Fiscal hawks are worried Rutgers University has begun expanding its football stadium even though it lacks $30 million needed to complete the job.Still, Gov. Jon S. Corzine said he’s confident the needed money will be privately raised.Rutgers is borrowing $72 million for the project designed to add 14,000 seats to the 43,000-seat Piscataway facility.But with construction advancing, Corzine and Sen. Raymond Lesniak, D-Union, haven’t begun raising $30 million in private funds they promised for the project.”This raises the specter that New Jersey taxpayers will be called upon to pay for the expansion, if private donations do not materialize,” said Assemblyman Richard Merkt, R-Morris. “I will not support making the taxpayers bear this added burden.”The Star-Ledger of Newark reported for Thursday’s newspapers about 80 percent of the demolition is complete on the stadium’s mezzanine level of the stadium and excavation is also under way at the stadium’s south end.
Corzine on Thursday said he doesn’t think Rutgers is being irresponsible because the construction is being done in phases.
“I don’t think that’s a big problem,” Corzine said.
He said his advisers have been researching whether it’s ethical for a governor to raise money for the project, but expects those questions to resolved soon, with fundraising starting quickly thereafter.
… The once-woebegone Rutgers football program has experienced a resurgence, including three consecutive bowl appearances and 26 wins in three seasons.
… Merkt noted the stadium project comes with the state facing major budget woes.
“At a time when New Jersey is so strapped for cash that Gov. Corzine wants to close nine state parks to save $4 million, an expanded football stadium for Rutgers is a luxury the state clearly cannot afford,” he said.
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UPDATE: More detail, and various links, from the Rutgers 1000 blog.
UPDATE: ScarletNation, a message board for rabid Rutgers fans, links to UD:
Here’s another “news” article with a slightly less than complementary title. (and the woman claims to be an English professor).
Win A Few Football Games and F Up the State’s Budg
So few words, so many of Scathing Online Schoolmarm’s favorite things: The clever quotation marks around news, the incorrectly spelled word (complementary), and the taking of umbrage — after all, this is a message board for sports jocks, so naughty words don’t come naturally to them — that an English professor would use fuck…
April 24th, 2008 at 12:07PM
Same old story here at the University of Idaho. Millions into a losing football team’s stadium (ranked 120/124 in Div 1-A):
http://www.idahostatesman.com/vandalsports/story/230529.html
Meanwhile the administration is holding back 3% this year and 5% next on academics. We can’t fill the stadium now, no one in the adminstration can explain how we’ll fill the extra 3600 seats. The State Board of Education which governs this university is just as clueless.
BTW – I lived in NJ for a number of years. Why can’t Rutgers play in Giants Stadium just up the turnpike?
April 24th, 2008 at 12:09PM
Whenever Rutgers comes up I never tire of recommending William Dowling’s brilliant polemic, an essay to warm UD’s heart and to find a place in her someday-anthology:
http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~wcd/oharalet.htm
(Dowling’s target is no relation to me, thank goodness.)
The piece is a bit old now, but the subject and the style are evergreen.
April 24th, 2008 at 3:32PM
[...] Another blogger wonders how a state that borders on bankrupt and is forced to close public parks can even think about putting $100+ million into a stadium expansion. Alas, we cannot explain this, either. [...]
April 24th, 2008 at 9:03PM
The state is not putting $100 million into anything.
The reason Jon Corzine is involved (or will be once the ethics question is resolved) in fund raising from private sources is that the State of New Jersey is not spending one cent for this expansion.
Members of the Rutgers 1000 (more like Rutgers 10) cannot explain how the state can spend money on stadium expansion??? If they were really involved with Rutgers they would know the state is not spending anything toward stadium expansion. But let’s not let facts get in the way of your rant!
The State of New Jersey cut their contribution to the Rutgers budget tens of millions of dollars last year, and additional cuts are expected in the next state budget. The fiscal woes of the state have little to do with state support for higher education, and more specifically absolutely do not stem from support for our flagship state university.
April 25th, 2008 at 6:00PM
Looks like the brownshirts have found you.
July 13th, 2008 at 5:08PM
49 days until kickoff. Will phase 1 get done and what will be the true cost to date then versus the contracted,projected one? If one siply Googles: Gibane Construction and their woes over the past years, asimilar overcost scenario is found from Louisian to Massachusettes with accompanying litigation and client complaints. More recent was the school suit initiated by NJ officials against them. How can a sitting Governor now knowing this become either financially or ethically involved? Perhaps,his participation and it’s legality,since the contractor and their dubious track record transends the Garden States borders should now be reviewed by the Federal Attorneys office,as thsi could involve much deeper problems as it attempts to move forward. At this point,to safeguard all parties concerned,inclusive of the state and the students,this appears the most logical way to proceed.