The wood creaks. It might even bounce a little as you walk across the planks. A look from underneath reveals rusted metal and some wooden blocks bolted in spots to make the planks sturdier.
They’re the same bleachers that have been at Memorial Field for nearly 60 years, and as the fall sports season approaches, fans of the Concord Crimson Tide will once again pack into the outdated structure. On everything from game days to graduations, the stands that have been around since about the time of the first moon landing are expected to withstand hundreds of thousands of pounds of weight.
The poor drainage and lighting tend to be the common gripe about Memorial Field. When it rains, water pools on the fields, rendering them unusable. When the Concord football team hosts a night game, parts of the field are cloaked in darkness. But while improved drainage and lighting might be the obvious improvements needed at the facility, the bleachers are arguably more important from a public safety perspective.
In late 2018, H.L. Turner Group, an architectural firm based in Concord that the city has used for other projects, compiled a detailed report for Jay Burgess, the city’s superintendent of public properties, outlining the state of the bleachers at Memorial Field.
“The configuration of the bleachers, condition of the wood seating and the poor condition of the press box at the top of the main bleachers are at or near their useful life,” said the report, signed by then-Senior Vice President Gerard R. Blanchette.
Despite this, city officials say they are still safe. The aged bleachers are inspected periodically by Concord city employees to make sure of that fact, but the effort required to keep on top of maintenance only becomes more time-consuming and expensive the older the structure gets.
As the city of Concord and Concord School District have now embarked on a collaborative effort to draw up renovation plans for the city’s athletic fields, the situation with the bleachers is due to be addressed.
H.L. Turner ultimately recommended replacing the current structure with aluminum bleachers, including the press box, just like communities around the state have done as they renovated old or built new athletic facilities.
Almost five years after their report, though, the same bleachers that were at or near the end of their useful life still stand, and it will likely be several more years before they are actually replaced. First, the renovation plans need to be completed, then the city-school district study commission will examine those plans, followed by debate and approval of the total project costs before construction can even begin. In the meantime, it’s up to city employees to make sure the current structure is safe for all to use.
A couple of times a year, Burgess said he and some workers from the Concord Department of Parks and Recreation give the structure a thorough examination. They’ll look for loose bolts, any cracking in the wood planks and anything else that catches their eye. They’ll also walk up and down, back and forth on the wood to make sure it’s still sturdy.
As needed, they’ll reinforce weaker spots with wood bolted underneath the planks to ensure maximum safety. Some individual boards have even been replaced due to severe damage and weathering.
The city last replaced all of the wood planks in 2015, and with a shelf life of about 10 years, they’re closing in on potentially needing to do another large-scale wood-replacement operation if the Memorial Field renovation plans don’t materialize soon enough.
“There’s almost a mile of wood here laid out,” Burgess said, while standing a few rows up on the bleachers. “It’s not an inexpensive proposition.”
There’s also the additional issue of the bleachers’ lack of compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act. The H.L. Turner report points out how the existing structure makes it challenging for someone in a wheelchair to not only have a good spot to watch a game but also allow other people to walk around them. The current ramp doesn’t allow much space to move.
Taken all together, the setup is ripe for change.
“This is essentially the same as it was built 60 years ago. Nothing’s changed,” Burgess said. “We’ve been keeping up, but it’s something that was state of the art 60 years ago that really doesn’t cut it today.”
Even though Memorial Field is fully owned by the city, the school district uses the space more than any organization, making the new collaboration between the independent entities a natural partnership.
To pay for the master plan designs, the school district donated approximately half ($70,950) of the $142,000 to fund the work.
“As users, we would make the city rec department director aware of (any issues), but that’s as far as our responsibilities go,” Concord School District Superintendent Kathleen Murphy said. “That’s why this new program that we’re undertaking where we’re sharing is really good because we both will have ownership of the field. Right now, it’s just the study but hopefully, down the road, we’ll have an opportunity to make some renovations and some changes to that field, and we’ll do that as a city and school partnership. But right now, it’s a property that’s not ours.”
Still, Murphy said, they keep tabs on the safety of the facility because coaches, players and parents are there so frequently. Regarding the bleachers in particular, Murphy said they’re still fine for all to use even if they are quite old.
“You can see the boards have weathered, but they’re not rotten. They’re not falling apart,” she said. “We don’t think they’re unsafe to use. If they were unsafe, we’d have to let the parks and recreation department know, and they unfortunately would be shut down.”
Bringing the school district on board in these discussions makes sense from the city’s perspective as well because of how frequently they utilize the space, City Councilor and former Concord School Board member Nathan Fennessy explained.
“The feedback that they get from students and parents is far more significant than we probably get at the city, at least from a timeliness perspective,” Fennessy said. “Planning long-term, as far as future uses of the facility and how best to maintain it at an appropriate level to allow them to compete in the various sports in compliance with NHIAA requirements, I think it makes a ton of sense.”
There’s still a long way to go before Memorial Field has new bleachers that are up to code and don’t require the level of maintenance that’s currently required, so Crimson Tide fans will once again have to deal with the worn-down wood as football and soccer seasons get underway.
Burgess said he’s prepared to provide his insight if asked to explain to the City Council why new bleachers are the best solution to the current situation.
“It’s not pretty,” he said. “I think it serves a need now, but I think going forward, looking at this has to be part of how we want to do this whole facility.”
And, of course, ADA compliance considerations are vital as well.
“Material condition notwithstanding, we want people to be able to enjoy it no matter what their physical condition is,” he said.
The overall project also presents the opportunity to create a space that can once again make Concord the center of high school athletics’ biggest games, which should only strengthen the momentum behind the project.
“We want it to be a field that’s inviting for our communities,” Murphy said. “We know that many years ago, Concord was really the center of activity around all the high school tournaments because it was centrally located … which is great for the city. In the future, we look to be able to go back to those days.”