Building dorms at Jamestown Community College is a poor reason to spend $4 million on new turf at the college’s soccer field.

It’s a struggle to justify the expense for the college. It’s even harder to justify the $1 million the college is asking Chautauqua County taxpayers to bear. We understand the effort to have a soccer complex that competes with similar-sized SUNY schools. JCC’s field is far from state-of-the-art.

But in our opinion, taxpayers should not pay for any part of the project. The school can’t even reopen its recreation center that is supposed to be an affordable exercise center for the community. If the college’s fitness center isn’t open due to expenses, then how can the college logically proceed with new turf for the soccer field?

Daniel DeMarte, JCC president, said the new soccer field will help the college recruit international students. But soccer-playing international students are hardly worth a $4 million investment. Unlike some sports investments, there is little recycling of dollars from JCC soccer matches — teams are busing to and from games and perhaps eating at a restaurant before going back to their respective campuses.

“Here’s the deal from the college’s view,” he said. “We are not going to fill residence halls if we don’t have athletics. There’s no easy way to do that.”

Trying to justify one bad investment with another sketchy investment is a poor plan.