Butler CC football stadium nearly complete
With less than a month before the kickoff of the first Butler Community College home football game of the season, the finishing touches are being placed on the new, sterling BG Products Veterans Stadium.
"It's a $12 million project that is a three-way partnership between the city of El Dorado, the El Dorado USD 490 school district and the college," said Matt Jacobs, BCC assistant athletic director. "You're going to see little kids playing little league football on here on Saturday mornings, you're going to see the high school team playing here Friday nights, the Butler soccer team, the track and field team in the spring and of course the football team in the fall."
Jacobs said the turf and track are down and the bleachers are in. The track still needs to be painted, and the skybox and press box have minor work left. The majority of the remaining work is on restrooms and concession stands.
Speakers were tested at the stadium this week, as well as a videoboard only fitting for one of the top junior college programs in the nation.
"It's going to be awesome for our football program, because of the success that they've had over the years, to play in a stadium that is second to none," Jacobs said. "As far as junior college stadiums rank in the nation, we have the biggest videoboard of any junior college stadium in the country."
Butler's football team enters the season ranked No. 2 in the NJCAA, behind East Mississippi Community College. Butler has been slated to win the Jayhawk Conference in the preseason poll.
There will be no cupcakes for the Grizzlies to open the new stadium. Butler will test out the new turf on Sept. 1 against Blinn College.
"We figured coming in that we'd be No. 1 or No. 2 based on our success last year," Jacobs said. "We're also excited about the fact that Blinn is No. 5 in the nation."
Kickoff for the first game of the season is set for 7 p.m. It is the first of five regular season home games on the schedule.
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