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District planning to have Shawnee Mission South stadium renovations wrapped in time for graduation ceremonies

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Construction workers prepped the west stands at Shawnee Mission South District Stadium this week for the start of work to build a new press box.
Construction workers prepped the west stands at Shawnee Mission South District Stadium this week for the start of work to build a new press box.

If all goes according to plan, families attending high school graduation ceremonies at Shawnee Mission South District Stadium this spring will be seated in a fully renovated facility.

Work has been under way for more than two months on the $6.5 million project, which is financed by proceeds from the $223 million bond issue approved by district voters in January 2015. Built in 1966, the stadium at south had shown significant signs of aging, and was not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The stadium renovation project will add accessible infrastructure for persons with disabilities as well as a new press box that will rise above the top of the bleachers on the west side of the stadium. Here’s a rendering of the new press box facility:

Press_Box

The project will also produce a brand new concessions stand at the south end of the stadium that will be flanked by new restroom facilities. The dated concessions facilities under the east and west bleachers will be removed. Here’s a rendering of the new concessions area:

Concessions_SMS_Stadium

Deputy Superintendent Kenny Southwick said this week that the construction timeline was shaping up so that it looked like crews would finish their work in time for graduation ceremonies this spring — though if some work still remains, the facility will still be able to accommodate the ceremonies. Southwick said the stadium project had come in under the district’s initial cost projections, and that the saved funds were being reallocated to other district construction projects.

Shawnee Mission North District Stadium received a similar set of improvements back in the mid-2000s after a bond issue approved in 2004. Capacity of the South stadium will be approximately 7,500 after the renovation project.

 

About the author

Jay Senter
Jay Senter

Jay Senter is the founder and publisher of the Post.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in business at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where he worked as a reporter and editor at The Badger Herald.

He went on to receive a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Kansas, where he earned the Calder Pickett Award. While he was in graduate school, he also worked as a reporter for the Lawrence Journal-World.

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