On August 30,
Three Rivers School received a $200,000 grant from the
Cincinnati Bengals, the NFL and the
Local Initiatives Support Corporation to help build a new football complex. Construction is expected to begin in Spring 2014.
The current field at Taylor High School, which is a natural turf field, is more than 75 years old. The stadium’s lighting is affixed to old wooden electric poles, and its aluminum and concrete bleachers seat only about 1,200 people. The site of the new field is an abandoned water well field that had been vacant for more thab a decade before Three Rivers leveled it and raised it out of the floodplain as part of the construction of the new school.
Three Rivers’ new field will allow for expanded use for all of the school’s football teams, soccer teams and the high school band. The school will also use the field for gym class, and it will be available for community youth football, cheerleading and soccer programs.
The cost of the project will be paid for entirely by private funds—the Three Rivers’ administration, staff, booster organizations and community leaders have formed the
Fields of Dreams campaign to privately raise money for first-class competitive athletic facilities at the new Three Rivers School.
The sports complex consists of the football stadium with turf, lights, a track, concession stands, locker facilities and restrooms, plus a soccer stadium, baseball stadium, softball stadium and practice fields. The campaign has already raised $360,000 to go toward the remaining cost of installing the field’s synthetic turf.
Total estimates for the project range from $4.3 to $7.7 million, depending on the features and quality of the complex. The football stadium will cost between $2.31 and $3.72 million; the soccer stadium between $480,000 to $1.07 million; and the baseball and softball stadium between $610,000 to $1.26 million.
The
NFL Grassroots Program, which is a partnership between the
NFL Foundation and LISC, has resulted in the construction or renovation of 256 football fields nationwide since 1998. In the past 10 years, the NFL Youth Football Fund has granted more than $32.5 million to revitalize sports fields in underserved neighborhoods.
If you would like to donate to the football field, visit the
Fields of Dreams website.
By Caitlin Koenig
Follow Caitlin on Twitter
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