Associated Students Inc. board members shot down a proposal to provide $1,000 of the organization’s budget to sponsor a recreational Soccer team Sept. 26., saying the cost would far outweigh its impact on the community.

ASI President Artemio Pimentel asked that the organization provide the funding to pay for jerseys for the Club Deportivo Lobos soccer club, a team of 19 to 24-year-olds which includes several Sacramento State students. The jerseys would have displayed the ASI logo prominently, he said.

“I think it would be something to show the community?that we are out there, as a University,” Pimentel said.

Rather than passing the legislation, the board voted to refer the issue to ASI’s Student Relations committee. There it could be determined if a less expensive alternative to Pimentel’s plan to promote the organization’s logo on the team’s jerseys can be found.

Some board members were against even sending the legislation to a committee, saying the idea wouldn’t have a large impact on students. Vice President of University Affairs Calvin Davis said he wouldn’t back the plan if it were brought before him again.

“I’m completely against this,” Davis said. “I don’t see how this is going to help Sac State.”

California State Student Association representative Brandon Kline said he would be interested to know exactly how the money would be spent by the soccer team ? information Pimentel could provide without the help of a committee.

“I would say to not send this to a committee, and just get (Pimentel) to get more concrete information,” Kline said.

Pimentel said ASI would closely monitor how the money was used.

“We are not going to just give a blank check to this team,” Pimentel said.

The vote to refer the legislation to committee narrowly passed with a 5-4 vote.

Had the bill passed, $1,000 of the ASI Board Projects $12,000 budget would have been spent on the sponsorship. ASI Director of Social Sciences Lisanne Nakayama said using that large a portion of the budget wouldn’t benefit students.

“With such a large amount of money allocated for board projects, we need to justify that this money can help as many students as possible,” Nakayama said.

Nakayama and Director of Health and Human Services Mike Plesia both suggested advertising at Sac State athletic events, where the organization can be seen by a larger number of students at what would likely be a lower cost. Plesia said he likes the idea of promotion, but it needs to reach a bigger audience.”It’s hard to measure how much having ‘CSUS’ on jerseys is going to help us,” Plesia said.

One problem that would arise with ASI sponsoring the team is that the organization would have to monitor the behavior of its players, said ASI Director of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Luke Wood.

“They’ll be representing us, and whatever they do out in the community will be representative of us,” Wood said.