Last week, the University announced that for the first time in its history, NU will “critically assess” school athletic facilities. Though this endeavor is still in its most preliminary stages and no specific recommendations or numbers have been announced, the athletic department seems very excited about this process and the improvements to which it could lead. And The Daily thinks the rest of NU should get excited too. Though most students will opt to sleep through a significant number of home football games in their four years and pay even less attention to other sports, athletics are a unique part of our identity as an institution and while there is (fortunately) no chance that NU will turn into a football factory, The Daily believes that Northwestern should care about keeping its athletic facilities up to par and cultivate in our athletic identity.
The first and most obvious benefit to improving athletic facilities is attracting student athletes. As Coach Fitzgerald pointed out in an article on Friday, athletes want to train and play in state-of-the-art facilities. And not just for aesthetic reasons – investing in better facilities show that athletics at NU are not the minor afterthought of an academic powerhouse but that we value this aspect of our identity and are committed to helping student athletes reach their potential on the field as well as in the classroom. This is a crucial message to send if we want to attract the talent that will improve our programs.
Additionally, we believe that this assessment and improvements that come with it are consistent with the recent NU sports marketing push. The message that we are tired of being the doormat of Big Ten athletic programs is coming through loud and clear and we feel has generally been supported by the university community at large. So it only makes sense that NU puts some physical, visible commitments to athletics behind its marketing push. We balk every time the word “improvements” comes up because with improvements come expenses and the most basic rule of budgeting – whether on an personal or institutional scale – is that any extra money given to one area can’t be given to another. We hope that the University will keep this in mind if they decide to improve any facilities. Most importantly, we hope that once the assessment is completed and improvement recommendations are made that an intensive effort is made to attract money from big donors who might be interested in making a significant contribution to athletics but might not make a large donation to something else. This would truly be the best of all worlds – making sports better without detracting significant resources from other areas.
Athletics are not a self-contained aspect of a university. Better athletic records and facilities do not just attract better student athletes, but there is evidence to suggest that schools coming out of a good football season attract more applicants in general. Good athletics get the name of a school in to the news in a way that other aspects of a university don’t, aiding name recognition, which is never a bad thing. And following sports teams is one of the easiest ways for alumni to stay connected to a school after they graduate. There is a reason that alumni donations are announced and presented at the homecoming football game every year, and the more that alumni feel connected to their alma mater the more inclined they are to make donations to all aspects of the University.
Last week’s Gameday article on the athletic facilities assessment began with examples of some of the improvements that have been made to athletic facilities of other Big Ten schools over the last few years. We are glad NU is making an effort a definite call to keep up with other members of the conference, we are excited to see the results and as long as improvements are made wisely, we can see athletic facilities improvement having a positive impact on the University in general.
