The Mobile County Board of Education has committed to build on-campus football stadiums for five high schools that have previously played home games at city-owned facilities.
Board members unanimously agreed to hire Montgomery-based architecture firm McKee & Associates to design the five stadiums for Davidson High School, Williamson High School, B.C. Rain High School, LeFlore High School and Vigor High School. The move comes as the school system negotiates with management of Ladd-Peebles Sports and Entertainment Complex over hosted games during the 2021 season.
Joe Mishkin, owner of stadium manager The Mishkin Group, confirmed to Lagniappe that the company currently does not have an agreement in place with the school system for the upcoming football season.
Last week, Mishkin said the stadium was negotiating with the system to host a record 21 games next season, with both Vigor and LeFlore moving home games to Ladd over Prichard Stadium. However, Mishkin told Lagniappe on Wednesday that the company has not heard from the schools since then.
The stadium, last year, had raised the rental fee it charges each school per game to $3,000. At $3,000 per game per team, a loss of five home games for each school would equal $75,000 per year. Under previous contracts, Mishkin said Wednesday, the stadium gave the schools parking revenue, but kept concession revenue.
As for the board’s decision, Mishkin said he was “surprised.”
“I had no clue,” he said.
This isn’t the first setback the decades-old stadium and its management group have faced in recent years. The University of South Alabama’s decision to move its home games to an on-campus stadium at the beginning of the 2020 season and the Senior Bowl moving to the same West Mobile facility forced Ladd to rebrand and rely more heavily on high school football games as well as concerts and other events.
With the high schools leaving Ladd as soon as the 2022 season, the stadium could be left with only one annual Historically Black Colleges and Universities game and the LendingTree Bowl on its docket, as well as Murphy High School’s home games.
However, Mishkin mentioned the success of the recent Billy Strings concert and the possibility of bringing in even more HBCU games in the future.
“We will work hard to get other events in there,” he said. “We’ll try to get more concerts or more HBCU games.”
Dr. William Foster, a school board member, said the decision would benefit the five schools from a convenience standpoint.
“It’s just a whole lot simpler if you have stadiums on campus,” Foster said. “It reduces transportation costs for the athletes, the band students, the cheerleaders, all over the place.”
Foster said he doubts it had anything to do with the fees Ladd charges, or the negotiations with the management company.
Brad Lowell, athletic director for the school system, told Lagniappe that having on-campus stadiums would be positive for both the schools and the communities they’re in.
“Every school wants to have a chance to have a stadium on campus,” Lowell said. “A lot of it had to do with the wishlist.”
Lowell praised Ladd’s management over the years.
“Ladd has been great to us,” he said. “Our relationship with them is very good.”
Lowell added that the move would allow schools and the system some autonomy when it comes to schedules. Already for 2020, the system is looking to play some of the 21 games at Ladd on Saturdays, which is not ideal. The system has traditionally played football games on Thursdays at Ladd, as well as the more regular Friday night matchups.
B.C. Rain’s on-campus stadium would mean the football team would no longer play home games at city-owned Trimmier Park. The city does not charge the school rent for use of the stadium there, city spokesman Jason Johnson confirmed.
Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s office called the move “exciting news for the schools and their fans,” but said in a statement it had no part in the school board’s decision.
“As for Ladd-Peebles Stadium, we know MCPSS will be playing multiple football games there through the end of the 2021 season,” Stimpson said in a statement. “We’ll be working with the Ladd-Peebles Board of Directors, the Mobile City Council and the community to figure out the best path forward after that.”
There are currently no plans for Murphy High School to have an on-campus stadium, Lowell said. While it has been previously discussed the amount of property around the campus makes it a difficult proposition. Murphy will continue to use Ladd for its home football games.
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