The issue of the new stadium has been beaten to death over these past months. There are large movements both for and against building the new home for rams football. In my opinion, which I actually am paid to write believe it or not, it’s a poorly thought out plan.

I’m not saying the plan for a new stadium isn’t feasible. It is. According to President Tony Franks requirements, (DenverPost.com)

• That the stadium wouldn’t be placed on existing open green space.
• That it wouldn’t hinder views of the mountains.
• That the committee take into “serious” account any impact on neighbors adjacent to or near a new stadium.
• That funding the project would not rely on appropriation, tuition, fees or taxes.

The project is incredibly feasible. But if there is anything I’ve learned in my engineering courses it’s that just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

Facts. I know they are ignored a lot but I am pretty fond of them. We hang out sometimes.

The new stadium will cost over $250 million and seat around 40,000 people. To renovate the old stadium to hold the extra 10,000 people the new stadium would hold would cost around $100 million. Average attendance according to csurams.com is, rounding generously, 24,000 attendees.

That means we are building a larger stadium when the one we have now doesn’t even fill up.

Now realistically, how many of you picked what college you wanted to go to because of the football stadium? How many of you would want to go to a different university if they had a shinier stadium?

I could understand choosing a university for the football team if they actually won games and you liked football, but if you go to CSU I’m assuming that isn’t why you are now a student.

One of the projected areas to build this stadium is the southwest corner of campus. You know where that is because it’s probably where you park.

Which brings me to practicality.

You want to take away parking in an area that desperately needs more in order to build a stadium that will at times be full of drunk people on campus next to the underclassmen dorms? That couldn’t possibly cause problems.

I understand that bringing the stadium on campus is also a way to get more students to attend the games, and maybe in small numbers it would work.

But it is also true that if people want to see something, they will. For Broncos games, fans fly in from out of state. They drive hours and hours just to see one game. If 15,000 more students wanted to see the football game instead of doing something else, they would.

Another issue I have is that sure, the stadium would be built by sponsors, but will they be the ones paying to maintain it? It’s bigger than our current stadium and will be more costly to maintain.

Generally, I wouldn’t really mind a new stadium. It still wouldn’t make me want to go to a football game, but I wouldn’t be so against it if it wasn’t for location.

You know who else lives near that southwest corner of campus besides underclassmen? Thousands of people in houses and apartments. With cars. Who like being able to park them.

The idea that the stadium will bring in new money for the school is silly to me. Maybe for the first few games alumni might want to come see their old team play. Maybe. But then the ‘new’ effect wears off and all you have is one huge empty stadium right next to everything for most of the year. If illicit happenings don’t occur in the stadium in the off season I will be shocked.

According to those random signs I saw in Weber, 70% of the campus is against the new stadium. President Tony Frank obviously has the final say, but that is a lot of people against it. A lot of people paying to attend this university.

To sum up, CSU will be fine either way. We are a strong university with some of the finest programs in the nation and whether or not we have a stadium close to class isn’t a big deal in the long run.

But in the short run, I’m not its biggest fan by far.

Sarah Romer is a senior electrical engineering major. Letters and feedback can be sent to letters@collegian.com.