I have lived in New Jersey practically all of my life.
The Garden State has been in fiscal crisis practically all of my academic life and my working life. I realized this almost thirty years ago, as a student taxpayer; the tuition at Rutgers tripled between from my freshman year to my senior year.
All that time the campus looked the same, the complaints about the campus were the same. The complaints about traffic, large lecture classes, deferred maintenance, and so on, were the same.
I know that the extra tuition I paid didn’t end up in the professor’s pockets; it was used to make up cuts in state aid. Higher education received a lower priority in a recessionary economy.
I didn’t like it; I was paid triple the tuition to get the same education, but I learned to grit my teeth and bear it. So did my classmates; the alternatives were less attractive.
I know that extra tuition didn’t support the football program. In the late 70’s, early 80’s, the team was just starting to play the major football schools. Rutgers had to play the major games on the road, or at Giants Stadium (sorry Jet fans) in the Meadowlands. Rutgers Stadium was too small to host the major powers on campus. It still is, even with twice the seating we had back in our student days.
I understand the economic arguments against stadium expansion