A combined athletics department and a desire for congruity with the University of Arkansas’ master plan has athletic director Jeff Long moving forward with hammering out a master plan for improved and new athletics facilities in the coming years.

The UA Facilities Management Planning Group, along with the athletic department, sent out a request for professional services Oct. 30. The request is meant to draw interest from potential architects interested in improving current facilities and building new facilities such as a football operations center and basketball practice facility.

Long spoke with members of the media via phone today on the topic. Here are some highlights:

— A basketball practice facility is needed because of scheduling practice times with the men’s and women’s teams, Long says. Also, the opportunity to bring in musical acts and other events to Bud Walton Arena is a plus. In fact, the UA had to decline an opportunity to host an event involving Tony Blair, the former prime minister of the United Kingdom, because of timing and the use of the facility, Long said.

— Space is needed in the Broyles Center, thus the reason and need for a new football operations center, Long said. The meeting rooms are dated, as is the digital video equipment. The locker room is section off into two rooms, separated by showers. The locker room needs to be one room suited to house 125 athletes, Long said.

— Long and university officials have not officially started touring facilities to gain ideas. Developing a master plan with an architecture firm is the first step, then there’s the need to bring that plan to the Board of Trustees for approval. A timeline is not set for such movement.

However, Long has gleaned ideas from his travels across the country since his arrival at Arkansas. The women’s basketball facilities at the University of Kansas and the football facilities at the University of Nebraska are a couple of examples.

“I think we’ve got a pretty good feel,” Long said. “Certainly, Bobby (Petrino) has seen from his experience and I’m sure he brings a little bit of that pro experience with him.

As we work with our master planner and get an idea of what will be needed to expand our operation, we may have some suggestion and we may be referring to School X has something that is very similar to what you’re looking at what you’re doing. Arkansas, you should take a look at.

But, again, there is not a timeline and that would be further down the process.”

— Long knows his place, and the days of Frank Broyles going out as a one-man crew raising funds for projects are over at Arkansas.

“To his credit, coach was able to do that pretty much as a one-man show,” Long said. “As I fully realize, I’m not Frank Broyles and I can’t do it as a one-man show. I would not be successful if I did.”

Majority of fund-raising will be done out of Long’s office with Chris Wyrick, senior associate athletic director for external affairs.

Does a struggling economy worry Long? Not necessarily.

“It is a good time to plan, because we expect that we will get lower prices, so to speak, from architectural firms when they bid on what it would cost to do the master plan. I do think, from a business standpoint, it’s a really good time to plan. … Hopefully the economy will turn. If the economy remains lukewarm, that won’t matter if we have supporters who step up with contributions to build the facilities.”

— There is an artist’s rendering of what a possible football operations center may look like in the future today inside the Broyles Complex. It’s not a concrete plan, though.

“We put that together to demonstrate that the future is being considered,” Long said. “We’re not resting on our laurels.”

UPDATE (5:56 p.m.): Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino discussed the possibility of a football operations center and the challenges they face now dealing with their current football facilities after practice Thursday. Here’s the video:

So, with that break down here’s a break down of what exactly is going on:

The request made by the UA on Oct. 30 should not be confused with an actual master plan. Instead, the UA is requesting architectural firms to assist with developing a master plan for its athletic facilities, which includes a “projected commitment” between $10 million and $20 million for a football operations center.

Included in this potential master plan, most notably, is a basketball practice facility. The deadline for interested architectural firms to submit a notice of interest to the UA is Nov. 13. A timetable for the UA’s decision and selection of a firm to move forward with developing the master plan is not known.

The football operations center may carry the largest pricetag and largest visibility. And it might be the most needed with the Broyles Athletic Complex aging, office space limited and a locker room completely not up to snuff to other facilities in the SEC. The expectation is that, when a plan is set, the Broyles Center will be renovated and expanded. The Broyles Center is estimated to be 65,000 to 70,000 square feet.

The items lined out for the football operations center in the UA’s request include:

— Coaching staff suite
Head coach, 13 assistant coaches, graduate assistants administrative assistants and three conference rooms.

— Meeting rooms
For a minimum of 10 individual positions, larger group meeting rooms and one large team meeting space.

— A video analysis office and studio
— Locker room to house 125 student-athletes
— Team lounge
— Football equipment room and offices
— Training room and offices
— Banquet room with catering kitchen
— Building lobby with museum-quality displays and associated lighting

The request also lines out the need for a new academic center, and the continued evaluation and improvement of existing athletic facilities.

I had a discussion with Long on the subject of the Razorback Foundation’s funds and the possibility of facilities upgrades in July. He expected to have a master plan in place within the next two years, he said. During that time we also learned that the Razorback Foundation, the private fundraising arm of the athletic department, had made an unexpected bump in membership and funds. Membership increased nearly 200 to 10,587 and its annual fund jumped 6.75 percent to $11.8 million.

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PDF: Request for professional services by UA for Arkansas athletics facilities master plan and Football Operations Center

— Brandon Marcello