven is the home of the Mississippi River Kings of the East Coast Hockey League. I never thought it would last but they outlived our AFL2 team.

-Robert

I've been thinking very seriously about that! I was going to check out ticket prices earlier this week but the Kings site was down. Not to quibble over details but they're a Central Hockey League team.

Way OT but....I've always thought that trying to spread ice hockey in the south was a mistake. The NHL really should have helped to develop a minor pro inline league. Most everyone who's ever played both inline and ice (that I've met) agree, ice is far superior but inline is a great gateway that is cheaper to implement and to play.


If it REALLY has to be the Hogs: www.razorbackhockey.com There you go!!

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow73

We will not get any major professional sports franchises in AR within the next 100 years. We don't have the population base nor the growth rate nor the income levels. The only way we could possibly get one is if Wal-mart more or less financed the team's debt and losses each year by paying for unsold tickets. What's the likelihood of that happening?? Nil. We will have to live with minor league professional sports and/or college teams. Anyway...why'd you want the NBA??? 82 snoozefests a year until the last 5 minutes...not worth the bother. I wish that nuisance league would go belly up.

Man do we think alike sometimes. We are big sports fans, especially baseball and football: leave the NBA to others. Even college basketball can be less than thrilling. Of course Mar madness, that is a different story....As for professional big league sports, maybe not a100 years but certainly not in the near future....politics is sport enough for me...

Nita

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Robert_J

Then you and the other guy can car pool to the hockey game while I watch the Hogs beat Texas on Saturday.

-Robert

not everyone, you are right, but is just not American not to love the HOGS!!! Oh, wait a minute, this wasn't meant for you...we will have to find something else to watch on Saturday thouogh...

[bagelw]

Originally Posted by Robert_J

I haven't met them. Even over here stuck between the Memphis Tigers and Ole Miss Rebels, I can't drive around without seeing a Hog sticker or license plate. No it's not like Fayetteville on game day (I miss those) but it is nice to see.

So if you haven't met them then they must not exists?
Most people in NWA moved here from somewhere else and went to school somewhere else so why would they care about the Hogs? Since I moved here am I supposed to automatically become a Razorback fan? Don't get me wrong, it's great that Arkansans can get excited and have such comradery but you need to realize that not everyone keeps up with the hogs. In all honesty that's one of the main problems I have with living here. A random person just trying to be friendly will start talking to me and the first thing brought up is the Razorbacks. As soon as I tell then I'm not a Razorback fan they look at me as if I have the plague. It doesn't even matter to them that I didn't graduate from the U of A. It's very strange but I guess that's what I get for living in the heart of hog country.

[bagelw]

Originally Posted by nmnita

not everyone, you are right, but is just not American not to love the HOGS!!! Oh, wait a minute, this wasn't meant for you...we will have to find something else to watch on Saturday thouogh...

So now I'm not American because I don't love the hogs? I realize you're joking but there are a lot of people that don't joke about that and that is the problem.

[northbound74]

I'm very much American, and sort-of Arkansawer, but never a Razorback fan. Don't get the woo-pig-sooie thing, then there's the the fact that it is a pig, the worst mascot in all of sportsdom. And you know what they've been saying about pigs lately........

Arkansas will probably not get a major league franchise of any kind in our lifetimes for all the reasons already mentioned. Then there's always the possibility that Arkansas will boom in population like Phoenix or Las Vegas, but..... I doubt it.

Originally Posted by ckhthankgod

how do places like Salt Lake City, Seattle, Minneapolis have or had teams? While their metros are bigger, their Black communities are about the same(Minneapolis) or in smaller percentages than OKC. Same with Portland, San Antonio and Phoenix.

Personally, I think it can work there. Look cities like Green Bay and Buffalo in regards to the NFL.

The NFL is a different animal. It could work in many places, especially up north, where college ball isn't usually the religion that it is in the south.
The NBA needs either an extremely large population, or it needs to be the only game in town, pretty much. That's why it works in Portland, San Antonio, and Memphis... ok, you got a sort-of on that last one. Memphis would do well if they had a winning team to support. It is a fine basketball town, generally.
Phoenix and Minneapolis are both semi-gargantuan towns, so there's plenty of interest because of sheer numbers.

I think that the black population of a town has little or nothing to do with it. I've been to NBA games where the vast majority of people at the well-attended game where white.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by bagelw

So now I'm not American because I don't love the hogs? I realize you're joking but there are a lot of people that don't joke about that and that is the problem.

oh for heavens sake, of course I was joking!!!!!

Relax and enjoy a little bit of humor. Of course lots of people are not even football fans.

Nita

[RogMar]

Originally Posted by nmnita

Of course lots of people are not even football fans.Nita

I realize that her statement may seem like a "Ripley's Believe it or Not", kinda statement, but that's true.

One of my big downfalls when I went to Chicagoland to work was that I'm not a sports fan..pretty much....at all.

Was on fencing team and archery team in college, and I really don't care about them much anymore.

I follow the U.S. Olympic shooting team, that's about it.

So when those literally * thousands* of people approached and said, "Hey...how about dem cubs/sox/bears/bulls", they probably interpreted my blank stare as brain damage or acute intoxication.

Maybe some of us can't march, or hear the different drummer.

[Robert_J]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow73

I've been thinking very seriously about that! I was going to check out ticket prices earlier this week but the Kings site was down. Not to quibble over details but they're a Central Hockey League team.

As you can tell, I don't follow hockey. But based on local sports clips, you can easily get seats on the glass. Bring your skates because they sometimes have skate time for the crowd after the games. Make sure you stop by Huey's for a burger. It's a Memphis landmark.

Originally Posted by northbound74

there's the the fact that it is a pig, the worst mascot in all of sportsdom.

Have you ever gone hog hunting? A wild hog is one of the meanest animals in the woods. If you shoot it and don't kill it, it will turn on you. You can't outrun it so you better kill it.

Originally Posted by bagelw

A random person just trying to be friendly will start talking to me and the first thing brought up is the Razorbacks. As soon as I tell then I'm not a Razorback fan they look at me as if I have the plague. It doesn't even matter to them that I didn't graduate from the U of A. It's very strange but I guess that's what I get for living in the heart of hog country.

Because most of them are like me. I have seen home movies (no sound) of me at age 2 or 3, running around in a red football helmet and a red jersey. No one in my family attended the U of A so you don't have to attend or graduate to be a fan. And I grew up in southeast AR, so I was almost as far from Fayetteville as you can get.

Originally Posted by RogMar

I follow the U.S. Olympic shooting team, that's about it.

Are they on ESPN8? Drop them off in the Orange Mound neighborhood of Memphis and televise the shootout with the Vice Lords. That's a shooting sport I would watch.

-Robert