Renovating our stadium is ridiculous when there’s so much needed at U of I

It was called “a big step forward,” Illinois’ athletic department yesterday announced a $132 million renovation of the Memorial Stadium.

The seating of the south end zone and the east side of the stadium will be changed. The south and east sides of the stadium will hold new facilities for the players, including locker rooms, training spaces, a recovery center, and more.

Accessibility, along with the amenities, will show improvement as well. After choosing an engineering firm to complete the project, the plan will be presented by the athletic department in the spring. Overall the renovations will be done by 2020.

When I think of all of the renovations UIUC needs however, Memorial Stadium doesn’t make the cut.

While the stadium will be funded by donations from private donors and foundations, it still doesn’t seem justifiable to spend such an obscene amount of money on a sport that, frankly, this school sucks at.

I’ve never played football and never will, but even with my limited knowledge of sports, I still know that our success rate isn’t very high. Not to mention UIUC is a school in a state that hasn’t had a budget in years.

When the athletic department announced earlier this year that they would be paying Lovie Smith $21 million over the next six years, I was hopeful that maybe it was going to be worth it.

Being a Big Ten school should mean that we’re on the ball with sports, so why not hire someone that could ensure that would be true? That hope even stuck with me through the first game, as the team won against Murray State.

Flash forward 3 games and I don’t think many of us are very hopeful anymore. Even without focusing on our 5 year losing streak, the renovations still seem highly unnecessary.

I do realize that donors can chose what they want their gift to go towards, but because the athletics department is specifically requesting $132 million to go toward a stadium that a quarter of the school steps foot in, it is ridiculous that this money isn’t requested for aspects of college that actually have something to do with what we all came here to do: earn a degree.

New lecture halls, lowered tuition rates, higher teacher salaries, new dorms, and scholarships (just to name a few ideas) would all be infinitely more productive and appreciated than a stadium.

These things benefit all students, not just athletes.

I am tired of wasting 5-10 minutes in all of my lectures while my professors attempt to get the computers, projectors, and lights to work.

I don’t think I’m alone when I say that I would rather be sitting in a new lecture hall with up-to-date technology, than in a football stadium that has a shiny new scoreboard.