Football stadium, outdoor track to receive new renovations

The outdoor track, field, and stadium will be under construction this month due to the new renovations being added.

 

The stadium will be receiving bigger bleachers, sliding gates at the entrance, and brand new fences to surround the field. The construction started May 18, and will end around mid-August.

 

“I think it’s deserving of the program, the community, and our whole sports program here that we are able to sit everyone down in a good place [during the games],” Rolando Vazquez, athletic director, said.

 

The stadium renovations have to be compliant with The Americans with Disabilities Act, Vazquez said. He also added that there will be handicap ramps for people to come up on both ends of the bleachers, a completely new entrance from underneath, and new accessible seating for handicap people as well.

 

“Our goal is to have parents, students, the band, and everyone in our bleachers,” Vazquez said. “There are now going to be approximately 2,400 seats available on the home side of the stadium,” he said.

 

The bleachers currently hold 1,000 people which means many people aren’t able to sit during the games.

 

“No freshmen or middle schoolers were able to sit in the bleachers during the football games. We all just had to stand behind a fence at one of the end zones. It got tiring standing that long,” Lindsey Lasiewicz, freshman, said.

 

Even though many more people will be able to sit in the bleachers now, it will still take time with all the construction happening.

 

While the bleachers are under construction, P.E. classes, sports played on the turf, or any kind of camps on the turf going on during the construction period will not be able to happen in the stadium area until all construction is complete, Ryan Rubenstein, assistant principal for facilities and student activities, said.

 

After completion of the stadium, when the football games start up again, the price of admission for adults for the football games will go up from $4 to $5.

 

The money changes are going up by a dollar, but the anticipation for the new renovations is also high.

 

“I’m very excited,” Vazquez said, “and I think we all are excited and ready for this change.”