Best Seats At Razorback Stadium
There are Lions, Tigers, and Bears all over college football, but there is exactly one Razorback, and on a fall Saturday in Fayetteville you feel why that matters. Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium has anchored this campus since 1938, tucked into a natural amphitheater in the Ozark foothills, and it holds 76,212 fans who all seem to know the same eight-second “Woooo” by heart. The field itself has carried Frank Broyles’ name since 2007, which tells you most of what you need to know about how this program treats its history.
The honest reality of attending is that this is a real college town doing a real SEC Saturday — parking is a project, the terrain is hilly, and a hot September kickoff will cook you if you sit in the wrong place. But the payoff is one of the most genuinely warm gameday cultures in the conference, where strangers will teach you to Call the Hogs in the concourse line. Where you sit shapes how much of that you actually feel, so let’s get you in the right seat.
Seating Guide
Razorback Stadium is a U-shaped bowl with the field running north to south. The videoboard and the multi-level north end zone complex close off one end, the south end opens toward the Boston Mountains, and the two long sidelines do the work. The west side is simple — one big lower bowl in the 100s, a row of suites, then the 500-level upper deck. The east side stacks four levels: lower bowl, outdoor and indoor clubs, suites, then its own upper deck.
Two things separate a good seat here from a bad one, and neither is proximity to the field. The first is shade — this is open-air football in Arkansas heat, and the west side gets covered by its own grandstand shadow while the east side bakes. The second is knowing that the 500 level is really two levels: the front rows are sold separately as Pig Heaven, with chairbacks and a two-to-four-row footprint, while everything above is standard upper-deck bench. Same section number, very different seat.
One orientation note that saves people money on resale: the students sit in the east upper deck, sections 525 through 528, with the visiting section right beside them in 518 through 521. The loud, standing, all-game-long part of this building is up there, not on the lower sidelines.
Best Non Premium Seats
Lower west sideline, sections 103 to 105. The Razorbacks’ bench side, dead-on midfield, and the first part of the stadium to fall into shade in the late afternoon. These are big bleacher-style sections with a lot of rows, so the higher you go the better the angle and the earlier the shade — the tradeoff is a longer climb and a longer walk back down at the final whistle.
Lower east sideline, sections 122 to 124. The same midfield geometry looking back at the Arkansas bench, and usually easier to find on the secondary market. The catch is sun: the east side is the last to get relief, so this is a night-game or 11 a.m. seat, not a 3:00 kickoff seat.
Best Value Seats
The value play is Pig Heaven — the front sub-level of the upper deck, sold as its own inventory and labeled with a “-1” after the section number. West side sections 503-1 through 505-1 put you at midfield, on the shaded side, in a chairback seat with only two rows behind you, for upper-deck money. East side 522-1 through 524-1 is the same idea with four rows and more sun.
What you give up is the ground-level rumble of the lower bowl. What you get is the whole field, the band, the mountain backdrop to the south, a seat with a back on it, and a section small enough that nobody climbs over you all afternoon. Most competing pages lump this in with the regular upper deck and never tell you the front rows are a different ticket.
Budget Option
The cheapest honest seats are the far ends of the west upper deck — sections 500 and 501 at one corner, 507 and 508 at the other. You’re a long way out and the angle flattens toward the end zone, but you’re on the shaded side, and on a non-marquee game these go for very little.
Skip the east upper corners unless the price gap is real. Those sections sit next to the visiting allocation and the student block, they get the most sun in the building, and the savings over the west side are usually a few dollars.
Our Pick
Upper rows of the lower west sideline, sections 103 to 105 — and be specific about it, because the rows matter here. Fans report shade arriving around row 48 and actual roof cover from the suites above starting around row 52, which solves the heat problem and the rain problem in one ticket. The honest catch: from under that overhang you lose sightline to the videoboards and the noise bounces, so if replays matter to you, sit in the mid-40s instead and take the shade without the roof.
Heat and Shade at Razorback Stadium
Don’t underestimate the early-season heat. The first home games run through September and into early October, and a mid-afternoon kickoff in Fayetteville sits in the upper 80s to low 90s with real humidity on top.
The west side is the shade side, and it’s not close. The west grandstand casts across itself as the afternoon goes, the upper rows sit under the suite structure, and the visiting sections on the east are the sunniest seats in the building — Arkansas effectively tells visiting fans to dress for it. If you’re buying for a 3:00 kickoff in September, buy west and buy high. For an 11 a.m. start, sun barely factors anywhere in the bowl.
