NEA Sports Club lease plan OK’d

Arkansas State University will modify its lease agreement with Cobblestone Vintage Good Guild Inc., doing business as NEA Sports Club, and enter into separate lease agreements with Elm Street Center Inc. and Aggie Road Center Inc.

The Arkansas State University System board of trustees approved the plans Friday.

In 2015, ASU entered into a 10-year lease agreement with NEA Sports Club to sell and serve alcohol in certain areas of Centennial Bank Stadium (home of the Red Wolves football team) and other designated Jonesboro campus locations.

The lease was modified and extended in 2021, and — since that time — NEA Sports Club has raised more than $150,000 for the Arkansas State University Red Wolves Foundation Inc., and has provided enhanced services at premium seating areas at sporting events, as well as during concerts in First National Bank Arena, according to the ASU System.

“Beginning in 2021, A-State and NEA Sports Club began looking at options to enhance the services originally contemplated in the initial agreement, [and] NEA Sports Club wishes to modify the lease agreement in order to authorize additional areas of service in Centennial Bank Stadium, including service throughout the entire stadium.”

Subject to additional approval by the Jonesboro City Council and the Alcoholic Beverage Control administration, NEA Sports Club wishes to transfer and expand its service at Tomlinson Stadium to Aggie Road Center Inc., and transfer its service at First National Bank Arena to Elm Street Center Inc., according to the ASU System.

NEA Sports Club, Aggie Road Center, and Elm Street Center share the same board of directors and the same nonprofit purpose of providing benefits to the ASU Red Wolves Foundation under the proposed new lease agreements that will begin on the effective date and will remain in effect for 10 years.

“We are simply structuring this exactly as required by Arkansas Beverage Control,” said ASU System President Chuck Welch.