Boardman’s hopes of having a new stadium in place for the beginning of the 2015-16 school year football season will be fulfilled thanks to the finalization of funding sought by school officials.
On April 27, the Board of Education signed an agreement with Farmer’s National Bank to secure a $1.6m. The nine-year lease agreement will permit the district to finish phase two of the Board’s plans for building the city a new high school stadium. Phase one involved in the installation of field turf and was completed by the fall of 2014. Phase two includes stands, a press box and scoreboard.
The project has got this far thanks to donors and the efforts of the Boardman Booster Club, with $1.2m already raised. Poster printing companies are likely to once again be called upon to advertise events for the Boosters as they continue their fundraising efforts.
The present stadium, which is located adjacent to the Boardman Center Middle School, is hitting the schools system’s resources hard, as the marching band and football players must be bussed to and from the high school. This amounts to thousands of dollars that could be saved each year once the new stadium, located at the Glenwood Avenue High School, is in use.
Phase 3, expected to be completed in the fall of 2016, will include restrooms, a band shell, new concession facilities, and more locker rooms for boys and girls.