Seats to Avoid, and Worth it One Time
The east side on a hot day game. The lower east bowl and the east upper corners are the last part of the stadium to see shade, and there’s no overhang to duck under. On a September afternoon this is where first-timers get cooked. If the price difference from the west side is under twenty dollars, it isn’t a deal.
The very back rows of the lower west, if you watch replays. The last rows under the suite overhang buy you cover from sun and rain, but the structure cuts your line to both videoboards and the sound bounces off the underside. Great seat for the weather, frustrating seat for a close game.
Worth it once — Big Red’s Rooftop. Arkansas built what it calls the largest outdoor sports bar in college football on the North End Zone Deck: three bars running more than 200 feet, roughly 70 bar seats, TVs throughout, and pub tables and a drink rail overlooking the field, all under a canopy. It’s first-come standing-and-perching rather than a reserved seat, and single-game tickets go on sale to the general public rather than being locked behind a season package. For a hot day game or a group that would rather stand and drink than sit and squint, it’s the best ticket in the building that nobody writes about.
Premium Seating & Clubs
Razorback Stadium carries an unusually deep premium program for a school its size, stacked along the east sideline and through the rebuilt north end zone. One quirk works in a visitor’s favor: single-game premium tickets are often available here, where most SEC schools lock clubs behind season packages.
Best Premium Experience
Big Red’s Rooftop, North End Zone Deck. Three bars over 200 feet of frontage, about 70 bar seats, pub tables and a drink rail straight over the field, and a canopy overhead — Arkansas pitches it as the largest outdoor sports bar in college football and the claim holds up. It’s social rather than seated, sold by the single game to the public, and it’s the one premium option here that couldn’t exist at most other stadiums.
Best Value Premium Seating
The East Outdoor Club, sections 214 through 225. Six rows deep, chairbacks throughout, elevated sideline views, and the Founder’s Suites splitting the run. The reason to pick it over the lower bowl below: on a genuinely sunny day these sections see far more shade than the rest of the east side, which is otherwise the problem with sitting on that sideline at all.
Other Premium Seating Options
The Diamond Club (sections 476 to 488) sits at the top of the south end zone, indoor and climate-controlled, chairbacks facing straight up the field at the videoboard, with the Boston Mountains out the back windows. It’s the comfortable splurge and among the best-shaded seats in the stadium.
The Touchdown Club (field level, north end) and the SEC Club above it (sections 108 to 119) stack together in the north end zone with all-you-can-eat buffets and an indoor sports-bar lounge; the Touchdown Club puts you at field level where the team walks out from the locker room. Note the name change coming: the SEC Club becomes the CommunityAmerica Club under the credit union’s new athletics partnership.
The Capital Club (sections 330 to 344) runs the entire east sideline as an indoor, covered, climate-controlled option — the wet-weather and extreme-heat pick. The Cardinal Club (sections 226 to 238) anchors the south end on the 200 level with padded chairbacks and an indoor lounge behind. The Red Zone (sections 129 to 135) isn’t a club, but every seat behind the south end zone is a chairback, which is worth knowing when you’re comparing it to bleacher pricing on the sidelines.
Suites and Group Options
The stadium carries 132 executive suites across the north end zone and both sidelines, plus 70 four-seat loge boxes in the north end zone within the Touchdown Club, the 64 Club and the SEC Club, each with a personal television, power outlets, all-inclusive food and indoor club access. Suites and loges run through the Razorback Foundation on a priority-points basis; groups and single-game inquiries go through the Razorback Ticket Center.
Razorback Stadium Seating Chart
Razorback Stadium holds 76,212, which makes it one of the larger stadiums in the SEC and one of the biggest venues of any kind in Arkansas. It sits at 350 North Razorback Road in Fayetteville, on the west side of the University of Arkansas campus, and the playing surface is Frank Broyles Field.
The bowl runs on a single continuous 100-level ring from end zone to end zone, with 200-level clubs and suites stacked above the east sideline and the south end, and a 500-level upper deck on the east and west sidelines only. There’s no upper deck on either end — the bleachers that used to sit on the roof of the south end zone were retired after 2017, which is why the official number dropped from a listed 80,800 to today’s 76,212.
