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Mitchell Stadium Rent increasing.


futbolking
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Rent for Mitchell Stadium is going up for the school systems, from $35,000 to $50,000 per year.  Quite a steep jump to digest in one year for a school system.  Talk around Tazewell County is that Graham may be forced to play home games at THS on Thursday nights this season.

 

My two cents.... I would like to see Graham have their own stadium at the High School, nothing too fancy.  Something like Floyd County or Marion has. Probably could be financed for what they are paying in rent at Mitchell.  Obviously the Graham / Bluefield game could be held at Mitchell Stadium, with the teams splitting the gate each year.

 

 

bleachers.JPG

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8 minutes ago, futbolking said:

Rent for Mitchell Stadium is going up for the school systems, from $35,000 to $50,000 per year.  Quite a steep jump to digest in one year for a school system.  Talk around Tazewell County is that Graham may be forced to play home games at THS on Thursday nights this season.

 

My two cents.... I would like to see Graham have their own stadium at the High School, nothing too fancy.  Something like Floyd County or Marion has. Probably could be financed for what they are paying in rent at Mitchell.  Obviously the Graham / Bluefield game could be held at Mitchell Stadium, with the teams splitting the gate each year.

 

 

05b041892a85c5b4cd36363024980478.jpg

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5 minutes ago, UVAObserver said:

Cold.

Cold that the rent is increasing so sharply?  Or Cold that Graham would have to play at THS?  That's just old man at Hardees talk, but you never know...sometimes those old men have good sources.

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You can't finance a stadium on 50K a year.  Without the rent from Mercer and Tazewell Counties there is no Mitchell Stadium to play the Graham-Beaver game.  The stadium would most likely be sold to Bluefield College which is kind of ironic since they are who the stadium was built for in the first place in 1935.  Bluefield didn't play it's first game there until 1936 and they didn't play there full time until 1937.  Same for Graham. They both continued to play at Wade Field for 2 years with a few exceptions.

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11 minutes ago, Bluefield researcher said:

You can't finance a stadium on 50K a year.  Without the rent from Mercer and Tazewell Counties there is no Mitchell Stadium to play the Graham-Beaver game.  The stadium would most likely be sold to Bluefield College which is kind of ironic since they are who the stadium was built for in the first place in 1935.  Bluefield didn't play it's first game there until 1936 and they didn't play there full time until 1937.  Same for Graham. They both continued to play at Wade Field for 2 years with a few exceptions.

By Stadium, I really mean aluminum bleachers, something like what I have pictured above.  I have no idea what something like that would cost, More than 50K to finance something like that??? not sure, just something to throw out there.  Anybody know how much this would run a school system?

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Well you have to take care of the grounds year round, modern locker rooms for teams and officials, press box with working P. A. System, concessions that pass health inspections, electric bills, rest rooms, parking lot, clean up crews etc.  You want to build a place that is up to playoff standards.  You are looking at least at half a million without synthetic turf which is another million.  50k to rent a field is not a bad deal. It is tough to except when the rent has been so low before.  What needs to be done is charge Bluefield College three times as much as they are now since they use (and abuse) the field almost every day.

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5 minutes ago, Bluefield researcher said:

Well you have to take care of the grounds year round, modern locker rooms for teams and officials, concessions that pass health inspections, electric bills, rest rooms, parking lot, clean up crews etc.  You want to build a place that is up to playoff standards.  You are looking at least at half a million without synthetic turf which is another million.  50k to rent a field is not a bad deal. It is tough to except when the rent has been so low before.  What needs to be done is charge Bluefield College three times as much as they are now since they use (and abuse) the field almost every day.

I see, there's a lot more to it then meets the eye.  And I totally agree about Bluefield College footing a bigger share of the bill.  The "Snow Plow" incident a couple of seasons back did a number on that carpet, I was there when that fiasco happened.  A slight increase for the school systems...say up to $40,000 per year... and charge BC around $80,000 a year would seem fair to me.  BC still getting a good deal considering how much they use it.  I believe the City stated that they needed about $150 K a year to operate it?  I think I saw that figure somewhere.  It would work out

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Looks like five sets in your picture. One set of compliant bleachers similar to the to those run about 30,000(around 190 seats per set). Found a press box that was 8x30 that ran 35,000. Not overly expensive but certainly not cheap. 

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I hope they can come up with a workable solution, it would be weird to go to see a Graham game not played at Mitchell Stadium, speaking of improvements to stadiums I would like to see some renovations to Legion Field in Gate City, the stadium is really showing it's age.

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City of Bluefield may price themselves out of the market.  Ask yourself...would you rather have $119,000 or none???

Mercer Co. BOE and Tazewell Co. BOE have paid $37,000/year to use the facility, Bluefield College pays $45,000/year (they practice there, too).  City of Bluefield has said it costs $130,000/year to run Mitchell Stadium, a number I find hard to believe, but want to start charging the three mentioned above $50,000/year...using fuzzy math, the City of Bluefield is fleecing the Mercer Co. BOE, the Tazewell Co. BOE, and Bluefield College to the tune of about $20,000.  Not only that, but the City takes 20% of what the schools do in concessions. 

The City of Bluefield says the money goes to improvements at Mitchell Stadium but I haven't noticed any since the remodel 10 or so years ago that was funded by the Shott Foundation.  Maybe someone should look into where this money is really going...

