New Stadium Planned for East High School

Laramie County School District 1 hopes to have a new athletic stadium at East High School open for athletic events by the fall of 2015, according to Laramie County School District 1 Superintendent Mark Stock.

He says East's long time stadium, Okie Blanchard Stadium, has mostly outlived it's useful life and would have required an influx of money to remain open over the long term. He says the other issue with Okie Blanchard at it's current location is that the district wants to build the new Carey Junior High School on the site, meaning the existing stadium would have to be relocated  The new stadium will also be known as Okie Blanchard Stadium, according to Stock.

The new $12 million stadium will feature artificial turf on the football field and will be located just north of the current stadium, according to Stock. He says even though the new facility won't  host sporting events until 2015, district officials hope to have the new turf in place by June and are planning to use the new field as a practice facility as soon as this fall. He says the state will pay roughly $4.5 million of the cost for the new stadium, with the district paying the balance of the cost of construction.