New surface could double number of events at field

This is the fourth story in a series profiling facilities that would be affected by a Kalispell Public Schools high school bond request. Ballots will be mailed out Monday, Sept. 19, and are due Oct. 4.

The field at Legends Stadium rests for most of the year, protected by signs urging visitors to stay off the grass in the hopes of preserving the aging surface’s usefulness for another football season.

Administrators at Glacier and Flathead high schools, however, foresee a more vibrant future.

“The current field is limited to probably 20 to 25 events a year,” Flathead Activities Director Bryce Wilson said. “If you get one of those fields that has drainage, whether it be grass or turf, you could probably at least double it, maybe triple the amount of events you play on it.”

Replacing the field at Legends Stadium tops the list of projects that would be funded by the $958,100 earmarked for the facility as part of Kalispell Public Schools’ high school bond request. It would be the first major effort to improve field conditions in at least 16 years.

Legends currently hosts every Glacier and Flathead home varsity football game — a total of 10 games each regular season, with additional games in the playoffs — and has hosted a single crosstown soccer match each of the last two years. It also plays host to subvarsity high school football and occasional middle-school and Little Guy football contests.

If the surface is replaced, both high schools would play additional soccer matches at Legends, potentially including Flathead’s entire girls and boys seasons. Administrators point to recent field replacements in Missoula, Billings and Butte to show the opportunities a new surface would present.

“Billings, when they put their fields in, the first year they had 84 events, which is unbelievable,” Glacier Activities Director Mark Dennehy said. “That’s soccer and football, so you can see where that use really improved what the field can withstand.”

In addition to hosting more games, administrators also say an upgrade is needed to maintain safe conditions for student-athletes.

The two major problems noted by proponents of the field replacement are the lack of a proper drainage system and a severe crown in the middle of the field — both of which, they say, can lead to serious injuries.

The two issues are somewhat interconnected, with poor drainage leading to the most heavily trafficked part of the field, the middle, regularly becoming potholed and uneven, especially in rainy or snowy weather. In an effort to repair those dangerous conditions, additional material has been added to the middle of the field, thus creating the crown.

“Every year the middle of the field gets worn, so then we bring in more sand, more black dirt, more grass seed and it grows a quarter-inch, half-inch a year,” Dennehy said. “Over 40 to 50 years it just is growing and created a significant crown on it.”

Wilson estimated there is a 3-foot drop from the 50-yard line to the back of each end zone, and a dip nearly as dramatic from midfield to the sidelines.

“Even for soccer, it’s not an ideal situation because you can literally not see the ball from one side to the other because of the crown,” Wilson said.

Neither activities director could point to the last time the field was replaced, going back at least to when Dennehy was named Flathead’s athletic director in 2000.

Legends Stadium’s last major improvement came 15 years ago when Dennehy spearheaded a major community fundraising initiative to update the main grandstands and modernize other facilities.

Years later, before Glacier opened, a locker room was added to provide on-site restrooms and changing spaces for both home and visiting teams, and in 2013 the track surrounding the field was replaced and a new scoreboard was installed.

“The investment in the facility’s probably been close to $2 million over the last 15 years that the community has helped out with, building reserve funds and also through fundraising efforts,” Dennehy said. “The community’s been wonderful throughout the upgrades of Legends.”

If the bond request is approved, the turf at Legends would be replaced with either a new, better-irrigated grass field or an artificial surface, both of which would come at a similar up-front cost.

Administrators also plan to update the officials’ locker room and expand the visiting bleachers on the east side of the stadium, adding at least an additional 1,000 seats. The stadium currently has a seated capacity of between 2,500 and 3,000.

While neither activities director would commit to grass or artificial turf, the recent trend in the state has been toward artificial fields. Billings, Butte and Missoula all now play football and soccer on artificial turf.

“I love grass fields,” Flathead football coach Kyle Samson said. “But to have a turf field would help out with all sports, not just football. Soccer could play on it, we could actually practice on it and in the long run — obviously the up-front cost is expensive — but it saves money with water and painting the lines.

“We’re going to Missoula and playing on turf. Billings has it. It’s just kind of the next step.”

Braves boys soccer coach Nate Evans also was excited about the prospect of playing more of his team’s regular-season games at Legends Stadium. The current football field is narrower than a typical soccer pitch, but the plan is to expand the available width and length to better accommodate a soccer field.

Flathead currently plays its home soccer matches at Kidsports Complex.

“I think the atmosphere and the level of professionalism it would bring to our program would be huge,” Evans said. “We don’t have that now, you just show up at our field and there are tents and a shed. I think definitely it would raise the standard of our high school and our athletics and that would be a great thing.”

In addition to Legends Stadium work, Flathead High School, the H.E. Robinson Agricultural Education Center and Linderman Education Center are slated for renovation if the bond issue is approved. Deferred maintenance only would be completed at Glacier High School.

If the $28.8 million high school bond request is approved, owners of homes with assessed values of $200,000 could anticipate property taxes increasing by $58.46 annually.

Voters on the high school district bond issue include residents of Kalispell and outlying partner school districts — Kila, Marion, Smith Valley, West Valley, Evergreen, Helena Flats, Somers-Lakeside, Creston, Fair-Mont-Egan, Cayuse Prairie, Deer Park, Olney-Bissell and Pleasant Valley — whose students attend Flathead or Glacier high schools.

Sports reporter Andy Viano may be reached at 758-4446 or by email at aviano@dailyinterlake.com.