At the southeast corner of campus stands a big bright stadium. Gerald J. Ford Stadium has hosted soccer (NCAA Men’s College Cup) tournaments and weekly football games in addition to a few student events. The stadium, however, has not been fully christened.
Since there is a growing interest in replacing the natural grass field with new artificial grass, this could be the perfect opportunity to rightfully break the facility in.
Ed Board has been more than a little critical of the Athletics Department, taking stances on Mustang Rocks and Kroger’s Stampede Savings. However, instead of harsh criticism or political proposals, we would like to put forward a little idea. Today we stand like hopeful children on the eve of our biggest, bestest birthday in the whole wide world.
“Please, can we tear up the grass?” If the old grass is replaced, SMU could make quite a bit of money by having a concert in Ford Stadium. In an ultimate show of campus unity, someone in Student Activities could make a call to someone in Athletics and tell them about this Mane Event thing that takes place every year.
This proposed synergy could be one of the biggest events in school history. We could finally have a headlining performance and open the stadium up to the Dallas community. The open end of the facility provides an ideal set-up for a stage. Now put a price tag on every head that could possibly fit in there and suddenly we have the opportunity to pay for the cost of the show as well as have a little more money for other things.
Maybe Ed Board is dreaming. SMU is located in ultra-conservative and code-saturated University Park, which governs many of our operations. If there is a chance that we can get University Park to agree, and if we want turf on the field anyway, it would be nice to destroy the grass in true college student fashion.
Students don’t always get what they want, so if this doesn’t happen, it won’t be a surprise. This isn’t a big wish, though. While it may seem a little extravagant and even unrealistic, the last time there was a biggest bestest birthday in the whole world, SMU asked for a pony . . . and got one. Now if only the pony could sell out a stadium.