4,000 Cal State Northridge Students Call for Football !!!!

[bringback49erfootball]

(http://sundial.csun.edu/2011/03/student-organization-tries-to-ban-smoking/) -2nd bold article on the page

Cal State Northridge is following in Long Beach State's footsteps in terms of bringing back football. Bring Back Matador Football has collected over 4,000 student signatures which is above the 10% requirement of the student body signatures to put the matter of bringing back Division 1AA football to a binding vote projected to take place in May 2011. CSUN did away with football in 2001, but many students want to see football back, 4,000 student signatures speak volume of demand for football in these hard economic times. All signatures were collected during the Spring 2011 semester and are currently being verified.

Bring Back Matador Football is lead by CSUN student Jeffrey Benson. CSULB and CSUF have also been quite influential in assisting CSUN, in fact both CSUN and CSUF are using the “CSULB Model” on getting the proposal of bringing back football on the ballot.

At CSULB 2,200 signatures were needed to qualify for the university student government ballot. CSULB used the Georgia State Proposal to implement bringing football at the Division 1AA level. Football would get $2.7 million in operating expense whereas Big West Rivals UC Davis and Cal Poly SLO that play D1AA football put in only $2.3 million. The March 2011 vote at CSULB failed, with 3,084 students voting 52% No and 48% Yes. The CSULB vote was very promising because the margin of defeat was so little and another petition is currently being circulated to get a new proposal to bring back football on the ballot during November 2011. The major reason for defeat was the lack of an on campus venue to play.

Bringing back football does involve an $86 per semester student activity fee phased in over 5 years; the highest annual increase would be $25. In addition to bringing back football Women’s Crew, Field Hockey, and Lacrosse would also become NCAA sports to offset Title XI issues. There is an on campus stadium site, but a team would most likely play at Pierce College. An on campus stadium could be built for $12-15 million according to estimates for a similar venue at CSULB.

Bring Back Matador Football in collaboration with CSUF and CSULB have been working relentlessly to bring back football democratically. CSUF has about 2,000 of 4,000 signatures to get on the ballot at that university, 1 of 3 universities will bring it back and it will be a domino effect at other universities were movements are starting like UC Riverside and UC Santa Barbra. Did I mention..... CSUF has an on campus stadium that seats over 10,000?

Good Luck to everyone should be great to watch all this, hopefully a few universities will bring back football!

[TexasTerror]

Does someone have some more information on the on-campus stadium mentioned by Long Beach?

Where did they come up with the $12-15M figure and how many seats? Any amenities?

[Redbird Ray]

Would be cool to see most of the Big West schools get FCS football. Not sure if the Big West could sustain an FBS conference with its member schools, but FCS could probably work.

Think of a conference that would have Long Beach St, Northridge St, Fulleton St, UC-Irvine, UC-Riverside, UC-Santa Barbara, Cal Poly and maybe UC-Davis. Hell, maybe San Jose St would even be intersted in dropping to FCS if this conference was strong enough.

[TheBisonator]

Does anyone have a pic of the stadium that CS-Northridge used to play in when they had football?? I swear I heard that at one time they were in FBS (I-A). I search and search, but I can't find any info on that place...

[Red & Black]

Would love to see some Cali schools bring back FCS football. It'd certainly open up more scheduling opportunities for the rest of the western FCS schools.

[doolittledog]

I think the trick would be getting all the schools together into one conference. In the past they were in different levels...some D2, some FCS, some FBS...all in different conferences. The negative talk always centers around the fact that these schools dropped football because it was too expensive and with the State of California facing budget woes it wouldn't be feasable to bring football back now. But, if you could bring these schools together into one conference I think it could work.

[Jimmer]

Does someone have some more information on the on-campus stadium mentioned by Long Beach?

Where did they come up with the $12-15M figure and how many seats? Any amenities?

I think they are talking about an upgrade of the city stadium, not anything on campus. I think that place seats around 10 or 12k.

[bojeta]

LBSU used to play at the Veteran's Memorial stadium which is now used by Long Beach JC. The city and JC are working on a plan to improve the stadium which currently seats 10,000. It is likely a deal could be worked out to share the stadium with the JC especially if all three entities were to share the cost. Long Beach Poly HS also plays games there on occasion. They are one of the most successful HS programs in the nation.

I believe Northridge dismantled their stadium (I could be wrong about that). I seem to recall efforts, prior to dropping the program, to build a larger facility which met with complaints from surrounding neighborhoods. I am a huge supporter of bringing back Big West Football and hope that Northridge is successful. Lots of my former students have or are attending Northridge. Go Matadors!!!

[Sec310]

The site of Northridge's stadium was sold to a company who built a huge office complex on one part of the site. They did have plans to dismantle their stadium and to build more office space on the site of the stadium. But for whatever reason, this was before the economy went to hell, they didn't tear down the stadium or build more office space.

The stadium is the reason Northridge was kicked out of the Big Sky, so the won't bring back football unless they get a new stadium, which isn't happening.

Northridge was never 1A. They were D2 then 1AA.