Published: December 27, 2008 08:57 pm      

Committee of Champions eyes moving forward

By Michael Pineda

The Duncan Banner

Beset by a struggling economy, the City of Champions project is alive and well. A little over $500,000 has been put away in the bank since the project was formally announced last summer.

Overall, the project is split up into five phases with the price tag of the first phase coming in at over $5 million. Gaudy numbers? Yes, considering where the project is now in terms of raising funds. Impossible? No. In fact, the project is just getting started in terms of raising the necessary funds.

“To date, the focus has been on alumni,” Committee of Champions Chairman Scott Street said. “And we have only sent out letters to 2,000 on our list of 12,000.”

The committee plans on maintaining its approach to alumni while moving forward with donation requests to corporations as well as exploring grant possibilities.

“It is important to try and keep getting the message out,” Street said. “The first phase is a multi-year campaign and we hope to move somewhat quickly.”

Moving quickly is one of the options that the committee is considering in beginning Phase 1, which consists of seven projects. For baseball, it means aluminum bleachers and an awning. For basketball, it means the installation of a hardwood floor in the old Duncan Middle School gym and air conditioning in the high school gymnasiums. An all-sport indoor training facility is slated in the phase and carries the most substantial price tag at $3.8 million and, for football, improvements are slated for the press box and lighting.

Of the projects, the press box and lighting at Halliburton Stadium are the two that are in the most disrepair and require the more urgent attention.

“We are looking at the most critical and that is the press box,” Street said. “And the lighting is attached to the press box. We didn’t want to focus on football first, that was just the area of need.”

The current press box is in a state of disrepair with holes in the flooring and leakage problems. Mushrooms have been found growing in the structure.

With the addition of a new press box, new additions would have to be made, including an elevator to meet current building codes.

The cost of building a new press box and taking care of the lighting runs to more than $1 million, leaving the committee over $500,000 short of reaching the necessary funding.

The question that lies in front of the committee members at this point is how to proceed with Phase 1.

“Option 1 is that we can continue to raise money,” Street said. “Option 2 is that we can raise money and start some construction.”

If construction were started, it would not bear immediate fruits for the upcoming season but would put the project in position to move forward with other parts of Phase 1, including the installation of hardwood floors at the old middle school to provide relief to the middle school programs. Because of available practice space, the middle school teams have to alternate using the middle school facility with that of the Simmons Center.

The project has been able to build momentum with the holidays nearing with two substantial donations from the Duncan Quarterback Club and AT&T.

Street has been encouraged by the amount of donations received for the project, given the current state of the economy.

“It has had an impact, no one could have expected it, but we have been pleased with the fundraising that has occurred,” Street said. “We have to continue to keep the momentum going in the right direction.”

In order to bolster the effort, the committee is going to hire a coordinator to be the face of the fundraising efforts. The coordinator, who is expected to be hired at the beginning of the year, will be hired on a contract basis of either six or 12 months and will draw compensation from donations. The position could evolve into a full-time position, based on the needs of the project.

“The amount of work is substantial because we want to do this right,” Street said. “Our first and foremost priority is for the kids.”