Fairlawncat

Easy one for me cause I volunteered at Wade Center for a summer camp up their years ago and they told me the history of it. Said Bill Dudley played on that field.

Wade. Bluefield and Graham or maybe Bluefeld was named Beaver back then.

Bluefield WV, mark this down, is committing financial suicide and in 5 years, the discussion will be where Bluefield High plays. Bluefield WV is a dying town with a tax base that moved to Florida, Myrtle Beach, or is dead. When they lose Graham and Bluefield College and possibly Bluefield State, watch what happens. The question will be, where does Bluefield High play. You don't play your cards when you have no cards to play. If you think there's panic or discomfort with Grahams situation and T. County now, it's nothing like what will occur with Bluefield High in 3 or 5 years.

I agree with most of what you wrote, but it's still a temporary fix. You Assume that paying the fee for Mitchell Stadium and this incident will finally get TCSB in motion and planning and that they will build a stadium once that new contract is paid to Mitchell, TC ain't building brother. Bluefield WV didn't make a business decision. They made a crippling and dumb decision because when Graham gets their own field and Bluefield College and possibly Bluefield State follow, Bluefield, WV, will be in a mess. They have no tax base in Bluefield, WV. They made an ignorant decision. As for acting emotionally, I think that might be you and being hung up on how it's going to "hurt the kids." Are you sure it's not hurting You more than your son? Your son will be disappointed and upset not to play at Mitchell, but it will last 1 day until he's hanging out with his girlfriend and friends. But for you? How about you? I think this more about You than it is the "kids". The kids don't give a damn. They just want to play.

Brother is it really that impacting on a kid to play 5 games out of Mitchell and still play 3 games at Graham in which those kids make history? 3 home playoff games at Tazewell? Is that that big of a stressor or setback for kids? Dude, there's Lou Gehrigs disease, possible nuclear war, metastatic brain cancer, losing a job you had for 20 years, those are setbacks. The kids are worried about their girlfriends and the next social media post. They won't be scarred for life by traveling some for one year. You are describing a true first world problem. I don't claim to know the details on planning, but I do know Eric. I played against him and kept in touch. Betcha Graham has a fully functional home stadium by August 2026. Won't be 3 years. Even if the planning was bad and sounds like it was, everyone in the situation is now here at this point and there's no going back. All you can do now is plan correctly or for the future.

The guilty party here is the screw job by Bluefield, West Va. You have people in Bluefield, VA and Tazewell County, VA, trying to pick up the pieces and looking for lidocaine to rub on their tails because it begins to hurt after many years. From an outsiders perspective, I see the following from reading this board. You have a 6 time state champion that doesn't have its own football stadium, has been treated like dirt on occasion by Bluefield, WV over the years, and people in Bluefield, VA, want what most other HS's have. A home stadium and I think the TCSB wants the same. 3 mistakes by Bluefield, VA in the past. Should have went through with it and named your town back to Graham when it came up years ago on this board. Should have followed through around 2016 with your stadium build. Should have never played at Mitchell Stadium again from the very first time you were the home team and had to set on the away side. If I were Graham, I would go full steam ahead with the stadium build and there will always be short sided thinking fans who want their "son" to be able to play his junior or senior year at Mitchell so the family video album can be complete. What these short sided thinkers aren't considering is all the students before them or to come after them for the next 50 years. One year of ugliness Graham fans, one year of debates and discussions with TCSB and local politics and Bluefield, WV and some travel, even for home playoff games, but then it's over. You get your stadium and the kids for the next 50 to 70 years benefit long after you are gone.

Yep, but could be worse than that. They are going to piss Tazewell County off to the point to where they wash their hands with it if not careful. You never want to piss off the people funding you, even if the people funding you have kind of screwed you over for 50 years. Piss them off if you want after you get your stadium built. That's good news for Graham fans. Don't need any sessions or talks or discussions or meetings with Bluefield, WV. Let it go. The only talks Bluefield, VA, needs to be doing is with TCSB to build Graham a stadium and where they will play their home games in 2025. After the peeps in Bluefield, VA, get their stadium funded and the construction is in the works, then the folks in Bluefield, VA-Graham High should bring up playing and negotiating the Big Rivalry game at Mitchell Stadium each year. I can't imagine the politics of a new stadium. My wife is on the School Board at Radford and you wouldn't believe the craziness just trying to get the visiting bleachers redone from 2 years ago with the foundation issues.

Not a smart choice. By reading this article, they are still fighting for a way to play at Mitchell Stadium. Suffer, travel, have some pain, going to be a struggle for 12 months for Graham and Bluefield, VA, but you benefit for the next 50 years by doing that. I read that article and I don't get the feeling the town guy is fighting to play at Graham High this year. I get the feeling he's trying to play at Mitchell Stadium and negotiating without the School Board. That type of thinking is what cost Graham at stadium around 8 years ago. Even if you want to play some games at Mitchell, pretend for the moment you don't want to if you are Bluefield, VA, officials. They should focus on doing anything possible to get the stadium built at Graham High, then when the money is there, start back up with the Mitchell Stadium stuff again. Doing that stuff before the stadium is built is going to cost Graham from having a stadium at Graham High.

