When Tom Bracciano surveys the football field at Lawrence High School, he sees a plot of clumpy grass bordered by sidelines marked with bare dirt. The USD 497 Director of Facilities and Operations has a vision of what a practice facility should look like – and it is quite a bit different from Lawrence High’s current field.
“We’ve come up with some scenarios and concepts for putting artificial turf on practice fields,” Bracciano said. “These grass fields are trampled and overused, so these new surfaces would be safer and more energy efficient.”
USD 497 of Lawrence has laid out several options for improving the athletic facilities at both Lawrence High and Free State High. The district could choose either to replace the grass fields it currently uses or build a multi-sport facility for the two schools to share. School officials have discussed improving or adding athletic fields at several board meetings this fall but have not yet finalized any plans.
If Lawrence school officials need inspiration in their search for an answer to the riddle of facility improvement, they could look a few miles west to Topeka. In fall 2003, Topeka’s USD 501 erected a multi-sport facility called Hummer Sports Park. The facility includes a football field, soccer field, running track, two baseball fields, two softball fields and an aquatic center. Topeka High, Topeka West and Highland Park High share the facility – though Highland Park hosts football games on its own campus. USD 501 Athletics Coordinator Rick Benke said the facility has been convenient for community events and has helped Topeka’s high schools save money.
“We started this project with the idea for our schools to not rent fields from the city,” Benke said. “It has been a huge plus because we used to play games at Washburn (University) and for practices we were spread out all over the city. It makes it easy for the coaches, the kids and the parents because having them all here at one complex cuts down on travel expenses and busing.”
Lawrence’s current conundrum is similar to the one Topeka faced in 2001. Both Lawrence High and Free State High play their home football games at Haskell Stadium at a cost of $3,000 per game. Haskell Stadium is also home to Haskell University’s football team, meaning the natural grass field undergoes a substantial amount of wear and tear throughout the season. Bracciano said it would probably cost about $7 million to renovate Haskell Stadium and replace its grass playing surface with more resilient artificial turf. Repairing Haskell’s football field is an appealing option for the school district because it would help preserve Lawrence High’s 78-year tradition of playing at Haskell and eliminate the need to build a new football stadium, but Haskell and USD 497 have not come to an agreement yet.
“As far as communication with Haskell, I don’t know where that will go,” USD 497 Board of Education member Marlene Merrill said. “But we do have a long history of working with Haskell and having our games there. We have to look at maximizing what we will get and at the same time we need to address the needs we already have.”
As an alternative to patching up Haskell Stadium, Lawrence could follow in Topeka’s footsteps and build a multi-sport complex for its two schools to share. The district has looked into the idea of a large, multi-purpose facility in the past, and members of the school board looked at drawings of what the complex would look like. Bracciano said if USD 497 decided to build a complex, it would be similar to Topeka’s Hummer Sports Park and would provide facilities for football, baseball, softball, tennis and soccer.
Hummer Sports Park, TopekaIn the short term, the Board of Education could choose to renovate both high schools’ practice fields, with or without the addition of a new sports facility. Currently, football, baseball and softball teams at Lawrence High and Free State High practice on grass fields. If the district follows through on its proposed plan, a synthetic surface called AstroPlay would be installed on the schools’ on-site facilities for $7 million. Bracciano said resurfacing the fields would substantially improve the state of the fields.
“With grass, you have a whole lot of maintenance issues,” Bracciano said. “Right now, we use a lot of water, fertilizer and seed and spend a lot of time on mowing and aeration. Quite honestly, a lot of that fertilized water goes into the rivers and streams. We would have better-quality fields that we could use 24/7 with no downtime to seed or aerate.”
The renovation of the schools’ practice fields could be funded by what Bracciano called “performance contracting”. Using performance contracting, the district would be allowed to borrow from the state enough money to complete the project because the new surface would save energy.
Those waiting for a full-fledged multi-sport complex might not want to hold their breath. The project, estimated to cost $21 million – without accounting for the purchase of land – has not moved much past the point of speculation. Merrill said the Board of Education had to make sure to take care of educational necessities before focusing on new sports facilities.
“A lot of options are under consideration and no decisions have been made,” Merrill said. “The big issue is, ‘What is the need?’ And we’re looking at educational needs, not just enhancing sports only. So we have to look at what benefits all students.”
The Hummer Sports Park in Topeka was built with help from a bond issue that passed in 2001. The facility cost $17.5 million, about $4 million less than the facility proposed in Lawrence. Benke said some Topeka citizens were hesitant about building the sports park, but for the most part the public has been happy with the return on its investment.
“I think our board did a really good job of talking to the public,” Benke said. “We had meetings because we had to pass a bond issue, but the city was very supportive. We had public meetings where all of the problems were talked about, and the city decided the park would be a positive.”