It’s an expensive recruitment tool
I wrote over a year ago about the plan by Colorado State University to build a new state of the art football stadium in a bid to attract more students. At that time the projected cost was $226m but it now has risen to $242m and there are clearly some loud dissenting voices about the project. But it has now been approved by the University’s Governors and is on track to be built, right in the middle of the campus. This latter point, which I didn’t pick up on the first time, means that athletics will come to be seen, quite literally, as being at the heart of the university.
Also doubles up as the world’s biggest lecture theatre
The scheme is now progressing, despite objections:
An opposition group, Save Our Stadium Hughes, has brought in experts in sports economics to evaluate and discuss the university’s plan. All have raised concerns, particularly about financial viability.
Steven Shulman, chair of the economics department at Colorado State, said he can’t understand why anyone would think his institution would be the exception to the rule. “Football is not the future,” he said. “College football is really a relic of the past.”
Colorado State’s top leaders, however, view an on-campus stadium as more than just a way to elevate the football program and bring in money through ticket sales. They see it as an opportunity to engage alumni. Too many alums make it to the football stadium but not onto the actual campus on game days, said Mike Hooker, the university’s spokesman. This way, he said, they might take in a lecture or visit an art gallery while they’re there.
The public got its first glimpse of Colorado State’s stadium proposal three years ago, when Jack Graham, the athletic director at the time, gave a presentation highlighting five primary reasons for the on-campus facility: developing game-day traditions, attracting quality coaches and athletes, increasing the college’s exposure, having a positive economic impact on the Fort Collins community, and creating a “landmark gathering place” that could be used for other events besides football, like graduation ceremonies.
To critics of the plan, money is not the only reason to oppose it. Building a new stadium would push Colorado State in a direction that many people there don’t want to go. “This is a university,” said Mr. Shulman, the economics chair. “Our primary mission is education, not entertainment.”
Andrew Zimbalist, a professor of economics at Smith College, expressed concern that the project would send a “strange message” about the university’s priorities. Bringing the stadium to the heart of the campus, he said, would make football a central focus—literally—of the university.
So this really does raise some profound questions about institutional mission and strategic priorities. There are also clearly some big economic issues which have yet to be decisively addressed. Will such an investment ever pay off?
