Norwin stadium targeted in makeover that includes new home grandstand

Norwin is planning on an ambitious project to raze the Knights Stadium’s home grandstand next year.

The Norwin School Board is expected to vote on April 22 to approve the project. None of the board members at the meeting Monday voiced any objection to the project.

The district could be in a position to advertise for bids, possibly later this month, said Bill Bojalad, who is head of the district’s facilities committee.

Getting the bids from contractors would give the district an estimate how much it would cost, Bojalad said following the meeting. Design work has been done on the project, he said.

The board looked at multiple proposals for the project at the stadium, which has problems with concrete spalling, deteriorating handrails and water leakage, Bojalad said. Just making repairs would not address the major problems with the stadium’s home grandstands, Bojalad said.

Construction of the new facilities could take between 16 months and 20 months, according to a timeline developed by DRAW Collective, an architectural firm based in Mt. Lebanon.

The condition of the stadium’s home seating area was detailed in an August 2023 report from DRAW Collective that found handrails detaching from the 60-year-old structure, deterioration in the concrete and masonry. The field house, visitors and home grandstands and several support facilities, have “a pressing list of safety and deferred maintenance concerns,” Cassandra Renninger, a DRAW Collective architect, told the board last year.

The scope of the project also will entail improving the fieldhouse, the visitor-side facilities and the surrounding site.

With the work projected to occur during the 2025-2026 school year, the school’s soccer, field hockey and lacrosse could play on the field because the visiting stands likely will be sufficient for the number of fans attending those games, said Michael Burrell, Norwin’s athletic director.

Burrell declined to comment on how the district would handle its “home” football schedule for the 2025 season, saying that it is too early to determine what course of action will be taken.

To pay for the project, the school board has borrowed $9.9 million through bonds issued on April 8, said Ryan Kirsch, business affairs director.

To cover the debt incurred by a bond issue of almost $10 million, the school district would have allocate the money generated by .95 mills to cover that annual debt service, Kirsch said.