1989_10 The Daily Collegian October 1989

              Opini
miono
Students punt on
expanded stadium
Concerned about enforcement
Editor,
I am greatly concerned at the stand
which the California State University
Police Department has taken against
criminal offenders. After offenders
are given tickets for illegally riding
bikes through the free speech area, the
tickets are torn up and thrown away.
The free speech area is clearly
marked off with one foot wide red
stripes and two by six foot signs
which plainly read. "NO BICYCLES
NO SKATEBOARDS" in large bold
type. Anyone who claims they can't
see these signs has vision so poor that
they should not be on a bike,In the
first place.
1 most definitely hope that this
"Take a nibble out of crime" policy
does not carry over Into other areas of
law enforcement If I get run down by
a car In the parking lot, I don't want
the police to ticket the offender and
then drop all charges because he or
she says they didn't see the stop sign,
or didn't know the police would be out
there that day.
Thank you foryour time,
Bill Mills
Cyclists need signs posted
Dear Editor,
. I like to ride . my bike.
Unfortunately, however, some
individuals (who shall remain
nameless, and who receive a dollar for
every citation issued) feeL I should get
a ticket for heing a cyclist in the free
speech area.
This is police brutality! This is
taxation without representation:!
This Is ridiculous, but I do like to ride
my bike and would appreciate a "No
bikes allowed" sign posted above the
ground. This would be preferable to
the present message scribbled on the
sidewalk in red crayon.
Hey, isn't it funny the
administration expects us to look
downward, which is highly
dangerous, to prevent us
"lawbreakers" from driving unsafely
through the free speech area?
Fighting for bike safety,
Jeffrey D.Rhodes
P.S. To Bruce Brenna and Lonnie
Nash: you better stop fighting, or the
campus police may slap you on the
wrist and make you stop being bad
boys!!
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With all the hype that's been
Dying about regarding the
expansion of Bulldog Stadium,
it's hard to find anything concrete
to object to.
That's probably because
nothing of substance has ever
been offered to the people of
Fresno, and most especially to the
students of CSUF, that shows why
we actually need the dam thing to
be any bigger than it already is.
Nothing, that is. besides the
heartfelt assurances of Athletic
Director Gary Cunnlngharn and
head football coach Jim Sweeney
that the continued growth ofthe
football program Is a modern
version of Manifest Destiny.
What's good for the Bulldogs is
good for the country, or some¬
thing like that.
While we wouldn't touch the
sanctity of that assumption with
a 10-foot linebacker, we have to
wonder if there aren't some
things, maybe even a lot of things,
on which $ 13.9 million might be
better spent.
After all. even If the aisles of
the new. Improved Bulldog
Stadium were paved with gold
[and at this price, maybe they
should be), they will only get used
for a half-dozen or so home
football games a year. Add to that
a sprinkling of soccer games and
you still have a stadium that
spends most of Its time looking
like a white elephant covered in
red. empty seats. *
While the expansion may mate
athletlc*sense, then, it doesn't
seem to make a whole lot of sense
interms of cost-effectiveness. If
CSUF were to get a guaranteed
Heisman Trophy and a percentage
ofthe movie rights to "The Mark
Barsotti Story" out ofthe deal, we
might be a little more under¬
standing.
But no amount of under¬
standing explains the necessity
forthe 34 "skyboxes" that will
hang below the new deck like
bourgeois barnacles on a rusty oil
tanker. While the windows ofthe
luxury boxes will face toward the
field, perhaps they should also
install glass bottoms so the fat
cats who can afford the $30,000
per year box fee can look down
upon the masses of Red Wavers
squirming in their hard bench
Push a few buttons on your
trusty calculator and you 11 see
that the skybox options alone
will generate more than $ 1
million a year, enough to pay for
the entire expansion In less than
15 years. With that kind of cold,
hard cash coming In, why bother
putting In any more regular seats
at all?
Instead, maybe CSUF should
put a giant video screen in Beiden
Field so the peons could watch the
game from their tailgate parties,
many of which are more
interesting than the football
games^anyway.
. That would free up a lot of real
estate within the stadium Itself
for development. Putting a row of
luxury condominiums along the
sideline would be very
intimidating, as the residents
could invite the opposing team's
coaches up for margarltas and
pasta salad. And why should
President Haak have to Uve in Old
Fig Garden? Let's move the
presidential mansion to the 50-
yardiline where it belongs.
Removing all the seats would
also allow the athletic depart¬
ment to level Mt. Bulldog from its
current height of 14,000 feet. This
would prevent a lot of heart
attacks in overweight fans who
tend to expire faster than the time
on the game clock.
Sadly, however. CSUF hasn't
opted to sell the stadium to the
private sector - yet. That's too
bad, because If you were to divide
the $ J.4 million needed for the
expansion among the 20,000 or so
students who attend this school,
we'd each be about $700 richer.
But the Red Wave isn't in
business to support students; It's
In business to support itself. The
CSUF campus isjust the eastern
annex to Bulldog Stadium, and it
exists solely to provide cheap
labor and disposable athletes for
the Saturday night amusement of
thousands of armchair warriors.
And now, thousands more.
See, the question of whether
there are better things to spend
millions of dollars on doesnt
really apply. The question is why
the people who raise all that
money spend It the way they do.
Maybe we'll find the answer
someday, broadcast live on ESPN.
For the Record
It is the policy of this paper to strive to nialntamthe highest degree
of accuracy in Its reporting.
Hf^^f^rawffl mevitably occur dueto the high volume of
material being handled each day.
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