After a recent call to arms from the Bryce Jordan Center (BJC), telling us how little we young 'uns appreciate or understand the inside dealings of concert promotions, a new controversy has come: the BJC versus Penn State students.

The BJC head honchos say students have to welcome bands like Train to attract acts such as Britney and Aerosmith. Only when we blindly buy tickets to every show that passes through will we have a shot at some hotter acts, they say. This debate isn't new, but it's long past due that it be made public. Students have long felt that the 16,000-seat BJC does not fulfill its promise (or potential) to be a student-friendly venue.

Here's what the BJC has seen this semester: a third-rate circus, monster trucks and Train, which played small-scale clubs around its BJC tour stop.

We recognize that the BJC's location makes it difficult to lure big bands. But the BJC's mammoth size makes it all the harder to entice those smaller acts willing to travel to Cowville, Pa.

The solution? Find acts willing to perform in a colossal concrete arena in the middle of nowhere. Book 'em. Disregard all the "take this to get that" gibberish, and you're bound to make as decent a profit as dragging in a band that had a mid-sized following five years ago.

You can get our money once a year with the $110 pyrotechnical extravaganza, or 10 times a year with the indie shows that rake in $10 a head. We recognize that the music industry's current corporate economy is responsible for many of the BJC's woes. But face it, the venue isn't so grand. It's big, but many artists have complained of its poor acoustics and artistry-hindering, sports vibe.

We don't expect the BJC to serve as some rock advocacy group. Several bars do an admirable job of bringing in out-of-town talent. Yet, State College still has an anemic music scene. The problem is that State College has no mid-sized venues, besides Rec Hall, which had George Clinton last year, and the HUB-Robeson Center, which once every blue moon will book niche crowd-pleasers like Kings of Leon and Jet.

All we're asking is that the BJC put up a valiant effort. Exploit us to book any band with the slightest interest in passing through State College. Life's not exactly like Field of Dreams, you see. You built it, but we stopped coming. And the reason we're not coming is because you're pandering to the concert promoters and disrespecting our intelligence, our buying power and our music preferences.

Train. Really?