CSUN STADIUM STATUS UNCHANGED NEARLY 30 YEARS OF TALK AND STILL NO PLAN.

Byline: Jill Painter Staff Writer

Vic Batastini remembers it well. It was a sign with a picture of a new stadium that was to be built on the Cal State Northridge campus. It was 1973, when Batastini was a linebacker on the Matadors football team.

``It was a huge picture,'' Batastini said. ``It was just beautiful.''

Mike Kane, who played from 1983-86, remembers a billboard, now long gone.

Crayton Milton, a sophomore fullback, was recruited with the prospect of a new stadium two years ago.

``When we first came here, I remember how enthusiastic the coaching staff was about the new stadium,'' said Bob Milton, Clayton's father. ``How can a 45-year-old institution be concerned about whether or not they'll have a home for the football program? That should be the least of their concerns.''

That's what worries many people: that a stadium is the least of the administration's concerns.

One year ago, Louanne Kennedy, the interim president, reacted angrily when it was reported that plans for a new stadium - plans bitterly opposed by some local homeowners - were dead. Kennedy was adamant; the plans were not dead.

A year later there are no plans.

CSUN will use North Campus Stadium for the 2001 season. Then the plan is to play at Pierce College, a move officials say is not permanent.

``I would say a football facility is two to three years away from any great concern to us, simply because we have a place to play football (at Pierce) and football embraces only five contests,'' CSUN athletic director Dick Dull said.

``In my own mind, I've certainly put it on a shelf temporarily, because again, we have a place to play. It allows us to address the other needs we have on this campus that are, quite frankly, probably more timely and probably more affordable.''

Plans call for upgrades to many athletic facilities at CSUN. Softball, baseball and basketball facilities - in that order - are the priorities, according to Dull. CSUN's programs move into the Big West Conference - a non-football conference - next season and Big West officials would like to see facility improvements.

Dull wanted to add seats to the Northridge gymnasium, a Division I-A basketball facility that has a capacity of only 1,600, for the upcoming season but recently said it won't happen until next year.

Even upgrades to Pierce College's stadium are in store. CSUN must make changes to the stadium to comply with NCAA football standards, such as different goal posts.

There is no official agreement with Pierce yet, but CSUN officials expect to play at Pierce ``in the coming years.''

``They've always just talked to us about a three- to five-year time period,'' Pierce College president Darroch Young said. ``I have not really thought of anything other than that. This is while they're looking for an interim site while they resolve the stadium issues.''

How long will CSUN play at Pierce College?

``I can't give you an answer to that question,'' university president Jolene Koester said. ``We haven't done (plans) yet, we don't know how well it's going to work. We have to have a plan. We have to have money.''

That's another issue. Even if there was a plan for a stadium, raising the money, estimated to be between $10-15 million, would be extraordinarily difficult given CSUN's history of modest athletics fund-raising.

``I doubt they'll ever get one,'' CSUN quarterback Marcus Brady said. ``From what I hear, the community doesn't want it. It doesn't seem the school puts much emphasis on football.''

The impending move from North Campus Stadium to Pierce College has Bob Milton concerned not only about a stadium but about the program's future.

``I think it's to get rid of the program, but I hope it's not,'' he said. ``People in the stands have made comments to me that they're gradually going to try to shut it down without anyone noticing.''

While that's another story, Koester disagrees there is seemingly not much happening with respect to a stadium.

``I'd actually say there's a lot going on,'' Koester said. ``We have the ability to play in our North Campus Stadium for a year. Some months ago, that wasn't our understanding or widely held view of what was going to be the next step. We're having active conversations with the folks at Pierce.

``I guess it's a little like, `Is the glass half empty or is the glass half full?' From my perspective, there's been a lot of attention paid to assuring that we've got the facilities we need for the football program.''

CSUN averages a Big Sky-low 2,947 fans a game. Repeated marketing efforts generally have failed, but there is no guarantee a new stadium would improve that. Considering the move to the Big West, it doesn't appear to make sense to allocate scarce funding toward football - especially since football costs so much.

``Football does not make money for anybody else,'' Dull said. ``Football does not pay its own bills, and anybody that's talking about football paying its own bills is dealing with fiction.''

After the Matadors play their season finale, on Nov. 18 at Portland State, they become an independent program. Considering the boon football's resources could provide the rest of CSUN's Big West-affiliated sports, there has been repeated speculation that it makes most sense for CSUN to eliminate football eventually. Indeed, that's exactly what many of the CSU campuses have done over the last decade - including all of those in the L.A. area except Northridge.

``Every time I turn around, someone suggests what the future of football is and I become fatigued with that,'' Dull said. ``We're playing football and I'm scheduling games. I'm going to take it a year at a time at this point. . . . I'm not going to pontificate on the value of football vs. any other sport.''

``We need,'' Koester said, ``to take a look at what we need.''

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Photo: (color) CSUN president Jolene Koester says she can't say how long the Matadors will have to play their home football games off campus at Pierce College.

Eric Grigorian/Special to the Daily News