Anchorage Football Stadium Renovation Slated For April Ballot

For thousands of Anchorage athletes, the Anchorage Football Stadium is where championship games are held.

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By Alexis Fernandez

Story Created: Mar 10, 2011 at 11:47 PM AKDT

Story Updated: Mar 29, 2011 at 10:55 AM AKDT

For thousands of Anchorage athletes, the Anchorage Football Stadium is a part of their lives, and where championship games are held. Last year, the building was barely usable, leaving teams to look for somewhere else to go, but now, there might be hope, as voters will be asked to help rebuild the stadium.

 

“The facility plays a goal for everyone. You start there and you finish your season there and everybody gets to watch at the end of the season,” Service High School Coach KJ said. “In Alaska, that’s the one facility where everybody goes because we don’t have anything else.”

 

With the building barely usable last year, teams took matters into their own hands to help keep thousands of fans comfortable during sporting events.

 

“The building there has been condemned,” Alaska School Activities Association Executive Director Gary Matthews said. “So we don’t have access to the bathrooms, can’t get any water, can’t get electricity, no locker rooms. We had to bring four big trailers from Wasilla.”

  

Anchorage residents will be given the chance to fix the 30-year-old stadium during the upcoming Municipal election. On the ballot, Bond Proposition #5 – a $3 million Parks and Recreation bond – would fix trails, parks, improve the South Anchorage Sports Complex and set aside $1 million to fix the Anchorage Football Stadium.

 

“We would figure out how to update the facility and make it a brand new facility that teams would be able to use right now,” Municipality of Anchorage Parks and Recreation Maintenance Supervisor Holly Spoth-Torres said.

 

Taxpayers would pay $2 for every $100,000 of assessed property value owned.

Supporters of the bond say it’s a small price to pay to make sure athletes and thousands of fans can enjoy sporting events in the future. 

 

“If the school district doesn’t have enough seating and parking capacity, then where do we go? And if this place isn’t fixed, then we're stuck,” Matthews said. 

 
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