Another Wash-Griz Stadium expansion picture
Taken during a lacrosse game inside the stadium.
Stadium expansion coming along
For quite a while, it seemed there wasn't a lot of progress. Well, in the past couple weeks, things have changed.
Should stadium expansion money go elsewhere?
The Montana Kaimin raises an ancient debate: should public money go towards sports facilities? I'm sure it was something the Romans argued about when someone suggested adding a couple more rows to the Colosseum. Emma Schmautz argues that the part of the student athletic fee currently going towards Washington-Grizzly Stadium expansion would be put to better use on dorms or educational buildings.
This year’s addition of 2,000 seats to Washington-Grizzly Stadium is an unacceptable misuse of money when other vital components of campus require more immediate attention.The University’s first and foremost responsibility is education. While Griz football games can add pride, camaraderie, publicity and even revenue to UM, ultimately academics must come before entertainment.
Over a million dollars of the stadium expansion – approved by the Board of Regents as a 5.5 million dollar project – will come from the extra $10 tacked on to student athletic fees each semester for the next five years.
If the University feels compelled to increase student fees to improve a UM structure, the money should go toward a more pressing cause that currently needs improvement.
There's no right answer to this. No one can definitively trump the other side's argument. This issue is similar to one in Minnesota a month or so ago. Someone argued that money going towards a new baseball stadium for the Minnesota Twins would've been better off going towards bridge and transportation repairs. Here's a summary of the best response: you can't piggy-back one issue on top of another. Argue each individually.
Students are paying for less than a fifth of the total expansion project. You know why? Because the athletic department has generated a great deal of revenue it can afford to spend on an expansion. If a dorm or educational building were to go up, tuition and taxes would have to front the entire cost.
Let's pretend for a second, for the sake of simplicity, that 1/5th of the expansion project comes from student tuition and 4/5ths comes from the athletic department. We're paying $10 per student, they're paying $40 per student. If this was for a dorm or educational building, the students would be paying all $50 per person for a building many students wouldn't use or a dorm many students wouldn't live in.
It's also worth noting that we're paying $10 for the entire year while not paying a dime for football tickets. Last year it was $6 per game.
To reinforce the point, I'm not trying to argue that athletic facilities are more important than educational ones. The issues have to be argued separately. If you want educational facilities, write the next editorial on how we should raise tuition $50-100 while plowing part of campus or the University Golf Course. It might not get the best response, but those are necessary steps down the road towards a new dorm or educational building. Arguing about a separate project is a sideroad not worth taking.
Washington-Grizzly Stadium expansion, it's freakin' sweet
Sometimes the marketing at UM amazes me. You think once anything like this was available, they'd trumpet it from the top of Sentinel. Oh well. As you can see, the expansion is going to look amazing.
For more information, pictures and a 3-D fly-by (almost as cool as it sounds), go to this site.
UPDATE: The site has been taken down. Apparently, we weren't supposed to find out about it quite yet.
Wash-Griz growth approved by Montana Board of Regents.
This may come as old news to most Griz fans but the Montana Board of Regents approved a 2,000 seat expansion to Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
The expansion will be completed by the 2008 season and was designed with the intention of allowing for futher expansions.
It will be very interesting to see how Wash-Griz will look a quarter-century from now. Also, if this expansion continues, it'll be more interesting to see if the Griz are still romping through I-AA or taking their shot with the big guys.
The image above was posted by ronbo on eGriz. The expansion is not exactly what the final product will look like seeing as the seats will stretch farther, but it gives a general idea.