Two quirks trip people up on the chart. The 500-level sections carry a -1 or -2 suffix: -1 is the Pig Heaven chairback rows at the front, -2 is the standard upper deck behind them, and they’re priced as separate inventory. And Arkansas’ own ticketing sometimes prefixes sections with a compass letter — you’ll see the same seat written as 103 on a resale site and W103 on a Razorback Foundation map.
Here is a current Seating Chart to Arkansas Football Games
Tickets To Arkansas Football Games
The demand pattern in Fayetteville is easy to read once you know the schedule. The 2026 marquee dates are LSU on November 28 — the Battle for the Golden Boot, the regular-season finale, and the rivalry game — and Georgia on September 19, which is both the SEC opener and a stadium stripe-out. Those two will be the priciest and the hardest to find. The opener against North Alabama on September 5 and the Tulsa game on September 26 (Family Weekend) are your value windows, with plenty of secondary inventory and the softest prices.
For everything outside the two big games, the secondary market usually beats face value, and prices tend to slide in the final days before a lower-demand game as season-ticket holders dump seats they won’t use. Watch that window.
One practical note specific to here: don’t plan on rolling up and buying at a stadium window — sort your tickets out in advance, since same-day box-office availability isn’t something to count on.
When you’re ready to compare seats and prices, you can check current Razorback tickets on Vivid Seats for home, road, basketball or any game you’re looking at going too.
Razorback Stadium Bag Policy
Razorback Stadium runs the standard SEC clear-bag policy. You can bring one clear plastic, vinyl, or PVC bag up to 12″ x 6″ x 12″, or a one-gallon clear freezer bag, plus one small clutch no bigger than 4.5″ x 6.5″. Backpacks, large purses, coolers, and bags that don’t meet those specs are turned away at the gate, and there’s no bag check to stash them, so leave them in the car. Medical supplies are exempt but go through a separate screening line.
Key Policies to Know
Outside food and drink are not allowed inside, and neither are umbrellas, noisemakers, coolers, or folding chairs. Cameras are fine — the actual rule is a six-inch lens limit and no camera case, and the same applies to binoculars, so carry them around your neck and leave the case in the car.
Cashless or cash: The stadium is effectively cashless. Concessions and merchandise stands take cards and mobile pay only, with no cash accepted. The one oddball exception is chairback seat-cushion rentals, which are cash-only and available at several gates and the west upper concourse, so bring a few bills if you want a cushion for those bleachers.
Accessibility: Accessible seating, companion seats, and elevator access are available around the bowl, with wheelchair spaces behind the lower south sections and on the east side reachable through the east-side gates. ADA parking and accessible shuttle service run on gamedays. The terrain around the stadium is genuinely hilly, so for mobility needs the shuttle is often easier than walking in from a distant lot. Confirm specific locations and arrangements through the Razorback ticket office before the game.
Getting to Razorback Stadium
The stadium sits at 350 N. Razorback Road (for your apple/google maps purposes) on the west side of campus, a short walk from Dickson Street and the heart of Fayetteville. For most visitors the best combination is parking on the edge and letting a shuttle do the campus hill-climbing.
Razorback Stadium Parking
Lots open at 6 a.m. on gameday, and the campus roads tighten up a few hours before kickoff. Public paid parking is at the Harmon Avenue Garage and the Spring Street Garage downtown, both walkable to the stadium and to Dickson Street, plus the Baum-Walker East lot out by the baseball park. Closer cash lots fill first-come.
The move most visitors miss: park at the Baum-Walker East lot, which is free, and ride the shuttle in. You’ll pay nothing, and you’ll get out of Fayetteville faster than the people who paid to park three blocks closer.
Gameday Shuttles and Rideshare
Free shuttles run from four points — the Baum-Walker East lot, Road Hog Park, the Walton Arts Center, and the Arkansas Union — starting four hours before kickoff and running continuously through the game and after it. There’s a separate accessible route out of Lot 56 for fans with a state-issued ADA permit. The terrain around this stadium is genuinely hilly, so for anyone with mobility limits the shuttle beats walking in from a distant lot every time.
Rideshare: Uber and Lyft pickup and dropoff is set near Union Station by the Fine Arts Center; drivers are routed in via Dickson Street and out toward Maple Street and Garland Avenue. It’s a clean option that skips the parking math entirely, with the usual postgame surge if you don’t wait it out for a bit on Dickson.
Flying in: Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport (XNA) sits up the I-49 corridor north of town, roughly a 25-to-35-minute drive depending on traffic and exactly where you’re staying.