Wouldn't matter if it's over 5 season. Same result. Same discussion from years ago from what I've read on here. Same discussion in 3 seasons or 4 seasons. That result would be that Graham still wouldn't have it's own stadium and the contract talks begin again and Bluefield raises the price. When you bang your head on the wall and keep doing it, in order to make it stop hurting, you stop banging it. You do something different. You don't slow down the banging. You don't give yourself more time to prepare to stop the head bangin. You don't plan a meeting to stop the head bangin. You immediately stop the head banging and the head stops hurting. Bluefield, WV has had decades and Tazewell County of head bangin. Probably time for those in Bluefield, VA, to put a stop to it. Don't delay it, don't prolong it, don't slow it down. Stop it.

Just my guess, there has been 40 plus years of "ample time to complete all necessary planning and improvements." I think the impact on student-athletes is being heavily considered, but not just the one's now at Graham, but for the next 50 years by giving them their own stadium. You wrote spending 100K is a small price for a high quality season. That's "season." Kicking can down the road and doing the same thing. After 75 plus years, it might be time to do something different and not be so focused on this season or the next 2 years, but be more focused on the next 50 years. I think it's about the next 50 seasons, not the next 12 months. Every other team in the SWD has had that opportunity. You get things done by action, not kicking the can down the road in order to feel good for one season. Short term sacrifice for long term gain. In the end, hundreds of more players at Graham High benefit over the next half a century compared to the 50 that it rough for 12 months. I think siding with the hundreds over the next 50 years is an easy choice. We had squabbles at Radford when we had to repair the stadium for the foundation crack. Some wanted to kick the can down the road. Thank God we had enough that immediately took action and finished the job fairly quick, and we ain't talkin about it 2 years later.

100K is a lot of money and that is just this cycle. What about an additional price raise when that contract is up. I would bet it's another increase. Short term sacrifice for long term gain G-Men fans. That's what your football team has done in preparation off the field, in the weight room, and in practice that has made them the best C2 program in Virginia. The kids get it. You guys as adults obviously can get it also. Don't play at Mitchell Stadium. Be done with them. The seating capacity can be easily fixed and is the major worry from what I read. The major cost of a stadium is the foundation for the seats, excavating, the lighting system, the sound system and speakers, drainage, piping, water lines, electrical, the concession stands, the visiting locker room, the parking lots including excavating/leveling/paving, and the seats. Tazewell County will have knocked out all of the above. If the stadium is what, only 4K, but all of the above are paid for, and you want to get it to 7K, an additional 3K seats? That's not that difficult. The town of Bluefield, VA, and boosters could raise that money with donations for those extra 3K seats in 24 months. The foundation and grunt work and bulk of the stadium is paid for by TC. Adding 3K seats is actually not terribly expensive since you aren't starting from scratch. I don't know if your place fits 7K, but if it does, assuming the stadium is completely done and finalized by T. County, adding 3K isn't terribly costly and it's not cheap, but it's cheap enough to where Bluefield, VA, could raise that money on their own. Cost of one seat is about 1K if the grunt work/rest of the stadium is done. That's about 300K to add 3,000 seats. It's alot, but it's not so much that Bluefield, VA and Graham boosters couldn't raise over a 2 or 3 or 4 year period. If I were a Bluefield, VA/Graham fan, I would ensure the stadium plans prior to being built have room for expansion if that's possible and the location is large enough. It only take 1 or 2 millionaires, either now, or 10 years from now to easily say, I'm going to give 500K, lets add some seats. I wouldn't limit myself or lock in 4000 seats permanently with no room for expansion, if the place is big enough to hold more than that. it could be a point in the future financially to where Bluefield, VA, wouldn't need to ask TC for money for expansion and 1 or 2 millionaires for 20 people that are approaching millionaire status donate that money in one month. Those things can and do happen.

Final: Appo 3, Poquoson 2. Final: Auburn 3, Rappahannock 2 Final: Fort Chiswell 4, Northumberland 1 Auburn and Fort Chiswell in the Class 1 State Title Game tomorrow. Appo and King William in the Class 2 Title Game tomorrow. Fort Chiswell is not a surprise. They are one heck of a baseball team.

Final. King William 3, Buckingham County 2. Buckingham County came in with 1 loss on the season, and loses by 1 run to KW. In 2024, Buckingham came in with no losses and lost to King William by a score of 7-6. I'm hearing Poquoson vs Strasburg has been moved again, back to tomorrow at 2pm.

King William at Buckingham County. All tied up at 2-2 in the fourth. Strasburg at Poquoson at 5pm today

I know. Point I'm making is, the take by Poquoson and Strasburg is that if one team in the state tournament can move a game up to give you a position for resting an ace, then all teams should be able to. So, all 4 teams in the west (2 games) should be able to do the same. Buckingham, from what I read on twitter, was the first to move their game to tomorrow.