New sports facility not worth it
Why the Sports Bubble is a ‘no’ for this student
Maria Ly
Staff Writer
December is coming soon, and in the beginning of the month comes the big Sports Bubble student vote. Personally, I believe the Sports Bubble should not go into effect and will be voting no on Dec. 4 this upcoming week.
I am, if you have seen me, not an athletic person who rarely uses current amenities such as the gym or Myers Field House. I don’t even know what the gym looks like. I’ve rarely went to a sports game. I don’t rent equipment or reserve space to play sports. The only sports I play are digital.
There are many students who share this commonality and the Sports Bubble will ultimately not benefit them as they may never even step foot into the bubble during their time here.
There are already many things that we as student must pay fees for that we don’t even use, many involving athletics such as free sports games. Instead of the Sports Bubble, give me free sanitary products. Invest in the arts and theater department and instead of free sports games, give us free passes to university concerts and plays.
On a second thought, what do we even pay for? What can us students get/do for free?
If you ask the students what the Sports Bubble is, most of them probably don’t even know what you’re talking about. In fact when I roamed around the library asking students questions about the Sports Bubble most of them didn’t even know what it was.
Is the Sports Bubble for us, or to make MNSU sound cool and lure future students to attend the school?
The Sports Bubble will also cost us money- money most of us don’t have. According to the information on the campus recreation site, if the Sports Bubble goes into effect students will have an additional fee of 83 cents per credit and capped at no more than $10 a semester for a whole decade. If you do the math, 12 credits equals about $10. 12 credits is a full time student, meaning most people will have to pay the required $10.
There are many things you can do with $10. I can buy 9.62 McChickens with that money. I could use that money to get 10 hours of parking in a parking meter. I could get 10 slushies at SuperAmerica. I could buy five bottles of Mountain Dews in the vending machine which can help me stay awake during my 8 a.m. classes. I would rather have all of that instead of a Sports Bubble.
With food insecurity prevalent on campus, $10 a semester is basically a meal a semester. A meal can impact a student’s day and taking that $10 from them to pay for a Sports Bubble is robbing them from a meal.
I feel like instead of the Sports Bubble, we can work on problems such as food insecurity instead of giving a place for sports teams to practice during the winter, something that isn’t a huge problem on campus.
The sports teams already have Myers Field House and the Taylor Center! Students are paying to use Myers Field House, yet most of the time it is reserved by the sports team such as football or track and field.
There are already so many things students have to pay for but don’t use, let’s not add another fee.
Feature photo courtesy of MNSU Campus Recreation.
You sound like one of those people who complain about some of their property taxes going to fund schools because they don’t have children.
This is a community benefit. Just because you choose not to avail yourself of it doesn’t mean it is worthless; it means that you don’t take full advantage of your opportunities. Many of your fellow students will enjoy the benefits of the dome, as will the greater Mankato community surrounding the campus. And, yes, it might help attract students to attend our University. How is that possibly bad? In an era of declining enrollments, this kind of competitive advantage is well worth it.
Look outside of your own selfish worldview and you might see that the bubble is well worth the less than a dime a day it will cost.
This is a very poorly written article. The fact that this student clearly has not done their research into the sports bubble is extremely sad and setting a poor example for the rest of the student body. Do we not want to mention that financially this $2 million dollars can only go towards the sports bubble? Not to mention that the student Atheles will only be using the bubble for about 13% of the time will the college students will be using this bubble for 37% of the time, and the bubble is open to the community 35% of the time. Instead of looking at the negatives, maybe find a positive, what can this bubble bring to the community? There is not a sports bubble within 45 miles of Mankato. If you’re buying 5 mountain dews that may be the real problem. This article seems to be very selfish and from one point of view.
VOTE YES.
One of the reasons why Blakeslee Stadium is over 50 years old and needing repair is that students aren’t willing to pay for something better. Just as a comparison, TCF Bank Stadium is a facility that greatly improved sporting for the University of Minnesota cost $330 million and had a $25 per year student fee. If students can’t even support a bubble here there won’t ever be new improved anything at Minnesota State. Vote yes, because frankly $10 is a drop in the bucket for something that is needed in a cold winter place like Mankato. Vote yes because it will help not just the students but the community at large, something the writer completely forgets while complaining about not being able to afford $1 slushies at a gas station.