THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 7
“NEW UATV SPORTS PROGRAM COMING SOON”
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
MATT VIGODA
UATV staff members are working on a program called ClubCast that will regularly cover all the university’s club sports, the sports director for UATV said.
“ClubCast is a multimedia program that is dedicated to all of the club sports here at the UofA,” UATV Sports Director Jarrett Hobbs said.
UATV is partnering with University Recreation to guide exposure when the program is launched. The program will be broadcasted on multiple UA news outlets and will provide everything there is to know about every club sport.
“When it comes down to it, a part of why college and professional sports are so big is because of their broadcasting,” Hobbs said. “That’s what we’re trying to do here. I don’t think we’re going to have Super Bowl viewership on ClubCast, but we want to do what those events do for their respective sports, and that’s serve the athletes.”
UATV already broadcasts club hockey games from The Jones Center in Springdale, but staff members hope to add additional events to the program in the future.
There are 29 club sports at the UofA, including hockey, baseball and ballroom dancing.
“These sports are on the rise,” Hobbs said. “We’ll cover it. We’ll have highlights. We don’t put anything over another sport. Every sport has its own respected qualities. I’m hoping that with ClubCast we can reveal and expand the actual character behind the sport.”
Viewers will get a chance to watch ClubCast soon, but a pilot date has not yet been determined, Hobbs said.
“I’m hoping that we can at least have the beginning by the end of October,” Hobbs said. “Hopefully everything will be in full force. We could put something on air right now, but we feel like we need to give it the respect it deserves.”
Hobbs said he has a strong vision for the future of ClubCast.
“I’m hoping that with what we’ve established, this will be something that can be well known in the future,” Hobbs said. “I want people to say, ‘Oh yeah, ClubCast. I enjoy ClubCast.’ I hope that once I’m done with my part of ClubCast that it will continue for years to come.”
ClubCast will air on all UATV outlets at 8 p.m. Mondays and KXUA radio at 3 p.m. Sundays.
Students interested in participating in ClubCast can contact UREC ClubCast on Facebook or email the address on the organization’s website.
“I’m not expecting that our first broadcast will be on ESPN, but I think we’ve got something special here,” Hobbs said.