‘Dream Come True’ as First Football Game Played at New MCHS Stadium
Tish Maclay described the opening of Donald M. Chapman III Stadium at Mifflin County High School on Friday night as a dream come true.
Typically, the football season would have kicked off at venerable Mitchell Field for the Mifflin County High School athletic director and other athletic department officials. This year, with the completion of the $18.5 million Husky Multi-Sports Complex, a whole new era in Mifflin County athletics was born.
“To see so much community and student pride throughout the evening was amazing,” Maclay explained.
“Chapman Stadium provides a place for people to come together in a positive manner and enjoy all the great energy Mifflin County has to offer,” Maclay added.
School officials said there were long lines at the gates when they opened at 5 p.m., two hours prior to kickoff.
UNC Chancellor Makes Case for New Basketball Arena
The most notable thing discussed in recent podcast with UNC athletic director Lee Roberts were plans for where the men’s basketball team plays.
Roberts seemed to gingerly be making the case that building a brand new arena for the men’s team is likely going to be the direction where everything goes. He doesn’t say it explicitly, but when you listen to what he laid out as the problems with the current Smith Center and take that in with the comments from Cunningham earlier in the week, it doesn’t take a huge leap to see what their preference would be.
Of particular note is that Roberts cited the cost for just replacing the roof at the Smith Center at $80-$100 million. That’s an eye-popping figure, and Roberts noted with Lucas and Angell that “as you know” there are enough leaks that require buckets to be put out when it rains.
That particular number is the first one to have been released to give fans some idea of just how difficult a full renovation of the Smith Center would be. Consider that the Lenovo Center where NC State and the Hurricanes currently play just received $300 million for their renovation and that arena was built with the structure in place for the extra revenue that UNC lacks. It’s hard not to see that the case is being laid out that in the long run the “cheaper” option—and also the one that will bring in more revenue—would be to build up an arena from the ground up on land the university already owns.
Groundbreaking Held for Northfield's New Community Ice Hockey Facility
On Thursday, August 14th, members of the community gathered to celebrate the next step in the new ice arena project: the groundbreaking of the arena. The event drew nearly 100 people to the site, which is set to be built on Honey Locust Drive and Cannon Road in southern Northfield. Among the several speakers is Ashlyn Paukert, who will be one of the captains of the Girls Raider Hockey Team this year:
“This will be more than just a building, this will be a place where athletes will grow, families will gather, in our community will come together.” – Ashyln Paukert of the Raider Girls Hockey Team
Representing her family, Laura Kay Gleason Allen spoke about her family, who donated the land for the project.
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