Sacramento city leaders call for support in continued push to get Sac State in Pac-12
SACRAMENTO — With the announcement of plans to revamp Sacramento State's Hornet Stadium, the university joining the Pac-12 might not be too out of reach.
The problem used to be facilities, but the new issue is now time.
"This is right now a booster effort to bring awareness of how short amount of time there is," Sac State alumni and Sacramento City Councilmember Eric Guerra said.
Local business leaders and politicians came together Friday to call for support to get Sac State into the Pac-12. Sac 12 is a newly launched committee more than four years in the making to effort the push, and they say the time is now.
"We want to be part of all of these different schools. Whether it's San Diego State, Fresno State, even Colorado and UNLV, they are all vying for this opportunity," Guerra said. "So what we're saying is Sacramento has competitive athletes, the student body, a good media market."
The Pac-12 is looking for two more schools, and Sac 12 argues Sac State is the perfect contender.
"We're going to urge the entire six-county region to support this effort, and someday soon, we're going to be surrounded by 25,000 or more seats," said Lance Hastings, CEO of the California Manufacturers and Technology Association.
"A market like ours with 2.6 million people, you pretty much live and die with your universities, and of course, the Pac-12 isn't going to take us seriously, or the Mountain West, if we're playing in a high school stadium," saidBarry Broome, CEO of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council.
Sac State recently announced the complete rebuild of Hornet Stadium from the turf up. The new multipurpose stadium will be in compliance with Pac-12 guidelines.
"There's so many students here. Parking is hard as is. Creating the needed space for all those students would be hard, but if everyone worked together as a team, it could be possible," Sac State student Ashley Wong said.
"One of the strongest assets is how strong our market media is. Just like CBS13, the fact that we're 20 in the nation in the media market, it's giving Sac State an opportunity," Guerra said. "If it weren't for our market and all our journalists, I don't think we'd be in the running."