Arkansas Razorback Gameday Tips
A Razorback Saturday is a whole-campus, whole-town affair, and the thing visitors notice first is how friendly it is. “Woo Pig” gets thrown around as hello, thank you and excuse me, and someone will absolutely teach you to Call the Hogs while you’re standing in a concession line. The traditions are loud and sincere, the food has real Arkansas character, and the four hours before kickoff matter almost as much as the game. Here’s how to work the day like you’ve done it before.
Razorback Stadium’s New Name
It becomes CommunityAmerica Razorback Stadium in 2027. The University of Arkansas Board of Trustees approved a 13-year naming-rights partnership with CommunityAmerica Credit Union in June 2026, taking effect July 1, 2027. It’s the first rename since 2001, when a Donald W. Reynolds Foundation gift put that name on the building.
For now it’s still Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. The delay is purely signage — athletics estimated nine to twelve months to swap it out across the stadium and campus. You’ll see and hear CommunityAmerica branding at games well before the name officially changes.
The SEC Club is becoming the CommunityAmerica Club under the same agreement. If you’re shopping premium seats and the club name on your ticket doesn’t match what you read somewhere else, that’s why.
Nobody local is going to call it any of that. It’s been Razorback Stadium since 1941 and it will stay Razorback Stadium in conversation, the same way the Reynolds name never really stuck. Use the short version and you’ll sound like you’ve been.
Calling the Hogs and Other Arkansas Traditions
Learn the Hog Call before you arrive. Arms up from the knees into a building eight-second “Woooo” with your fingers wiggling, both arms straight down with fists for “Pig,” then the right arm up and out for “Sooie.” Three times through, and it runs before kickoff and all game long.
Just do it, badly, on the first one. Joining in is the single fastest way to stop feeling like a visitor here, and anyone within arm’s reach will happily coach you through it rather than judge you. This is not a stadium where opposing fans get a hard time for trying.
Be in your seat three and a half minutes before kickoff for “Running Through the A.” The Razorback Marching Band forms a giant A at one end and the team sprints through it onto the field. It is the signature entrance and the one moment you absolutely do not want to spend in a concession line.
Track down Tusk. Arkansas keeps a live Russian boar — currently Tusk VI — in a custom climate-controlled trailer near the stadium on gamedays, usually around Victory Village. Getting a photo with him is a quiet rite of passage, so make the detour before you head for the gates.
Watch for the anthem and alma mater. The national anthem runs twelve minutes out and the alma mater ten minutes out, which is a useful internal clock — when you hear the alma mater start, you have about six minutes before the A.
When to Arrive at Razorback Stadium
Gates open two hours before kickoff. Not ninety minutes — you’ll still find that number floating around on older pages, and it’s wrong.
Use the first hour inside. Arkansas runs a Happy Hour promotion during the opening hour with discounted concessions and merchandise plus giveaways, which is a real reason to be early beyond beating the line.
Give yourself more cushion than the stadium’s size suggests. This building has fewer and narrower gates than a 76,000-seat stadium ought to, and on a big Saturday the backup at the main entrances is bad enough that a real chunk of the crowd is still outside at kickoff. Metal detectors at every gate haven’t sped it up.
Enter at the gate printed on your ticket. A 360-degree Level 1 concourse means you can walk anywhere in the building once you’re inside, so there’s no upside to picking a different gate — the assignments exist to spread the load, and ignoring yours usually lands you in the longest line.
HogTown and the Hog Walk
HogTown opens four hours before kickoff and it’s free. The street festival runs on Maple Street between Razorback Road and Stadium Drive, just north of the stadium, with a main stage, a beer garden, food trucks from around Northwest Arkansas, a big screen carrying games from around the country, and inflatables and face painting for kids. It closes 30 minutes before kickoff.
If you don’t have a tailgate, this is your tailgate. You get the full pregame atmosphere with none of the tent-and-cooler-and-generator setup, and you don’t need a game ticket to be there.
Stake out the Hog Walk 20 to 30 minutes early. The team arrives about two hours before kickoff, comes in at the top of Victory Village, and walks through the heart of HogTown into the stadium. Don’t just show up on time — get a spot against the rails near the entrance, because that choke point is the loudest stretch of the whole route.
The band parades in ahead of them. The Razorback Marching Band comes up Razorback Road from the Walker Pavilion to get into position before the team arrives, which means if you’re standing on the walk route you get the band first and the team second. Best free show of the day.
