CSUN DROPPING BALL ON BASKETBALL ARENA.Byline: STEVE DILBECK They have impressive building plans at Cal State Northridge. $100 million plans. For a 1,600-seat performing-arts center. For a new arena for the basketball and volleyball volleyball, outdoor or indoor ball and net game played on a level court. An upright net, 3 ft (or 1 m) high, the top of which stands 8 ft (2.43 m) from the ground for men, 7 ft 4 1/8 in (2. teams, they have no plans. They have crossed fingers. And absolutely no vision. They simply wait for a white knight White Knight falls off his horse every time it stops. [Br. Lit.: Lewis Carroll Through the Looking-Glass] See : Awkwardness White Knight invents clever objects that never work. [Br. Lit. to save them from their 43-year-old ``Matadome.'' Easily, embarrassingly em·bar·rass tr.v. em·bar·rassed, em·bar·rass·ing, em·bar·rass·es 1. To cause to feel self-conscious or ill at ease; disconcert: Meeting adults embarrassed the shy child. 2. , the smallest gym in the Big West Conference. The athletic department is in dire need of the centerpiece a new arena could provide. Three years ago, CSUN CSUN California State University Northridge announced basketball was now the king of all campus sports by simultaneously axing its football program and moving from the Big Sky Conference to the basketball-dominated Big West. Yet basketball has reaped no benefit from the move, no greater focus. There is no movement to build a new arena. ``It would be on permanent hold,'' athletic director Athletic director (commonly, "athletics director") is a position at many American colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, which oversees the work of the coaches and related staff involved in intercollegiate or interscholastic athletic Dick Dull said. No designs, no models, no fund-raisers, no anything. And nothing is likely to change within the next decade. The school's focus is on the performing-arts center - which isn't expected to open until 2010. CSUN is counting on $50 million in a future state bond measure and raising at least another $50 million in donations. Not sure how you spend $100 million on a 1,600-seat theater, but that is apparently the going rate these days. Another group, the Valley Alliance for the Arts, also is trying to raise $100 million to build its own center in the area. Now nothing against the arts, but $100 million for a 1,600-seat performing-arts center seems pretty steep when you consider USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. is building a 10,258-seat arena for $114 million. But CSUN president Jolene Koester Jolene Koester is the president of California State University, Northridge. The California State University Board of Trustees announced her appointment as president on November 16, 1999, and she took office as the fourth president of the University on July 1, 2000. has made it clear what her priorities are, and no one on campus is about to take on Koester. ``The mission of the university is to be the intellectual, economic and cultural heart of the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. and beyond,'' Dull said. ``The performing-arts center is consistent with the statement of the institution. That's the No. 1 priority, and I have no quarrel QUARREL. A dispute; a difference. In law, particularly in releases, which are taken most strongly against the releasor, when a man releases all quarrels he is said to release all actions, real and personal. 8 Co. 153. with that.'' There's just not much of a mission when it comes to the school's athletic programs. Koester's current sports legacy is for being the woman who killed football at Cal State Northridge. Whether she simply was following Dull's recommendation or not, she is the one who made the final call. Dull said she has approved $4 million in existing facility improvements. She frequently attends CSUN sporting events. Yet if Koester has any vision for a CSUN arena, it's a private one. Koester did not return a half-dozen calls, and she deferred questions to Dull. ``She has asked me specifically to speak on her behalf on this issue,'' he said. ``I am the university spokesperson.'' Only there isn't much on which to speak, since nothing is being done. Meanwhile, the men's basketball team won its sixth consecutive conference game Saturday, rallying for a 70-67 victory over Utah State before 1,189 at the ``Matadome,'' a game televised on Fox cable. Utah State plays its home games at the 10,270-seat Smith Spectrum. The ``Matadome'' capacity is the same 1,600 planned for the theater-arts building. The axiom is that TV makes you look bigger, but it didn't do a thing for the Northridge Gym on Saturday. Thirteen rows of backed seating on one side, bleachers on the other, it looks more like a junior high school gym than a university arena. ``I have no ill feelings about building a performing-arts center,'' CSUN coach Bobby Braswell Bobby Braswell, an