Newport Football Stadium Has Been Condemned

[gbballfan21]

4 hours ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

It always drove me crazy that the tunnel to the locker rooms and the center of the pressbox weren’t aligned with the 50 yard line! 

[Pi]

13 minutes ago, gbballfan21 said:

It always drove me crazy that the tunnel to the locker rooms and the center of the pressbox weren’t aligned with the 50 yard line! 

I think it was with the old field. But the old field also used a corner of the track (left side of picture) in the grass days.

[hrcarrier]

What a mess of a situation. I was there over the past summer for the youth league cheer competition that my daughters were in. It seemed like it needed some work and was rough in spots, but I’m not sure if enough to be condemned. Either way, you would think this would have been addressed before now if it was known. And with Newport Catholic playing there as much and long as they have, one would think both were involved with doing what’s necessary for it to meet the code requirements.

[The Raven]

1 hour ago, Pi said:

I think it was with the old field. But the old field also used a corner of the track (left side of picture) in the grass days.

You are correct.   They moved the new field about 10 yards to the north to avoid the endzone track issue.  I never understood why, with all the space they had between the far sideline and the basketball and tennis courts in the park, they never had stands on both sides,

[brooksville]

https://linknky.com/news/2022/04/26/newport-stadiums-stands-fail-inspection-teams-still-using-field-and-track/

Looks like they need to start planning for major construction. 

[RetiredFan]

Sad news for Newport Football.  Newport Catholic rents the field but considers it their home field.  Both schools will be impacted financially.  Loss of gate revenue and concession profits. I feel sorry for the players, especially the incoming seniors.  They must feel like nomads.  No place to call home. This situation may cause future football players and their parents to look at other schools.  How the condition of the stadium was allowed to deteriorate to this point is beyond me.  It's been a hazard for years. In my opinion portable stands would be viable until proper repairs could be completed.  Stands could be placed on both sides on the track assuming the field is deemed to be playable. 

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

WKRC Local 12 will be covering the story as a part of their 6pm news broadcast tonight.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

Just now, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

2 hours ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

WKRC Local 12 will be covering the story as a part of their 6pm news broadcast tonight.

Schools scramble to find place to play home games as Newport decides to tear down stadium | WKRC Local 12

“The whole thing has to go,” said Newport Independent Schools Superintendent Tony Watts.

Watts says an annual inspection ran out the clock on the stadium.

“We had the inspector come in. They presented to us what they thought should happen. We took that recommendation," he said.

And that recommendation was to take the entire structure to the ground -- from the announcer booth to the concession stands, the bleachers and the locker room beneath them. In fact, it’s likely the only thing that will be left at this stadium is the field. It’s still in pretty good shape.

Even the track that surrounds the field is only five lanes wide. In order to have a track meet here, it needs to be eight lanes.

[nkypete]

Two of my fondest memories of Newport Stadium occurred during the 2011 season when, in successive weeks, Covington Holy Cross beat NCC in the 3rd round of the playoffs with a last minute field goal and then Somerset in the 4th round.  Holy Cross was "homeless" for that game against Somerset and had to go hunting for a place to play since the Indians were scheduled to be the home team.  Ironically, they ended up back at Newport Stadium.  That was the year that Holy Cross went on to win the 2A championship against Glasgow.  

Another fond memory was a few years before that in 2006 when the Holy Cross freshmen won the NKY title at Newport Stadium going undefeated for the year (my son was on that team).

Other than those games, memories of games at Newport Stadium for me have been mostly painful.  Painful because of the way many of the games ended up and painful because I tripped several times on those steps running up and down to and from the press box.

[Kenny Powers]

21 hours ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

Schools scramble to find place to play home games as Newport decides to tear down stadium | WKRC Local 12

“The whole thing has to go,” said Newport Independent Schools Superintendent Tony Watts.

Watts says an annual inspection ran out the clock on the stadium.

“We had the inspector come in. They presented to us what they thought should happen. We took that recommendation," he said.

And that recommendation was to take the entire structure to the ground -- from the announcer booth to the concession stands, the bleachers and the locker room beneath them. In fact, it’s likely the only thing that will be left at this stadium is the field. It’s still in pretty good shape.

Even the track that surrounds the field is only five lanes wide. In order to have a track meet here, it needs to be eight lanes.

Maybe I am out of my tree here, but it seems like the superintendent of a school district should know these things and address them before their biggest athletic money maker has to lose its stadium. Seems like a lot of people kicked the can down the road hoping no one would finally say something. 

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

19 hours ago, Kenny Powers said:

Maybe I am out of my tree here, but it seems like the superintendent of a school district should know these things and address them before their biggest athletic money maker has to lose its stadium. Seems like a lot of people kicked the can down the road hoping no one would finally say something. 

Newport Independent isn't flushed with money. I would assume the district's budget (or lack thereof) has caused the deferred maintenance monster to do its worst to the stadium for years. Kicking the can down the road? Sure. But what else are they gonna do?

If a superintendent goes to their district in a "regular year" and says, "Hey, I know we're strapped right now, but can we approve spending several million on renovating the stands of our stadium?" I think we can all imagine how quickly the superintendent is gonna get shut down.

If a superintendent goes to their district - condemnation notice in hand - and says, "Hey, I know we're strapped right now, but we aren't able to play sports until we spend several million renovating the stands of our stadium," then I think things would go notably more in the direction of getting those stands replaced.

My wife drove a 16 year old piece of crap Chevy Malibu up through med school. Two of the window actuators didn't work, the turn signals on the front of the car would decide some days that they weren't in the mood to work, some days the radio would turn itself off, other days all of the various alert and warning lights on the dash would turn themselves on and off at will, eventually the car started burning oil....

All of those things on her car were repairable piece by piece, but looking at a 16 year old vehicle with 200K+ miles on it, the cost we would have spent repairing those items were far more than the value of the car, which was bound to break down eventually. So there came a point where we decided to save money for the time being and stop maintaining the car; we just crossed our fingers and waited to see how long it would last. Eventually the car broke down, and it was a pain in the rear while we were hunting for a new car and I had to wake up at 5am to drive her to med school downtown before heading into work myself, and then she'd have to hitch a ride or Uber to clinic in the afternoon...but eventually we shelled out the money for a new car and everything was back in business. The payments for a new Subaru Forester were notably more than no car payment before, though.

[9068]

22 hours ago, Kenny Powers said:

Maybe I am out of my tree here, but it seems like the superintendent of a school district should know these things and address them before their biggest athletic money maker has to lose its stadium. Seems like a lot of people kicked the can down the road hoping no one would finally say something. 

Little different situation than Bluebird Land. Most certainly not a lot of boosters to pony up money for facilities , ask for money for coaches incentives, and fill the stands like at David Cecil. I think this has been on the back burner and time finally ran out.

[Buck2]

On 4/27/2022 at 3:56 PM, Kenny Powers said:

Maybe I am out of my tree here, but it seems like the superintendent of a school district should know these things and address them before their biggest athletic money maker has to lose its stadium. Seems like a lot of people kicked the can down the road hoping no one would finally say something. 

They've known about the issue and even resealed the bleachers above their football locker room several years ago. 

Newport also has a double nickel tax. If money is an issue then they should lower the pay of the superintendent and administrators. I heard when he retired that Middleton made 250,000 and the Principal now Mike Hunter makes over 120,000.