Razorback Stadium Tailgating
The good lots are reserved and booked ahead. Victory Village North, Victory Village East, Victory South and the Razorback Gardens all run through the official program, sold as full-service packages or bring-your-own-tailgate spaces on either a season or single-game basis.
Bring-your-own is the affordable door in. BYOT spaces in the Razorback Gardens start around a couple hundred dollars for a single game, which for a group of eight is less than most people spend on parking and concessions.
Commercial tailgates need clearance first. If you’re bringing branded signage, selling anything, or charging people to attend, the university requires prior approval — this catches company outings off guard every year.
Autographs and Player Access at Arkansas Games
HogTown runs scheduled autograph sessions in the hours before kickoff. Current and former Razorback student-athletes rotate through, and it’s genuinely accessible — no wristband lottery, no donor tier.
Position yourself on the Victory Village-to-HogTown path. Stand there and you cover both windows at once: the autograph tents behind you and the team walking past in front of you. It’s the only spot on campus where you get both without moving.
Field-level premium gets you closest. If access is the whole point of the trip, the Touchdown Club sits at field level in the north end zone where the team comes out of the locker room — the only ticketed seat in the building with that sightline.
Razorback Stadium Food and Drink
Go straight to Wright’s Barbecue. The best food in the building is the Wright’s stand — brisket or the pulled pork sandwich, and skip the nachos to get it. Wright’s started as a smokehouse in Johnson five miles north and now runs concession stands in both the stadium and Bud Walton Arena, so this is the real thing rather than a licensed logo.
Get a Petit Jean dog if you want the Arkansas answer. Petit Jean smoked sausage is the state’s own institution and turns up on core concession stands throughout the stadium, and it is a far better call than a generic ballpark hot dog.
After that, the local names are worth your money. Slim Chickens started in Fayetteville and has two stands inside, Gusano’s does Chicago-style pizza, CJ’s Butcher Boy Burgers is a Northwest Arkansas fixture, and Shake’s frozen custard is the correct move on a hot afternoon.
Beer and wine are sold throughout the general public areas. That’s been true since 2019 — before then it was clubs and suites only, so anyone working off older advice will tell you the wrong thing. Sales are at fixed stands rather than by roaming vendors, and there’s no alcohol sold in or immediately around the student section.
Use the app’s food map instead of wandering. The Razorback Gameday App carries a stand-by-stand food map, which matters here because the north end zone and the south end zone carry different lineups and the 360 concourse makes it easy to walk the wrong direction for five minutes.
Order during play, not at the quarter break. The stadium is card and mobile-pay only, so the bottleneck at the counter is people fumbling with their phones. Have your payment pulled up before you’re in line, and go mid-quarter.
Timberlands Market is the fast option. The grab-and-go market at the south end lets you pick up snacks and drinks without standing in a hot-food line at all, which is the move when you’ve got kids and eleven minutes.
Surviving a September Kickoff
The first two or three home games are genuinely hot. Fayetteville sits in the upper 80s to low 90s with real humidity through September, and an afternoon kickoff in the open bowl is a different experience from a November night game. Here is the Fayetteville Weather Forecast from the National Weather Service.
Know where the cooling zones are before you need one. There are designated cooling areas at Gate 14 and in the North Level 1 lobby — worth locating on the way in rather than when somebody in your group starts to wilt.
Rent a seat cushion if you’re in the bleachers. Chairback seat-cushion rentals are available on a single-game basis at several gates and on the west upper concourse, and they’re worth it on aluminum in the heat. Bring cash — this is the one transaction at the whole stadium that isn’t cashless.
There’s free stadium Wi-Fi. Connect to “#RazorbackWiFi” inside. On a full house, cell data crawls and the Wi-Fi is the difference between having your mobile ticket load and standing at the gate refreshing.
Best Photo Spots at Razorback Stadium
The open south end at golden hour, shot from the upper west deck. The bowl is a U rather than a full ring, and the open end looks out at the Boston Mountains — a late kickoff puts the light on that ridgeline behind the stadium. It’s the one shot that could only be Fayetteville.
Tusk in his trailer, before you head for the gates. A live boar in a climate-controlled trailer is the picture everybody wants and most first-timers don’t know to go looking for.
The Hog Walk rail. Standing where the team crosses into HogTown gives you players at arm’s length with a wall of cardinal behind them, which beats anything you’ll get from a seat.
