UA stadium fee plan is unfair, ill-advised

A proposal that would charge future UA students $200 per year to help renovate the football stadium is ill-timed, ill-advised and unfair.

It also raises questions about the University of Arizona’s priorities.

On the matter of timing, consider this: Annual tuition and fees for an undergraduate have increased 66 percent in the last five years to $11,000. Over the same period, the state slashed its financial support of the university, resulting in layoffs, larger classes and shorter hours at some facilities.

Programs and facilities across campus are having to get by with less even as students pay more. In this context, it is ill-advised to renovate Arizona Stadium.

The Board of Regents and the UA administration have rightly decried the Legislature’s cuts to the three state universities — the deepest of any state in the nation since 2008. To turn around and push ahead with a stadium renovation would make us question the priorities of UA leaders. Were those budgets cuts truly damaging or not? If they were, restoring academic programs must come first.

Most of all, we oppose the fee because it would be unfair to charge every student. All 42,000 UA students enroll to get an education. A subset also come for the football. Right now, those students each pay $110 a year to sit in one of ZonaZoo’s 9,000 seats.

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The current model is the right one. Wildcat football is great fun, but it is not why the university exists. Only students who want to attend games should pay for the stadium fix.

Athletics director Greg Byrne, who is floating the fee idea, has been masterful at raising private funds to build and improve sports facilities. He told Arizona Daily Star reporter Carol Ann Alaimo that the size of the stadium project — about $146 million — is too much to raise from donors alone.

He’s also pointed out that among Pac-12 schools, Arizona is one of only two without a similar student stadium fee. At ASU, it’s $150 a year. We find that a sign not of good judgment but rather of how the tail wags the dog when it comes to U.S. colleges and sports.

We do not doubt that Arizona Stadium could use improvement. Many of the bathrooms, concessions stands and seats are old. Yet sitting on a metal bench and standing in bathroom lines seven Saturdays a year is hardly a burden.

Both Byrne and UA President Ann Weaver Hart have said they want feedback on the fee idea. Ours is this: The stadium should be renovated, but now is not the time and this is not the way.