Over the past few years, I’ve come to rekindle my love for my high school, Billy Mitchell High School in Colorado Springs. Since I’m always thinking outside the box and have a TON of creative ideas (not all of them are winners, mind you), I wanted to see what improvements I could come up with for the outdoor athletic fields.
Before I get into the nitty gritty, there’s a few things that need to be pointed out:
- IF this were to ever come into play, we’re probably looking at a $15m to $25m project.
- There are 10 residential properties on the west side of Fosdick Drive (1002 through 1114) that would need to be purchased. Portions of these properties would be converted into on-street parking.
- The empty field on the northwest corner of the Galley Road and Potter Drive intersection would also need to be purchased. Part of that lot would house a two story parking garage. The rest could be retail or green space. When not in use for Athletics, this could also become student parking, to accommodate for the parking lot areas taken away by the facilities expansion.
- I’ve tried to make sure everything is to scale as much as possible. The property between Potter Drive and Fosdick Drive is approximately 980 feet wide. Sidewalks are assumed to be 5 feet in depth. All athletic field and facilities should be proportional and to scale.
- The football stadium is partially recessed into the ground, so as to not interfere with any views of the Rockies. The visitor’s side would house the visiting team’s locker room under its stands. The end zone on the northeast side would be a grass slope, and the scoreboard located there. The home side would have a decent press box and locker rooms for the Marauders under the stands. This stadium should be able to accommodate ~1500 people (or more) and be rented out when not in use for football.
- The big white block between Tennis, Softball and Football would house the locker rooms for both the Marauders and any visiting teams (Baseball, Softball and Tennis only). It would also contain a concession stand and rest rooms. The building is 150 feet long by 50 feet wide.
- There is room for a central ticket facility, as well, if needed, though I think this could be put into the football stadium on the northernmost side under the Marauder side.
This is not to hint that there are any changes coming to our beloved High School’s athletics fields. I’ve been wanting to throw this together for the past year, and finally did it today.
To view the changes, click and drag the horizontal bar in the image below down towards the bottom.
Please feel free to share this on your social media pages… who knows… maybe we’ll get lucky and have a donor (or several donors) band together to invest in our outdoor sports!