The Senior Walk, if you want the campus shot. More than five miles of sidewalk stamped with the names of over 175,000 graduates going back to 1876. Find your own name if you went here, or find 1938 and stand on the year the stadium opened.
Bringing Kids to an Arkansas Football Game
HogTown is the family anchor. Inflatables, face painting, balloon artists, live music and food trucks, all outdoors and all free, four hours before kickoff. It’s a better use of a five-year-old’s patience than an extra hour in a seat.
Feed everyone before you go through the gates. Outside food isn’t allowed in, and the concession lines with a hungry kid at halftime are their own kind of punishment.
Plan to carry the little ones. Strollers and baby seats are on the prohibited list, which catches families out every single season, and there’s no stroller check on site.
Sit on the shaded west sideline. It keeps you away from the rowdiest corners of the building and out of the worst of the September sun, which is the combination that actually determines whether a kid makes it to the fourth quarter.
The Sports Hall of Honor is the free air-conditioned reset. It’s in the Frank Broyles Athletic Center at the north end, full of trophies and program history, and it costs nothing — the ideal twenty minutes when someone needs to be out of the heat.
Hog Heaven Team Store and Razorback Merch
The stadium stores are called Hog Heaven. Permanent locations sit in the north end zone and on the south concourse, with a mobile trailer store out in HogTown on gamedays.
Shop before kickoff or don’t bother. The postgame crush at the north end store after a win is the worst line of the day, worse than any concession stand.
You don’t need a ticket to buy gear. The campus bookstore at the Arkansas Union and the shops along Dickson Street carry plenty of Razorback merchandise, and the HogTown trailer is outside the gates. If you’re in town without a ticket, you have options.
The Razorback Gameday App
It’s genuinely useful, which isn’t always true of these. Mobile tickets live in it, and it also runs mobile concessions ordering, the stadium-wide phone light show, the food map and free live game audio if you want the radio call in your ears.
Load your tickets before you leave the hotel. Tickets are mobile-only and screenshots will not scan at the gate — this is the single most common way people get stuck outside.
There’s a text line for problems. Text 479-575-3313 from your seat with an issue and someone responds. It’s text only, so don’t call it.
Getting Out of Fayetteville After the Game
Don’t walk straight to your car. If you parked close, the crawl out immediately after the final whistle is the worst it gets all day.
Walk to Dickson Street instead and wait it out. Give it 45 minutes to an hour over a drink or a bite and you’ll roll out onto half-empty roads, arriving home at roughly the same time as the people who spent that hour in a garage line — except you had a burger instead of brake lights.
Know that upper concourse ramps dump you outside. Several of them lead straight out of the stadium rather than down to the lower levels, which strands people who wanted one more stop on the way down. Decide before you start walking.
The shuttles run after the game too. They keep going well past the final whistle, which is the argument for parking at an outlying lot in the first place — you skip the exit crawl entirely.
Razorback Stadium History
It was built by the WPA and it wasn’t always called this. The stadium opened September 24, 1938 as University Stadium, cost about $492,000 with the university covering only 22 percent of the contract, and held 13,500. Arkansas beat Oklahoma A&M 27-7 in the first game.
It got renamed twice in three years. Two weeks after opening it was dedicated to sitting governor Carl Bailey and became Bailey Stadium — then he lost the 1940 election, and by 1941 it was Razorback Stadium.
The playing surface is Frank Broyles Field. Named in 2007 for the coach and athletic director who ran Arkansas football for most of the second half of the twentieth century and pushed through the expansion that made the modern stadium possible.
Home games used to be split with Little Rock. From 1948 into the 2020s, Arkansas played a portion of its home schedule at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock — an arrangement that took decades of contract fights to unwind, and the reason “war memorial stadium” still shows up when people search for where the Razorbacks play.
What the 2018 Renovation Changed
The north end zone became the social center of the building. The $160 million project demolished the old Broyles Athletic Center and enclosed the north end, adding roughly 4,800 seats plus field-level suites, the Touchdown Club and the club above it.
It finally connected the concourse. A 360-degree Level 1 concourse now lets you walk all the way around the bowl on one level. Before 2018 you couldn’t, and older fans still navigate as though you can’t.
Capacity went down, not up. The listed number dropped from 80,800 to 76,212, because the temporary bleachers on the roof of the south end zone were retired and some east-side club seating came out to make room for suites. If you see 80,800 anywhere, that page hasn’t been touched in eight years.
