Editor:
Tony meets Jack, the insurance salesman. Tony hires Jack to run his Athletic Department.
Jack tells Tony he loves football and wants a big, new stadium. Or, maybe the stadium is Tony’s idea, and he thinks Jack can sell the public, so they’ll get private boxes to see some really cool concerts.
Either way, it’s, “Build, baby, build,” from Day One.
Day Two: Tony assembles a grand committee of football boosters to find some on-campus sites. In a private meeting, Jack, who co-chairs the committee, tells them it’s, “Build, baby, build.”
Day Three: Tony remembers he runs a taxpayer-funded institution of higher learning, and he’s forgotten to include the taxpayers. So he throws together some public meetings, an online poll and mails out some letters, muttering, “Build, baby, build.”
Day Four: The nodding heads on the committee report that — surprise, surprise — the stadium can be squeezed into three nifty sites. Jack and Tony do a chest bump to celebrate, yelling, “Build, baby, build!”
Day Five: Tony hires an international design firm to draw some pretty pictures of the $200K stadium. They get the message to, “Build, baby, build.”
Day Six: Tony realizes that he has gotten a little ahead of himself in ignoring the public input that’s been gathered. He thinks no one will notice, dreaming, “Build, baby, build.”
Day Seven: Tony recalls that he is king of the world. He phones Jack with instructions to bulldoze some dorms, and “Build, baby, build that stadium!”
Karen Wagner
Fort Collins