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New turf at future Spartan Stadium is ready for action
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Ron Evans of Tron Sport Turf Installation out of Pennsylvania sweeps the track at Boardman High School. Installation of new turf at the sports facility off Nisonger Road on the high school’s campus was completed Monday.
BOARDMAN
The Spartans now have a new and improved space for athletics and other extracurricular activities, as the first phase of the Spartan Stadium project was completed Monday.
After a two-month project, new turf is ready for action at the field off Nisonger Road on the Boardman High School campus.
Practices will start at the new field this week, and soccer games will be played there this weekend, according to Tim Saxton, director of operations for Boardman schools.
The new surface will be used by football, baseball, track and field, softball and soccer teams, as well as by the marching band. Varsity football will use the facility for games once the entire project is complete.
Installation of the turf began at the end of June. The total cost of the turf and everything that is needed with it was nearly $700,000, part of the $3.7 million project to replace the stadium at Market Street behind Center Middle School with the new Spartan Stadium.
The new 7,500-seat stadium will be located on the campus of the high school and is expected to be completed by fall 2015, with construction slated to begin next spring or summer if fundraising stays on track.
The idea, which arose in 2007, came about because the 1930s-built Market Street facility was no longer up to the task of accommodating games and the accompanying crowds.
The field off Market Street costs more than $20,000 a year to maintain, in addition to the roughly $1,000 per game that is spent transporting high school football players and band members to and from the 6,000-seat stadium for games.
The entire project is being funded through private donations raised by the booster club, which is selling naming rights to corporate sponsors that give between $10,000 and $1,000,000, among other fundraising efforts.
“We want to send out the message — that this is a positive, educational project,” Bill Bonte, Boardman Booster Club president, had said earlier. “We think of athletics as a positive aspect of education, and we want to improve our facilities, and they’re much overdue. They’ve been needed for a long time, and we’re trying to accomplish that.”
The Boardman Booster Club and Sweeney Chevrolet Buick GMC announced last week that it will conduct a car raffle. Sweeney donated a 2014 Chevrolet Equinox to the fundraiser, as well as $50,000 to the project. The dealership presented the donation at the Boardman-Mentor football game Friday.
Tickets for the car raffle can be purchased at any of the school’s athletic events or marquee events from now until Nov. 1.
For information on how to donate to the stadium project, go to boardmanstadium.org.