Grass came back in 2019. Arkansas pulled the artificial surface that had been down since 2009 and went back to natural grass, where the field had been for most of its life.
Concerts at Razorback Stadium
Arkansas is actively chasing tours now. The university brought in Oak View Group in early 2026 to book concerts at Razorback Stadium and Bud Walton Arena alongside Live Nation, which is a real shift from decades of the stadium sitting dark all summer. Post Malone and Jelly Roll played here in July 2026; Garth Brooks in 2022 was the first headliner since 2008.
The all-time attendance record here is a concert, not a game. Garth Brooks drew north of 82,000 — more than the football record of 76,808, set against Alabama in 2010.
Don’t buy concert tickets off the football map. Shows use a different configuration with floor seating and sections removed or altered, so the section that’s a great football seat may not exist for the show you’re going to.
A Few Quirks Worth Knowing
The student section is up top on the east side, not down low. The Trough fills the east upper deck, sections 525 through 528, with the visiting allocation right beside it in 518 through 521. If you bought resale and you’re not chasing a standing-and-yelling afternoon, check that you didn’t land up there.
The terrain is genuinely hilly. This is the Ozarks and the campus climbs — the walk in from a distant lot is not the flat stroll the map suggests. For anyone with mobility limits, the shuttle beats walking every time.
The whole campus is tobacco- and vape-free. State law, not a stadium rule, which means there’s no smoking area anywhere in or around the building and no stepping outside for one.
There’s a free bike and scooter valet. Southeast corner of Garland and Maple, opening an hour before kickoff. On a campus where every road within half a mile turns one-way, it’s the fastest way in and out if you’re staying near Dickson.
Walk the Senior Walk with your pregame time. More than five miles of sidewalk stamped with the names of over 175,000 graduates dating to 1876, running through main campus. It’s one of the genuinely unique traditions in college sports and a pleasant way to burn an hour well away from the traffic.
Arkansas Gameday: Dickson Street, Bars and Restaurants
Fayetteville thrives in two places during a football Saturday: the morning at the downtown square, home to the Fayetteville Farmers’ Market with around seventy local vendors, and the afternoon around campus and HogTown. As night falls, Dickson Street takes over.
Dickson is a walkable strip from campus to downtown, buzzing with students and visitors alike. The campus end is energetic, while the middle offers bar-and-grills. Continuing, you reach the quieter downtown square and Block Avenue, where locals prefer to dine. For a craft beer experience, check out Crisis Brewing and West Mountain Brewing.
Essentially, Fayetteville is a tailgate-centric town with bars as a backdrop. Dickson serves as the perfect game-day sandwich, allowing for easy transitions between festivities. A must-know: George’s Majestic Lounge is a renowned venue but isn’t a pregame spot, as it opens at 7 PM. Save it for after the game.
Best Pregame and Postgame Bars
George’s Majestic Lounge (519 W. Dickson) is where the night should end. Arkansas’s oldest live music venue, covered patio, two stages, and something booked most nights — after a win it’s the loudest happy room in Northwest Arkansas.
The Piano Bar (230 W. Dickson) does dueling pianos from seven until two, and it’s the one spot on the street that works for a group spanning three generations. Requests get taken, everyone sings, nobody has to pretend they’re twenty-two.
Dickson Street Pub (303 W. Dickson) is the small one with the rooftop patio looking down the strip. It’s genuinely tiny, so it’s a stop rather than a destination, but the upstairs on a warm night with a craft beer is one of the better twenty minutes on Dickson.
Crisis Brewing (210 Nelson Hackett Blvd) is the escape hatch when the strip is too much. Big shaded outdoor space, excellent beer, and Penguin Ed’s barbecue is literally next door and will deliver to your table.
Good Restaurants in the Area
Hugo’s (25½ N. Block Ave) is the one everybody names. A basement burger joint just off the square, routinely called the best cheeseburger in Arkansas, tiny and always packed. Get the Blue Moon burger, expect a wait, and note it’s closed Sundays.
Hammontree’s Grilled Cheese (326 N. West Ave) does from-scratch grilled cheese that has no business being as good as it is — the Italian Stallion with a side of tomato soup is the order. Fast, cheap, crowd-pleasing, and also closed Sundays.