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Wise Central use to rent/pay UVA WISE field for $500.00 a game(at least that's what I was told by the campus police) the college provided campus police /parking and the school had clubs clean up after the game.I don't see how that the schools bluefield/graham could make any money with the rent being so high. GOOD luck to both schools in getting this resolved,

 

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40 minutes ago, jarhead24219 said:

Wise Central use to rent/pay UVA WISE field for $500.00 a game(at least that's what I was told by the campus police) the college provided campus police /parking and the school had clubs clean up after the game.I don't see how that the schools bluefield/graham could make any money with the rent being so high. GOOD luck to both schools in getting this resolved,

 

UVA-Wise has some huge money donors that would finance everything that school needed and more.  That explains the paltry rate for Central.  

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Ah, a tradition on this board like none other, the calling for Graham to build their own stadium and get away from Mitchell has rose once again.

 

I feel like this topic should coincide with the locusts coming into the area to keep the idea a little fresher. 

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19 minutes ago, cityofRaven said:

Ah, a tradition on this board like none other, the calling for Graham to build their own stadium and get away from Mitchell has rose once again.

 

I feel like this topic should coincide with the locusts coming into the area to keep the idea a little fresher. 

Graham will never have their "own stadium".  They will always be forced to pay rent or play at Tazewell...simple as that...;^)...

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2 hours ago, jarhead24219 said:

Wise Central use to rent/pay UVA WISE field for $500.00 a game(at least that's what I was told by the campus police) the college provided campus police /parking and the school had clubs clean up after the game.I don't see how that the schools bluefield/graham could make any money with the rent being so high. GOOD luck to both schools in getting this resolved,

 

 

2 hours ago, UVAObserver said:

UVA-Wise has some huge money donors that would finance everything that school needed and more.  That explains the paltry rate for Central.  

 

Sure would be nice to have a local college foot the bill to use their stadium...

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UVA Wise allowed Central to use its field for a lot of different reasons. One being, Central was NOT allowed to host games at Carroll Dale stadium due to safety... Something with the lights? In theory, they could have used old Pound high but there was discussions about giving that back to the town and I am not for sure the field was ready for gamed at the point this was going on. UVAW more so gave Central a helping hand when needed. 

Secondly, this was a great marketing tool for UVAW for the county. Come use our facilities for basically nothing and check campus out. This would bring Wise people to campus as well as 5 teams to see campus, etc. Helps with enrollment, community outreach, maybe even recruiting to an extent but we all know Lusk never recruited west of Roanoke lol. 

 

As far at Mitchell stadium, does Graham even make enough money to pay for the facility during the year? 

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I can't really see how using Tazewell on Thursday nights is a viable option for several reasons:

1. The travel costs of busing players, band and cheerleaders down there to play on a Thursday night not just monetary but also the entire congregation getting in very late on a night with school the next day.

2. Tazewell doesn't exactly have a lot of extra space for dressing rooms and parking they would be using the lockers in the field house themselves that time of year and they would be finishing practice overlapping with pregame activities which would take away more from the parking even more.

3. Tazewell really doesn't have any restroom or concession areas.  The Lions club had to move into the elementary school cafeteria for their concessions for health department reasons I was told so both groups would have no place to store any supplies everything would have to be carried in for everything. The home restrooms are also in the elementary school neither one are ideal accommodations.

4. Tazewell's field condition deteriorates pretty quickly over the course of a season by the end it's pretty much a mud pit as it is used by high school, JV, middle school and youth teams all season.  I assume that Graham would need a place for middle school and JV to play as well.  That would be a scheduling nightmare.

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35 minutes ago, techfan said:

I can't really see how using Tazewell on Thursday nights is a viable option for several reasons:

1. The travel costs of busing players, band and cheerleaders down there to play on a Thursday night not just monetary but also the entire congregation getting in very late on a night with school the next day.

2. Tazewell doesn't exactly have a lot of extra space for dressing rooms and parking they would be using the lockers in the field house themselves that time of year and they would be finishing practice overlapping with pregame activities which would take away more from the parking even more.

3. Tazewell really doesn't have any restroom or concession areas.  The Lions club had to move into the elementary school cafeteria for their concessions for health department reasons I was told so both groups would have no place to store any supplies everything would have to be carried in for everything. The home restrooms are also in the elementary school neither one are ideal accommodations.

4. Tazewell's field condition deteriorates pretty quickly over the course of a season by the end it's pretty much a mud pit as it is used by high school, JV, middle school and youth teams all season.  I assume that Graham would need a place for middle school and JV to play as well.  That would be a scheduling nightmare.

1. That is three busses and nto any different than basketball games or other sporting events held within the week in Winter/Spring. Mute point. 

2. From my understanding, most Thursday practices are "walk throughs" meaning they are complete around 5pm. This a universal thing for most teams? not sure. But I doubt it would create a problem. 

3. Tazewell seems to get by just fine with limited resources. If graham was to play at Tazewell, maybe the county would splurge for proper facilities?

4. Probably the only credible thing you mentioned. No problem with JV/MS playing all away games though. They play a limited schedule anyway... Is it fair? probably not, but these are figuratively the cards that are dealt. Sacrifices will have to be made if this was the move. 

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52 minutes ago, techfan said:

I can't really see how using Tazewell on Thursday nights is a viable option for several reasons:

1. The travel costs of busing players, band and cheerleaders down there to play on a Thursday night not just monetary but also the entire congregation getting in very late on a night with school the next day.

 

I guarantee that cost will be much less than the $50,000 the City of Bluefield wants to charge for the use of Mitchell Stadium...

 

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If the City of Bluefield doesn't negotiate that price.  There may be a very good possibility that Graham will be playing at Tazewell on Thursday or Saturday nights.  They would have a couple of Friday games during Tazewell's open week and when Tazewell is away.  

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