Photos: Todd Gill, Flyer staff
When the national cameras arrive to cover the Hogs this fall, Fayetteville will be a bit more ready for its close-up thanks to some newly-installed signage on Dickson Street.
The Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission recently designed and purchased 96 banners to replace the faded and damaged light pole signs that were installed as part of a Dickson Street enhancement project more than a decade ago.
The new red banners include a Razorback logo and the words, “Welcome Hog Fans.”
City crews began installing the new signs Friday morning and are set to finish the work sometime on Monday.
Here’s a few photos of the new banners:
New banners
Old banners
Looking good…
Wishing, since we’re getting national coverage, that they’d have advertised a little of our dining district, local independent business community, and arts on some banners as well. It ain’t all about the hogs here, y’all. The banners look better, of course. But A&P funding for University promotion just doesn’t sit right with me.
I agree with been watching. There is already a giant hawg enshrined in a major intersection, our sidewalks are lined with razorback red bricks, and razorback branded merchandise is in the window of almost every store front. It’s pretty obvious that hog fans are welcome here.
Rather than go hawg wild adding even more pigs to our streets, these banners should advertise and promote the many other reasons to take pride in Fayetteville such as our trails, local businesses, the arts, proximity to outdoor recreation opportunities, and passion for community engagement, education, and innovation. We are so much more than our University’s sports teams.
They did this as a quick, cheap solution. You can tell. Simple design with every single banner being exactly same. Where is the innovation and creativity here? Of course we’re the home of the hogs, but is that all? We deserve better. I would rather have the old ones, not gonna’ lie.
I hate to add to the complaining but we can do better than this A&P. Yes we love the hogs but Fayetteville is more than just that. I think updating the former signs would be much more classy. Please get rid of these or make them a seasonal banner to celebrate the beginning of the sports year.
It’s a shame that, as the Fayetteville Roots festival gears up, the A&P Commission has removed banners featuring a guitar being played (photo above), replacing them with the much-less-relevant uneaten pig motif.
Great timing, people.
Lame. We could have used about four of those…but, 36? I would be annoyed if I visited a town and was welcomed 36 times. Each one of those banners could have displayed a different interesting fact or point of interest about our town. Make them interesting and visitors would be slowly walking up and down our streets just to read the next banner. Ooh, how about a self-guided walking tour of Dickson and the square? Might be a good way to encourage and direct walking traffic between the two neighborhoods. If well designed, the banners could be attractive and unobtrusive.
I wonder how much money they spent on licensing fees to print those silly Razorback banners.
Flyer guys? Any idea how much this cost? This printing project?
I agree. They are kinda lame.
And every time I see a picture of the view of Old Main blocked by those terrible power lines, it makes me sad.
This is just another example of how out of touch the director of A&P is. Pretty sure it’s time for someone newer, younger, and in touch with our community. And preferably someone who actually lives in Fayetteville and attends events here.
Agreed. Hefner should be gone, for lots of reasons.
While I agree that Fayetteville has much more to offer than just the Hogs, I have to say that nothing brings people to town like a Razorback game. And local businesses, restaurants, artists, etc. benefit from having this many people in town. I’m a local restaurant owner, and our busiest days each year are home game days. And a large percentage of the HMR tax that we collect is from hog fans from out of town, so if the A & P wants to use some of their money to welcome them, I don’t have a problem with it. Let’s face it, Fayetteville probably wouldn’t be the thriving, funky community that it is without the U of A.
I agree. But a little diversity promoting anything else about our community would have been nice. I mean, they had 36 spaces.
But the thing is, Razorback games are already money in the bag. Those people are already coming. This banner thing is not a huge deal, but it’s a squandered opportunity to provide NEW information and promotions to folks who are visiting for games or any other reason.
WPS!!
Now would be a good time to tear up the streets.
You called it. Crosswalk between George’s and Pitas being dug up as I type.
Yeah, I’m sure the banners are going to bring in so many more Razorback fans flowing into Dickson Street lol Let’s be real… people wanted the banners replaced, so the city did the cheapest thing they could that would “appeal” to people…
Clarification: not the City. A&P. Totally different entities.
There were signs??
I’m pretty sure they are going to change the banners out more regularly like most other cities do with their light post banners. These razorback banners will most likely only be up during football season and then they will put up different banners until next football season. I don’t know why so many people feel the need to complain. These new banners are much nicer than the ones there replacing so its really no big deal.
This is correct, except there are four sets.
Oh, Good! That makes me feel better.
Some might have felt a need to complain because there is no indication in the article that there is more than one set of banners. It is natural to assume, then, that these banners would have been on display for approximately the same increment of eternity as the previous banners were, proclaiming the ever-pinker message of our nevertheless unfading fealty to the porcine overlord.
yup.
Been watching seems to have an axe to grind with the A P Executive Director. The banners are a nice change and seasonal. It is football season remember. Been watching, what are you doing to help? What committees are you on? Wipe your tears, put the axe away and enjoy what we have. By the way, waaahhhhhh!
Careful! Lol!
You’d be surprised.
RE “what are you doing to help? What committees are you on?”
Providing some of the HMR tax revenue that pays for these things, perhaps? I myself am on the Fayetteville Restaurant Eating and Drinking Committee (FRED).
” our nevertheless unfading fealty to the porcine overlord.”
lol
I, for one, welcome our new porcine overlords. I’d like to remind them that as a trusted Internet personality, I can be helpful to them in recruiting others to toil in calling them Hawgs!