Choosing not to expand Spartan Stadium is the right move for MSU at this time.

By not spending on expansion, the athletics department should have more money to create a fan-centric experience at the stadium. Deputy Athletics Director Greg Ianni told The State News athletics department officials are looking at making improvements to several stadium facilities, including restrooms, concourse areas and gate-access areas (“Spartan Stadium might see facility improvements,” SN 11/28).

Those improvements would make the fan experience better, giving fans a reason to go to the game even if the matchup isn’t attractive.

Even with the football team’s current excellence — sharing the Big Ten championship last year and having a chance to win it outright this year — students don’t fill up the stadium for every game like they do elsewhere. Expanding further will lead to an ugly sight: more empty seats on game day.

Students understandably snap up tickets against football powers, such as Notre Dame and Wisconsin, and the full allotment of 2,500 student tickets for the upcoming Big Ten championship game — which isn’t even in Michigan — were purchased in a single day.

But only when Spartan Stadium consistently has to turn away fans for games against the Florida Atlantic Owls and the Youngstown State Penguins of the world will stadium expansion make more sense.

To be honest, MSU’s football program has been good, even great this year but never transcendent like the programs of U-M or Ohio State University.

The football team might not be as successful and attractive to fans five or 10 years from now, although we hope that isn’t the case. However, a drop in the quality of football could make expansion unnecessary in a decade and cost the athletics department.

The most recent stadium expansion in 2005 cost the athletic department $64 million. Although the athletics department has its own budget, and the cost of expansion wouldn’t be passed onto students, money spent on unneeded expansion is money that could be better spent on other sports.

This is not to say the stadium never should have a larger capacity, but to add more seats to Spartan Stadium now would be jumping the gun.

Let’s all hope the Spartans continue their winning ways, and fans continue to pack the stadium so expansion is a more realistic possibility in the future.