Big plans for stadium project

JOLIET -- The Memorial Stadium renovation project kicks off Nov. 24 with a ceremony that will include everything from the national anthem to a cow pie raffle and rolling bulldozers.

It's an important day for the Joliet Park District, which has major plans not only for the stadium.

The project includes the creation of an additional 68 acres of nearby playing fields, which will more than triple the amount of space now available for future soccer, football and even lacrosse games when completed in 2011.

Park District Executive Director Dominic Egizio said the added fields could be used to create tournament space for large events.

"It's going to be about 23 fields," Egizio said.

Much of that will be cut up into smaller fields for different age groups. But the park district will have the ability to convert the smaller fields into regulation-sized space for major events.

"For a big tournament, we could get nine fields with Joliet Memorial Stadium being the 10th," he said.

Park officials envision preliminary games being played outside of the stadium with the championship games going inside Memorial Stadium with its 10,000 seats.

The stadium is the centerpiece of the project, and will be the site of the groundbreaking ceremony at 4 p.m. Nov. 24.

The cow pie raffle is getting some attention. Egizio said Friday that 30 people already have bought tickets for the raffle announced this week. The park district wants to sell at least 100 tickets at $100 apiece.

A cow will be let loose on the field, which will be covered with squares. Whichever square gets the most of the cow's excrement will be declared the winner. If 100 tickets are sold, the winner can make $5,000. The other money will be used to buy field equipment for future sports events at the stadium.

And, the grass is going anyway, since a major feature of the renovations is new artificial field turf, which will allow the park district to expand the type of events at the stadium.

The renovations also include a rubberized track, which not only replaces the asphalt that is there now but will be made of the same material used in the track at the Beijing Olympics, said Egizio.

Egizio said there are plans to hold a Joliet invitational track and field event in 2011 that would bring in grade school, high school and collegiate competition over a series of days.

Such an event, he said, "under the lights with a facility that seats 10,000 is very unique."