The proposed on-campus stadium for the Colorado St. Rams is receiving some opposition from a local group called Save Our Stadium, Hughes as well as Prof. Deborah Shulman -- which is not a surprise. Save Our Stadium, Hughes is holding a public forum on Jan. 25 to argue that Colorado State is moving too quickly to get rid of Hughes Stadium in favor of the new proposed on-campus stadium. The spokesman of the group is Bob Vangermeersch who saying that too many schools are placing athletics above education, and wants to "inject sanity into the plans."
The larger opposition comes from Shulman who wrote an open letter to the Coloradoan and calls football "little more than expensive entertainment":
"We are told the CSU administration will raise the millions needed to build the stadium from private donations. If they can spend the vast amounts of time, energy and money required to chase a limited number of big donors, why can't they make the same effort for academics?" Shulman asked in her letter. "CSU should build its national reputation and attract students and alumni donors by investing in its educational and research missions. It could try much harder to find alternatives to state funding that would restore and expand the scientific research, artistic accomplishment and teaching programs that already make CSU an enormous asset for the whole region. CSU could start by investing in the people who make all of this happen. Instead, they want a stadium on campus."
This type of opposition happens all the time from academic types who fell education should be valued over athletics, and while education is more important than the football team in the grand scheme of things, biology and chemistry do not pay the bills. It is the football team that supports the non-revenue sports and gives back to the school.
Also, it is proven that with the better success a team has the more exposure and in return money the school gets from an increase in applications -- which cost money and go toward the school -- as well as new donors from alumni. When the Butler Bulldogs and VCU each made the Final Four in 2011 and each school had an influx in applications:
Butler reported a 41 percent rise in admissions applications and a 35 percent rise in visits in the year after its first national title game appearance. Visits to the VCU undergraduate admissions site nearly tripled the Sunday the Rams beat Kansas last March to advance to their first-ever Final Four.
The first step for Colorado State is to have success and create a great at atmosphere with a stadium that is not a few miles of campus, but is right at the heart of the school. Also, Shulman needs to realize none of the money going toward the stadium is taking away any money that would be going to the academic side of the stadium. Opposition is expected from academia types by saying they get overlooked in favor of sports, but a professor complaining will not halt this project and it will go forward as planned with an expected completion date being in time for the 2014 football season.
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