They could absolutely get that torn down and some temporary bleachers in place for the season, Ballard just may not want to foot the bill. Stinks for the seniors, for sure.

 

Not exactly. Even just the demo project would have a big enough cost associated with it that they would have to go and bid it out, so even if they put the contract out to bid today, there's little to no chance that they would have it advertised, bid, contracted, and then completed in any kind of a timely fashion. Beaurocracy at work, my man.

Stadium bleachers came down last week. Demolition of the bleachers has a $155,000 pricetag, and they have allotted $1.3 million to replace the stands, associated electrical utilities, and the track. Per the article, they are hoping the renovations will be ready to go for next school year, but some of the design work remains to be completed yet.

 

Newly formed Ballard High alumni association wants to help with stadium construction

 

Any word if construction of the stands at Ballard’s stadium will be completed in time for the 2020 season? I don’t believe they played a home game last year. What a terrible year for the seniors on that team: no home games, no prom, no graduation, etc.

I hate that for those seniors.

According to a twitter feed I see every so often, construction on the new stadium has started and I assume they plan to be ready by the fall.

According to a twitter feed I see every so often, construction on the new stadium has started and I assume they plan to be ready by the fall.

 

The plan was for an August completion. I haven't heard anything further on that, but the construction industry hasn't really been slowed down by quarantine.

I was by there over the weekend and they’ve got the concrete footings in place. So progress is definitely being made.

From @gchs_uk9:

 

On 6/16/2020 at 8:52 PM, Roundsteak said:

I was by there over the weekend and they’ve got the concrete footings in place. So progress is definitely being made.

Good. I'm sure there are contingency plans in place to move to other sites if the stadium isn't ready, but for the sake of the kids since they missed an entire home season last year, I hope they get to play as many home games as possible this year

From @NLTanker1:
 

1 minute ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

From @gchs_uk9:

 

Good. I'm sure there are contingency plans in place to move to other sites if the stadium isn't ready, but for the sake of the kids since they missed an entire home season last year, I hope they get to play as many home games as possible this year

Ballard has 7 home games scheduled this year.

From @gchs_uk9:
 

1 minute ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

From @NLTanker1:
 

Ballard has 7 home games scheduled this year.

I saw that. I'd imagine they flipped a couple of contracts last season after they knew for a fact they couldn't play home games.

Drove by the other day and it looks like they’ve got the bleachers up but they haven’t started working on the press box. Now that may have changed since I was by the school. BTW, those bleachers are quite high. Definitely more seating capacity than the old stands. They were also installing the new track so things are progressing nicely. 

8 hours ago, Roundsteak said:

Drove by the other day and it looks like they’ve got the bleachers up but they haven’t started working on the press box. Now that may have changed since I was by the school. BTW, those bleachers are quite high. Definitely more seating capacity than the old stands. They were also installing the new track so things are progressing nicely. 

It looks to me like they're going to be putting a pre-manufactured modular press box up on the main set of stands. That's how they installed our press box at Covington Catholic. It shows up as a completed product and they just lift it into place with a crane, and connect the electrical supply.

I was out and about running some errands this evening...swung by and snapped a couple of pictures of the new stands going up at Ballard.

 

Looks nice. I know there has been some chatter about putting turf in at Jefferson County schools. It seems like this one should have been a no brainer for turf, but Ballard’s misfortune might have come a couple years too early. 

Stands as of Monday morning 8/10

Already looks much better than the old setup.