Sac State needs an arena

February 17, 1999
Originally Published By The State Hornet (Sacramento State)

SAC STATE NEEDS AN ARENA

By Mark Bryant

IF WE BUILD IT…

Now hear this. There is a master plan to bring CSUS in the limelight as far as first-rate sports and convention facilities are concerned.

It may not happen any time soon, but Associated Students, Inc. president Gary Davis is attempting to pass a referendum on the student ballot this spring that would propose an arena, complete with a recreation center, to be built on campus.

This proposed arena would house both the men's and women's basketball programs, both of which play their home games at the Memorial Auditorium downtown.

That setup began for the 1996-97 season; the hoops programs have been shooting it out there ever since. Prior to that, they played in the main gymnasium on campus, which of course is too tiny to house a program serious about shedding its poor image.

Now Davis is trying to convince the students to vote for something that would be legitimately ours. Not only would the basketball program have a true home, but it could also hold ceremonies for graduating students.

It's part of a two-decade future plan that is the blueprint for construction at Sac State in the years to come.

"Our gym we have presently would not be adequate," Shirley Uplinger, vice president of Student Affairs, said. "The volleyball team plays in there, and when the basketball backboards are pulled up for their games, the serves still sometimes hit them, because the place is simply too small."

When an athletics program is recruiting, one of the major decisions that an athlete weighs is the proximity of the sports facility to the site where they will be living and attending school for the next four to five years.

It's not much of a selling point when the player is informed that he or she will be trundling miles and miles to where they will be playing, sometimes to the outskirts of town.

An on-campus arena would spark our athletic program, especially those indoor sports that need it and produce revenue during the winter months. We have not had this type of venue, ever.

Of course, there is still the matter of whether this project would be feasible or not. This proposal would need to pass the ASI board of directors first. It is in no way a guarantee.

"If there is an initiative for this, the goal is to put it on the ballot," said Jason Bryant, ASI chairman of the recreation center task force. "The students would have to make an informed decision, not a select few. We want to give them an opportunity to decide if that's something they truly do want for our campus"

Question is, how do we pay for it? With sponsorships and naming rights, of course. The state doesn't like to pay for buildings like this, opting instead to whip out moola for things like classrooms and faculty offices.

"We're right on time, in the order of doing this project," Davis said, noting that the research has been ongoing since last June. "We've been going across the state and country, talking to other schools about their centers. Our goal is to put their strengths on our campus, and also to inject the students' needs to the facility."

Davis wants to hear the input when it comes time for elections during the week of April 19 through 23.

"We want the students to be driving force behind all this," Davis said. "We're almost there."