CSU has Plans for a New Football Stadium, but Not Everyone is on Board

Colorado State University or, according to many students, Construction State University has been rapidly expanding in the four years that I have been attending the magnificent school. The Front Range has become one of the fastest growing areas in Colorado. Due to this, the Universities located on the Front Range have had to expand to fit all of the prospective students. And CSU is growing very, very quickly.

In early 2005, Colorado State University released a design for the campus' future development. The buildings were carefully designed with budgets based on strategic planning. Recently, the campus has built multiple dorms, redone the student center, built new educational buildings, and much more. Most importantly, the campus has set aside three years to build an enormous football stadium on campus. The school is hoping that by building this amazing stadium on campus, it will bring in more people to the football games, especially since the team's track record has gotten a lot better in the past couple of years.

The proposed $220 million dollar stadium will seat 36,000 students, alumni, and fans. According to The Coloradoan, the University plans to raise money from alumni and also borrow from banks so that they can afford to start building the new stadium. The stadium has officially started being built on the southwest side of the main campus, between the streets Pitkin and Lake. The site was previously one of the school's largest parking lots for students and faculty that live off campus, and it was also home to the school's Plant Environmental Research Center, which will be relocated to the south side of Prospect Road. The on-campus stadium project is scheduled to start construction this summer, to be completed right in time for the Rams Football season in 2017.

Though the plan for the new stadium sounds extraordinary, not everyone on campus or in Fort Collins wants the school to build the stadium. Many Fort Collins residents are opposed to building a new stadium near the southwest corner of campus, and they staged protests against the construction in March. They want the University to save the Hughes Stadium, which stands three miles west of campus. Many community members do not see the need for a new stadium on campus when one already exists. Also, they are against the debt that the stadium will require the school to take on and the fact that there will be no place for fans to tailgate in the new design.