The long-awaited Ward 9 stadium, formerly known as the “Field of Dreams,” is one step closer to breaking ground after the school board reached an agreement with the city to use $2.5 million in COVID funds before a year-end deadline.
Last week, the Orleans Parish School Board approved the contract for the now $12 million project.
Representatives of 9th Ward Stadium Inc., the nonprofit fundraising arm of the project, say construction could begin as early as this year or early 2025 as the project is in the final design stages.
“This state-of-the-art facility will provide our students with an unparalleled opportunity to excel in sports and foster teamwork, discipline and school spirit,” said New Orleans Public Schools Superintendent Avis Williams. “By providing dedicated space for football, track and soccer, we will ensure our athletes and community have the resources they need to thrive.”
“World class” facilities
The stadium, described in the agreement as a “world-class public facility,” will be built on 60 acres of land owned by the school board and will serve as the home field for GW Carver High School.
It is located behind the school, near Almonaster Street and Metropolitan Avenue.
Design plans include an artificial turf football and soccer field, an eight-lane track and seating for up to 5,000 people. Plans also include a press box and scoreboard, restrooms, concession and ticket sales, and parking.
The stadium would be open to all public high schools and middle schools, with priority given to the eastern part of the city. Currently, there are only two stadiums that can seat more than 4,000 people for public school athletics, said stadium board member and former city councilman Ernie Fielkow.
“This will be an economic boost for the area. A sports facility of this size hasn’t been built in decades,” he said.
Fielkow added that plans remain “on track” to break ground in late 2024 or 2025.
For more than 15 years, the stadium has been touted as a catalyst for a potential economic revitalization of the 9th Ward, a community of mostly low-income people of color that was inundated by Hurricane Katrina floods and lost half its population and resources.
Earlier this month, the Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a public notice to build the stadium on six acres of low-lying, marshy land within a 100-year floodplain.
Site improvement plans include stormwater management in flood-prone areas.
Rising costs
In 2008, a group of Carver High School alumni planned to build a stadium, but after raising $1 million in donations, the plan fell through when they ran out of funds.
When the stadium’s nonprofit took over fundraising efforts in 2019, the projected cost was about $5 million, but construction costs have ballooned nationwide since the pandemic, said Mark Ripple, a stadium board member and the firm of Eskew Dumez Ripple, which designed the project.
“We’re aiming at a moving target,” he said. After joining the board, Ripple divested his firm from the project, which was awarded to local design firm Williams Architects by bidder.
The funding will come from state capital outlay funds, a $3 million Community Project Capital grant, $1 million awarded by the City Council, $2.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds and an additional $2 million the group plans to secure through sponsor naming rights.
At a recent budget committee meeting, City Councilman Joe Giarrusso expressed concern about stalled contract negotiations between the city and the school board, with negotiations for ARPA funds alone dragging on for more than a year and a half since they began in May 2023.
“We allocated $2.5 million two years ago, but that money hasn’t been spent while construction costs have risen and the project will probably end up costing even more,” he said.
Ripple said that after years of having to “guess” costs in an unpredictable market, it is finally in the design phase to “estimate” detailed construction costs.
Donations can be made at https://www.9thwardstadium.com/.
