Neighbors See Little to Cheer About in CSUN Stadium Plan

Three years after Cal State Northridge committed itself to build a big, new football stadium on campus, its neighbors are as adamantly opposed as ever and demand to know why a team that attracts an average of 4,500 spectators a game needs a 15,000-seat venue.

As an advisory committee evaluating sites for the stadium works to complete its task in the next few weeks, a growing band of irate neighbors has bombarded the panel with complaints. They fear their neighborhood is going to be sacrificed because of CSUN’s ambition to be something it’s now decidedly not--a big-time football school.

Decision time is near. The committee will report its findings to CSUN President Blenda J. Wilson by Dec. 1. She is faced with making an unpopular choice virtually certain to accelerate already strained relations between CSUN and the community.

Current campus locations under consideration are on the Zelzah Avenue side of campus near Nordhoff Street, and an unspecified spot on the north campus. If the stadium were to be located off campus, the committee recommended using the Pierce College campus in Woodland Hills.

The renewed debate comes during a season when CSUN really is a big football school on the field, if not in the bleachers.

Until Saturday’s loss to top-ranked Montana State, the Matadors were tied for first place in the Big Sky Conference and ranked 24th nationally among Division I-AA teams.

No Winning Over Skeptics With Wins

But, although the team’s winning performance this year has perked up attendance somewhat--to about 5,300 at a recent game--the neighbors’ skepticism about the size of the proposed stadium remains strong.

CSUN Athletic Director Paul Bubb subscribes to the philosophy of “If we build it, they will come.” He points to other colleges, such as the University of Montana, where attendance skyrocketed after a new facility was built.

The same phenomenon has held true in several major league baseball cities.

Wilson agrees.

“You have to have a good team and a reasonable facility people are comfortable in and a good promotion program,” she said.

Students at CSUN, most of whom work full or part time, have a history of ignoring intercollegiate sports. The prevailing view was summed up by junior Daryl Cole. Asked if his school had a football team, Cole was stumped.

“I have no idea,” he said with a shrug. “It has nothing to do with why I go to school here.”

From early indications, it appears the students don’t care enough about a stadium to help finance it either.

Although Wilson said the students support the stadium and she hoped to persuade them to dedicate a portion of student fees to pay for it, Student Body President Joaquin Macias said last week that early indications are that students aren’t interested in funding the facility.

“Students do want an on-campus stadium,” he said. “They just don’t feel they should have to pay for it.”

Given this climate, opponents of the large stadium view the prospects of tripling attendance at football games as unrealistic, which fuels their fears the university has a hidden agenda and is looking to make money by renting out the stadium for events that have nothing to do with the school.

A modern stadium with a large number of seats would make an attractive venue for noisy rock concerts and other events, they say. And that would intrude on the quality of life in the middle-class residential areas that ring the Northridge campus.

And so, at meeting after meeting, the neighbors want to know why there are so many seats and where those football fans would come from.

The answer to the first part of the question has been the same since CSUN joined the Big Sky Conference in 1995 after its former league folded and a third league rebuffed CSUN’s attempt to join.

“We joined the Big Sky Conference because we didn’t have a choice,” Wilson said in a recent interview.

While being in a league is not required--the CSUN baseball team is not in one--it is considered important because it is easier to get an invitation to play in postseason bowl games if a team is part of a conference, Wilson said. That raises the school’s profile and gives its athletes a chance at the national spotlight, she said.

As a condition of joining Big Sky, CSUN was required to get rid of its present shabby stadium that holds 7,500 and construct one that is more in keeping with those of other schools in the conference.

Big Sky Wants Big Stadium

What that means--and whether joining the Big Sky conference was a good idea at all--has been in dispute ever since.

Initially, the number of seats being talked about was 20,000, then 15,000, supposedly required by the contract with Big Sky, according to university administrators.

At the last advisory committee meeting, Bubb conceded that the number of seats was not spelled out in the contract, but said other schools in the conference have stadiums with capacities of 10,000 to 20,000.

Wilson agreed there is some flexibility in the number of seats. That was small comfort to neighbors, who worry that once a stadium is built, more seats could be added later.

The university president said she could not promise what the stadium will be used for in the future. “I can’t preclude for all time how the stadium will be used,” Wilson said. “I’m not going to get into, ‘It will never be used for this or that.’ ”

The solution is establishing a community process in which community groups determine what stadium uses are appropriate, she said.

Team Could Be on the Road at Home

Wilson hopes to avoid an off-campus location for the stadium. University officials prefer a stadium on campus, as does the Big Sky. Neighbors are angling for a site away from the school, such as Pierce College.

“I wouldn’t have a personal preference except for the strong preference of the student athletes and our intercollegiate athletic program,” Wilson said.

She further explains that under state law, a stadium is considered part of an educational facility. That carries a presumption it should be placed on campus, Wilson said.

At the most recent advisory committee meeting, CSUN teacher and neighbor Raul Ruiz said money put into a football stadium would be better directed to academic programs.

“It’s a mistake to be part of Big Sky,” he said. “The students do not support the football team.”

Even sports enthusiasts have argued that the Big Sky conference put too much attention on football. In the subsequent financial bind, Wilson canceled four other varsity sports for lack of money. They were reinstated after an outcry from the community.

Wilson said she is sympathetic to the neighbors who worry about putting a stadium near their homes.

“Our task is either to figure out a way to mitigate the negatives to the neighbors or go off campus,” she said.

If the ferocity of the comments by neighbors at recent meetings are any indication, they will hold her to it or see the university in court.