Bordinos (310 W. Dickson) is the proper dinner on the strip. Italian, a serious wine list, and the cacio e pepe is the dish people drive up from Little Rock for. Opens at 4:30, closed Sundays, book ahead on a game weekend.
Herman’s Ribhouse (2901 N. College) is the Razorback institution — decades of team photos on the walls, ribs and hand-cut steaks, and a crowd that has been coming since Broyles was coaching. It’s a fifteen-minute drive north of campus and it’s the most Arkansas meal you’ll eat all weekend.
Wright’s Barbecue (2212 Main Dr, Johnson) is worth building your morning around. Same Wright’s you’ll find inside the stadium, five miles north, and plenty of locals will tell you it’s the best brisket in the state. They open at 10:30, the line forms fast on gamedays, and they’re closed Sundays — grab takeout and haul it back to the tailgate.
Hotels Near Razorback Stadium
Fayetteville is a college town inside a larger Northwest Arkansas metro that runs north up the highway through Springdale and Rogers to Bentonville, and that geography is the whole story for lodging. The walkable, in-the-action rooms are in Fayetteville, but there aren’t many of them, so for big games — and especially the LSU finale and the Georgia opener — they sell out early and prices spike hard. The fix is to widen your search up the corridor, where there’s far more inventory at saner rates within an easy drive. For marquee weekends, book a couple of months out.
Walk-to-Everything: Fayetteville Core
Staying in Fayetteville near campus and Dickson Street means you can walk to the stadium, the pregame bars, and dinner without ever moving your car. This is the play if the experience you want is the full college-town Saturday, and it’s worth paying up for on a normal-demand weekend.
Inn at Carnall Hall is the standout — a restored 1905 building right on campus by Old Main, with its own restaurant, putting you essentially inside the gameday atmosphere. It’s the splurge-for-location pick. Graduate by Hilton Fayetteville lands you in the campus-and-Dickson orbit with a polished, collegiate feel. The Dickson Street Inn, a small downtown B&B with the Dickson Street Pub attached, puts you about a 20-minute walk from the stadium and steps from the nightlife.
Mid-Range and Family: South Fayetteville
A little south of campus you trade walkability for space, parking, and free breakfast. Staybridge Suites Fayetteville / University of Arkansas on West 15th Street sits across from the baseball stadium, under two miles from the football stadium, with suites, a pool, and complimentary breakfast — a solid family base that’s still close enough to shuttle or rideshare in quickly.
Nicer Rooms, Short Drive: Rogers and Bentonville
Here’s the move a lot of out-of-towners miss. Thirty to forty minutes north, Bentonville has become Northwest Arkansas’s most interesting town thanks to decades of Walmart-corporate investment, and it’s stacked with newer, higher-end hotels and a genuinely good dining and art scene. 21c Museum Hotel Bentonville is a boutique hotel-meets-contemporary-art-museum that’s a destination in its own right, and properties like the DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Bentonville offer reliable rooms with shuttle service. Rogers, halfway between, splits the difference on price and drive time. The tradeoff is simple: you’ll have a 30-to-40-minute drive to the stadium and you’ll miss the walk-everywhere campus buzz, but on a sold-out big-game weekend you’ll get a nicer room for less money and a far better dinner. If you’re the type who’d rather make a weekend of the whole region than camp on Dickson Street, base in Bentonville and drive down.
Budget
For the lowest rates, the chain hotels clustered along the I-49 corridor through Springdale offer clean, no-frills rooms 15 to 25 minutes from the stadium. You give up location and atmosphere entirely, but on a tight budget for a lower-demand game, you’ll sleep fine and drive in easily.
Why You Should Go
Razorback Stadium isn’t as large or as flashy as Kyle Field or Tiger Stadium, and it doesn’t try to be. What it offers is a complete, walkable, genuinely friendly college football Saturday in a beautiful corner of the Ozarks, where a stranger will teach you to Call the Hogs before you’ve found your seat.
Get a shaded seat on the west side, eat the Wright’s barbecue, learn the Hog Call, and spend the night on Dickson Street. Do that and you’ll understand why Arkansas fans travel the world still throwing their arms up and yelling “Woo Pig Sooie.”
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Written by Brad Richards. Founder of Gameday Guides. This guide includes insights from personal visits as well as updated info from team sources, fan forums, and stadium policies. We aim to help you plan with confidence — enjoy your gameday. If you have any tips, if we missed anything or you have a question, don’t hesitate to shoot us an email.