Both districts recently passed bond issues to build the facilities.
Edmond Santa Fe opened its new stadium last year and all Edmond high schools started playing their home games there, but Edmond Memorial and Edmond North will soon get home fields of their own.
And both Putnam City North and Putnam City West are scheduled to start this summer on stadiums in their own back yards.
In the case of Edmond, the district had been paying rent to the University of Central Oklahoma for Wantland Field and all but three games last season were moved to Santa Fe.
Work is set to start this summer at Edmond North and they should be hosting home games in the fall of 2018. After completion, work will start across town at Edmond Memorial with the likely ability to host games starting in 2019.
In addition to no longer paying rental fee, a fourth high school is planned for Edmond (land has been purchased at Air Depot and Covell) which would make the UCO arrangement almost impossible to manage.
The work at Putnam North and Putnam West will run simultaneously and both new facilities should be ready for the 2018 season, at which time Putnam City will have the district's original stadium all to themselves.
Although scheduling had been difficult for the three PC schools, through a spokesperson the district said, “The intent of the improvements is to build a greater sense of community at each school and within each feeder pattern. High school teams will play home games at their home school, surrounded by the community that most closely follows and supports the school. Middle school teams will play games at the school they look forward to attending and playing for a year or two down the road.”
The schools have been sharing Putnam City Stadium since Putnam West opened in 1968 and Putnam North in 1978.
The following information was provided by Susan Parks-Schlepp of Edmond Schools and Steve Lindley of Putnam City Schools.
Edmond North
Cost: $10 millionCapacity: 6,000
Architect: LWPB Architecture
Estimated Completion: Fall 2018
Location: Current practice field / track
Edmond Memorial
Cost: $10 millionCapacity: 6,000
Architect: TBD
Estimated Completion: Fall 2019
Location: Current practice field / track (track to be moved)
Putnam City North
Cost: $8 millionCapacity: 3,500
Architect: Red Prairie Design Group
Estimated Completion: Fall 2018
Location: New; next to practice field / track; baseball moved
Putnam City West
Cost: $8 millionCapacity: 3,500
Architect: Sparks Reed Architects
Estimated Completion: Fall 2018
Location: Current practice field / track; baseball moved
