Star-Journbal Editor
If all goes exactly according to the game plan, a new multimillion-dollar stadium will be ready for Tabor College and Hillsboro High School football games in time to kick off the 2008 football season.
Tabor College and USD 410 officials agree that 40-year-old Reimer Field needs remodeled.
Nobody questions that.
There are several high school stadiums in the league with better facilities than Reimer Field, and Tabor plays in a conference with new stadiums on nearly every campus.
But at this phase of the game, members of a joint stadium task force caution that so many challenges and obstacles lay ahead nobody can guarantee there will be a new stadium anytime soon, if at all.
The USD 410 board of education had an opportunity to see a set of preliminary drawings showing a conceptual plan for a proposed new stadium facility at its Nov. 13 meeting.
Superintendent Gordon Mohn told the board that the plan was in the early stages, adding that the drawings would certainly be changed several times before they are approved.
The old facility would get an extreme make-over, with new stadium bleachers, football field, running track, concession stands, press box, team locker rooms, and lots of parking.
The task force obtained the services of Howard and Helmer Architects of Wichita to draw up the plans. The firm has designed other stadiums in recent years, including the one at Goddard.
The cost of the facility, which would be shared by the district and the college, will depend on whether the new stadium will have natural grass or artificial turf. Other factors, such as how many seats, and whether the parking lots would be paved with concrete, asphalt, or gravel, also would impact the final price tag. At present the project could cost between $4.1 million and $6.4 million, Mohn said.
Tabor would pay for its share of the cost through a capital campaign. The school district would raise its funds through a bond referendum, if taxpayers vote to pay for it.
But a "no" vote on a school district bond referendum, or a failed capital campaign at the college, could hamstring the project, officials say.
And, the two groups also must reach an agreement on cost sharing, or the plan could be put on the sidelines indefinitely. According to Mohn, it makes sense for the college to pay more for the project because it will use the facilities more often.
Other school districts have collaborated with local colleges in the area to make a shared-pay agreement work, he added.
It's unlikely that all of the details can be worked out in time for a bond election in April, Mohn said, so the matter would probably be put to a public vote in a special election "a month or two later," he said.
The stadium task force is made up of Tabor president Larry Nikkel, athletic director Don Brubacher, and board of directors' chairman Lindon Vix. The district's representatives are Mohn, board president Rod Coons, and athletic director Max Heinrichs. The task force will provide feedback to the planners and a revised set of plans should be ready by early December, Mohn said.
"The reality is if we're going to have competitive football and track in this community, we see it as an advantage to be able to share it. It doesn't make sense to have two separate facilities," Mohn said.
"Our facilities aren't as good as a lot of high schools we go to now," Mohn added. "Hesston and Halstead have made improvements. McPherson has made improvements. Nothing has been done with the track here since 1986, and the stadium itself was built in the mid — 60s and is probably 40 years old."
Concerns that Tabor might be trying to become a big-time football school are unfounded, according to Bluejay athletic director Bubacher.
"The success that the football program has achieved has been rather recent, in the last five years," Brubacher said. "We hope it continues, but the way we approach our football program and all our athletics is not consistent with big-time college athletics.
"Our athletes are here for an education. We've had a couple of athletes who have had some opportunities to pursue a career in professional athletics, but that is always very rare. We believe the stadium we have in mind would still be very well suited to a small college environment.
"We're not sure what kind of facility we're going to wind up with or if this is going to happen," Brubacher said. "It still is certainly not definite. The college has a lot of significant issues to overcome, and so does the district.
"[Tabor College] president Nikkel would like a new stadium," he added. "We understand the facility really badly needs to be updated for our sake, and USD 410 believes that, but there is so much that needs to go into this, we still are very much in just the communication stage.
"The project has become public because it has been addressed by the school board," Brubacher added. "But there have been no decisions made about any of the overall picture, how it would be developed. It is all just very, very preliminary at this point."
Vix lives in Wichita with his wife, Annette, who also is a Tabor graduate. Their daughter, Kayla, is a Tabor freshman majoring in music and is not part of the athletic program, he said.
"I think it's agreed by everyone who plays on the field, maintains the field, and attends games at the field that it's definitely in need of an upgrade," Vix said. "The fact that we can partner together is something positive for the whole community."
Keeping up with other facilities in the KCAC is important to keep the playing field level in the recruiting game, he added.
"There have been a number of updates to facilities at other conference schools. You just can't let yourself get too far behind the institutions you compete against, or you are going to lose students."
Vix pointed out that Tabor already has made significant improvements to its academic buildings and dormitories. An improved stadium is a project whose time has come, he added.
"The board of directors has been involved in every step of the process, and is really in support of it," Vix said.
"We had a board meeting in conjunction with homecoming, and everything we shared with them was welcomed and affirmed.
"For us to spend some money on a football stadium at this point is recognized by everyone that it is the right thing to do."
Tabor announced late last year that it had received a gift of $1.2 million from Joel Wiens, a bank owner and businessman from Nebraska, whose grandparents attended Tabor. A million dollars of the gift was earmarked for a possible new stadium, Vix said.
The rest of the funds would be raised through a capital campaign, he added, targeting specific individuals who are known to be sports-minded.
Vix, an attorney, says he is optimistic that a plan to share costs can be agreed upon.
"McPherson has a shared arrangement, and we've obtained copies on how they do that," he said. "There is an agreement at Bethany and Smoky Valley, and a similar arrangement at Hutchinson. So this is not unprecedented.
"Certainly, it doesn't work everywhere, but here in Hillsboro everybody is on the same page."
