… is for sure the empty university stadium. The vast, cost-overrun arena with no one in it is clown school ground zero, the heart and soul of our you’ve-gotta-be-kidding higher ed enterprise.
Study Dada (“Everything happens in a completely idiotic way. That is why everything is alike. Simplicity is called Dada.”) and you’ll discover the European roots of this grand gratuitous gesture.
UD covers tons of dada arenas – like the University of New Mexico’s baseball stadium – on this her blog, and there’s always another one waiting to be built.
A professor at Towson University describes the uncomfortable feeling she gets when she looks at her university’s dada arenas.
When watching the sports report on the 11 p.m. TV news, it is embarrassing to see 200-300 people in the stands in the 5,000-seat Towson Center Arena (with the possible exception of a few games with local rivals).
Since the stadium opened, attendance has been negligible, rarely ever coming anywhere near the 5,000 capacity. And, as if that was not enough, it was determined that the stadium size needed to be increased. And so the theory that “BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME!” reared its ugly head once again, and now there are 11,000 seldom used seats at the stadium, another embarrassment on the sports report on the 11 p.m. TV news.
The university’s president has now decided to “build yet another 5,000-seat arena to the tune of $68 million.”
DADADADADADADADADADADADADADADADADADA