Pea Ridge Unveils New Stadium Plans

— In a span of just two years, the athletic facilities at Pea Ridge have gone from bottom of the barrel to top of the heap.

By The Numbers

New Blackhawks Stadium

0 — Times Pea Ridge has hosted a track meet at the high school

8 — Lanes at the track

480 — Seats currently on the home-side bleachers at Blackhawks Stadium

1,500 — Proposed seats on the home side of new stadium

691 — Parking spaces

Last fall, Pea Ridge opened a state-of-the-art indoor practice facility used by almost every athlete at the school. The facility is on par with some of the bigger classification schools in the state.

Now, Pea Ridge is taking the next step and constructing a new modern football stadium just north of the indoor facility on the school campus. It is expected to open in time for the 2013 football home opener Sept. 13.

“They have done a lot in support of athletics, and other areas here,” Pea Ridge football coach Tony Travis said. “The indoor facility has had a big impact on a lot of programs here. To be able to practice year-round has benefited all the programs. Our goal with the new stadium is to give our kids something to take pride in, and I think it will get more of our kids involved in athletics.”

But having state-of-the-art facilities will also help attract families that are moving into the area.

“As a byproduct, does it help enhance Pea Ridge to people looking to move into the area?” Travis said. “I think it will. People with athletes look at facilities.”

The new football stadium and synthetic track will seat 2,000 fans, including 1,500 on the Blackhawks’ side of the field. The field will sport an artificial surface, and the track will have eight lanes. A press box is planned to stretch the side of the home bleachers.

The new stadium will replace the current stadium near downtown Pea Ridge, which has hosted football games for the past 49 seasons.

“The home side bleachers we have now seat about 480,” Travis said.

The cost for the new facility will be in the between $2.2 million to $2.6 million. Most of the final details will be ironed out at the December school board meeting, Travis said.

“There will be no millage increase, or city sales tax,” Travis said. “It’s been saved.”

One of the biggest changes the new facility will bring will be in the spring. The current stadium doesn’t have a track and that means Pea Ridge is planning on hosting its first track meet in decades.

Before the indoor facility opened, the Pea Ridge track teams worked out at various spots around town, including the parking lot at the high school.

Lady Blackhawks track coach Charley Clark said having a track will help a program that finished second at the 4A-1 Conference meet this past spring.

“It will be very nice to have a track here,” Clark said. “We have done the best we can in the past, and we have done well with what we had. It’s been tough been finding places to run. It been hard for us to duplicate the real conditions at a real track, especially for our sprinters and hurdlers.”

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