I went to Cal Expo a few weeks before the State Fair opened to see how the new football stadium was coming along.
You know the stadium, the one that’s supposed to replace the racetrack where thoroughbreds and harness horses ran until Cal Expo kicked them out last year.
The stadium where Sacramento State University will play when it leaps into the football stratosphere by joining the Mid-American Conference.
The stadium where titans such as Mississippi Valley State will battle the Hornets for national championships.
Remember the local news coverage when Cal Expo’s board of directors announced they were working with Sac State President Luke Wood to move Hornet football games from campus to the State Fairgrounds?
It was big news, full of anticipation. Left unsaid was that the plan was crazy.
The idea of packing up Sac State’s football program, hoisting it across the American River and dropping it onto an old horse track is ridiculous. Cal Expo will never solve the real roadblock to Sac State’s sports ambitions—the lack of proper facilities.
Schools that aspire to big-time football and basketball need proper stadiums and arenas, ideally on campus but close enough for students and alumni to reach without commutes.
Sac State has neither. In theory, Sac State could solve its arena problem by renting Golden 1 Center. But the Hornets lack the fan base, success and funds to make Golden 1 bankable.
Sac State’s football options are worse. The campus stadium is a nuts-and-bolts mashup of 1960s bench seats augmented by parade bleachers from the 1990s. Improvements 35 years ago were supposed to be temporary.
Enter the Cal Expo plan. The idea was to remove the racetrack’s homestretch, layout a football field, and somehow remodel the 1968 grandstand for football viewing.
I bet money on horses for 50 years at Cal Expo’s grandstand. Believe me when I say only a fool or liar would claim that grandstand is suitable for big-time college football. Short of tearing it down and starting over, the grandstand idea is nuts.
To reaffirm these opinions, I went to Cal Expo before the State Fair and toured the grandstand. I wandered to the Hurley Way backside, where barns for 800 racehorses stood alongside groom’s quarters, tack rooms and hot-walker equipment.
The grandstand was empty and dusty. Around the barns, stable doors hung open and abandoned. Weeds filled the pathways.
The racetrack’s infield lakes were dry. The tote board and rail fencing were gone to accommodate concert staging.
Football season is right around the corner, but there wasn’t a football stadium in sight.
I asked Cal Expo how things were coming with Sac State’s football project. I had questions for State Fair management. I was told someone would get back to me. Still waiting.
I see the problem. Sac State needs a real football stadium and arena. Cal Expo needs to redevelop land no longer needed by the dwindling, diminished State Fair.
Guided by each other, Sac State and Cal Expo are going nowhere, slowly.
R.E. Graswich can be reached at regraswich@icloud.com. Follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
