#10: Bring Football Back To Long Beach State
Okay, okay. We know you saw this coming. But, that’s why we’re doing it first and getting it out of the way. Eight of our commenters said football at Long Beach State, the third-biggest university in the state, is the best way to improve sports in the city. One reader called it “a no-brainer.” Of course, almost that many pointed out that it’s impossible, impractical, or otherwise a bad idea. And you know what? They’re all right.
If you know anything about Long Beach sports, you know that nearly everyone pines for football at Long Beach State—but if you know that, you probably also know that it’s not there for a reason.
When they suspended the football program at the Beach in 1991, less than 4,000 people were showing for games, on average. The program was hemorrhaging money, and they really weren’t all that good (their final season record was 2-9). The larger point is, football at the university couldn’t survive in the economy of ’91—does it really have a shot in 2008? It would take an enormous investment from the community, the university, its students, and its alumni, even if there were no new stadium construction, and right now that money is a dream. Even if it materialized, it would take a significant investment in women’s sports to balance it per Title IX restrictions (those who blame Title IX for the program’s downfall would, however, do best to remember that it was passed in 1972, nearly twenty years before LBSU’s football team was disbanded).
All that said: it’s silly that the school doesn’t have a team. We’re in perhaps the richest city in the nation for prep football recruits, and there’s no four-year university in Long Beach where they can continue their careers. As one commenter put it: “You mean to tell me that Fresno can do it and Long Beach can’t? Please.” Several attempts have been made to start a program, and none have found traction. Is it likely to change? Probably not in the short term.
We’ve been talking (read: complaining) about this for a while—JJ’s first published sports article in college was called “”Bring Back The Ball,” an opinion piece about why the school needs football. A year later, Mike wrote an article about why it would be impossible for that to happen. Neither of us are wrong, and nobody’ in this city is going to stop talking about it. For now, it’s all we can do. Until, that is, football comes back to Long Beach State—it’s the impossible necessity.
Just so’s you know we weren’t lyin’