American basketball coach, is currently the head coach for Cal State Northridge. Braswell was named the fourth head coach in Northridge history on April 30, 1996, succeeding the retired Pete Cassidy. said. ``That is definitely something that could benefit the Valley, as well as the campus community. ``But I do understand how an arena would help elevate el·e·vate tr.v. ele·vat·ed, ele·vat·ing, ele·vates 1. To move (something) to a higher place or position from a lower one; lift. 2. To increase the amplitude, intensity, or volume of. 3. this program to an even higher level than it is now. We're battling with a whole different beast now than a few years ago when we won the Big Sky Conference.'' Most other Big West schools play in large, modern arenas. Idaho has the 7,000-seat Cowan Spectrum, Pacific the 6,150-seat Spanos Center, UC Santa Barbara Santa Barbara (săn'tə bär`brə, –bərə), city (1990 pop. 85,571), seat of Santa Barbara co., S Calif., on the Pacific Ocean; inc. 1850. the 6,000-seat Thunderdome. Irvine's Bren Center and Long Beach State's Pyramid pyramid, structure pyramid. The true pyramid exists only in Egypt, though the term has also been applied to similar structures in other countries. Egyptian pyramids are square in plan and their triangular sides, which directly face the points of the both seat 5,000. Cal State Fullerton, UC Riverside and Cal Poly Cal Poly may refer to:
Play in a first-class, decent-sized arena, and you can schedule some bigger schools. You can recruit better, build your program, have an even playing field with the rest of the schools in your conference. ``I do think it's important we have to take the next step, as far as helping this program get to the next level, and that's building a facility on campus,'' Braswell said. ``That priority for me has never changed. That priority may not be the same for everybody.'' The Matadors do not draw well and never really have. It's something of a chicken-and-egg routine. First prove you have the support and build a new arena, or build it first and then draw the support? ``I'm of the school of thought, if you build it, they will come,'' Braswell said. ``Some people don't share that belief.'' Like some people down the hall. ``I think first you build a product and community support,'' Dull said. ``The concept that build it and they will come belongs in movies. I regard it as fiction.'' Dull, who would prefer a 7,500-seat arena, said because the performing- arts center will be used for instruction within the university's majors, it is eligible for public funding Public funding is money given from tax revenue or other governmental sources to an individual, organization, or entity. See also
He said there are only two ways an arena will get built on campus: A major donor steps forward, like the Galens at USC; or someone from the private sector builds a multiuse arena on campus for the Valley and allows the Matadors to use it. Which makes you wonder why the latter scenario isn't available to the performing-arts center. Couldn't the Valley Alliance for the Arts build its facility on campus and CSUN then turn its fund-raising efforts Noun 1. fund-raising effort - a campaign to raise money for some cause fund-raising campaign, fund-raising drive crusade, campaign, cause, drive, effort, movement - a series of actions advancing a principle or tending toward a particular end; "he supported to an arena? ``That's a question I couldn't answer,'' Dull said. ``That would be something the president would need to address.'' If she were willing, of course. Meanwhile, it's status quo [Latin, The existing state of things at any given date.] Status quo ante bellum means the state of things before the war. The status quo to be preserved by a preliminary injunction is the last actual, peaceable, uncontested status which preceded the pending controversy. for the arena, if not the athletic department. Which apparently is good enough. Basketball is a sport that would be king at Northridge, left without a real throne throne, chair of state or the seat of a high dignitary. The throne was at first a stool or bench and later became an ornate armchair, usually raised on a dais and surmounted by a canopy. . ``I think those in positions of making those decisions have to decide that it is important to do it,'' Braswell said. ``Then people have to get together and decide whether we're going to do it. ``If we're not going to do it, let's stop talking about it and make some improvements on the gym we have. But at some point, we have to have enough vision to say we can do this. It's been done at other places.'' But at CSUN, it's not in the plans. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Television cameras catch the action as lan Boylan, left, goes up for a basket during Cal State Northridge's victory over Utah State. Joel P. Lugavere/Special to the Daily News |
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