Count me against stadium expansion. The economics are fraught with uncertainties and, frankly, this is no time for any New Jersey public institution to contemplate taking on more debt. That is all the more so because the premise that revenues generated by the expansion will pay the costs is extraordinarily Pollyanna. Just three years ago, I recall sitting at Rutgers Stadium amidst mainly empty seats: 20,000 was a good turnout in that not so far away past. Yes, the current season is a sellout - but big deal. As the 2007 Scarlet Knights record a season that can only be called disappointing, will the stadium sell out next year? Will the season ticket waiting list evaporate? Here is the deal: No one knows, not at this early stage of Rutgers football successes. Let's see sellouts for two, perhaps four, more years, then a stadium expansion could proceed with immense confidence. Until then, an expansion just may saddle students with still heftier fees, and for what? To add seats to an edifice that quite possibly could be a ghost town in a few years - if Coach Schiano loses his tenuous grip on winning - is a risk that ought not to be taken.
Robert McGarvey is a Class of 1970 Rutgers College graduate.
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