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La Crosse on Thursday — but did not offer to extend the contract it has with the school for its annual state track meet.
While pleased that UW-L Foundation officials have raised $6.1 million toward the proposed $15 million Memorial Field Stadium project, WIAA Executive Director Doug Chickering declined to say whether the organization would continue to hold its annual track meet at UW-L past its 2008 contract.
When reminded he told the Tribune in December 2005 he would extend the stay with another multiple-year contract if UW-L officials could show him significant financial commitments toward a new facility, he defined significant as the “continued progress of the project.”
“I’d be surprised if it didn’t come to fruition, but we all have our rules and responsibilities and we’ll be monitoring the progress,” he said.
The contract will renew itself for an additional year if neither the WIAA or UW-L backs out by Oct. 1, he added.
“It’s what I expected,” UW-L Foundation officer Mike Desmond said of Chickering’s comments, which came during and after an afternoon press conference. “I don’t think he can make that commitment.”
Chickering said UW-L has run the track meet well since it came to La Crosse in 1990, and the community has been welcoming.
But he also noted the WIAA would consider moving the meet elsewhere if the project “stumbled and did not remain on par with where it is.”
Members of a steering committee raising money for the project and area public officials stressed the support is there for a new facility, and said they want the event to stay in La Crosse, noting its estimated $1.5 million economic impact.
Desmond, the foundation officer directing fundraising for the project, knows the current UW-L stadium is inadequate, with structural damage and few improvement since the 1980s. When it was resurfaced in 2003, UW-L was told the all-weather track could take no further resurfacing.
Seating is an issue as well: Roger Harring Stadium can seat about 4,500, but at least 16,000 spectators, plus 2,900 athletes, are expected in La Crosse today for the start of the 111th annual state track meet.
The proposed stadium complex — which would have capacity for 10,000 spectators, plus artificial turf and a new nine-lane track — is part of the UW-L Foundation’s $45 million capital campaign that also will fund a proposed academic building, scholarships and grants.
The WIAA would like to see a new facility by 2009, Chickering said. They would consider moving the meet for a year if construction prevented the event from being held at UW-L.
Larry Terry, UW-L football coach and the meet’s onsite coordinator, said campus officials believe they can break ground on a new facility right after a state track meet ends, hopefully in 2008, and have the new complex completed before the next meet.
While Desmond knows the fundraising still has “a long way to go,” he noted no dollars were pledged toward the project until students agreed to provide $2.5 million in February, and now more than $6 million is committed.
Kate Schott can be reached at Kate.Schott@lacrossetribune.com or (608) 791-8226.
