As soon as Waco Independent School District is able to break ground on the new Paul Tyson Field, it should take about 14 months to complete the project, which also includes adjacent Little League baseball and softball fields that will belong to the city, district spokesman Kyle DeBeer said.
Waco ISD took one step closer to building the new Paul Tyson Field on Thursday when the school board voted to hand over the Paul Tyson property to McLennan County to make room for the county to proceed with its plans to expand the Extraco Events Center and renovate the surrounding 60-acre fairgrounds site.
The district agreed to lease the facilities back from the county for $1 per year. The agreement will end 60 days after the new Paul Tyson “reaches substantial completion as certified by the project architect,” according to the agreement with McLennan County.
The school board stopped short Thursday of approving final designs for the new stadium, which it plans to address next month, DeBeer said.
The agreement is part of a broader effort by the school district, county and the city of Waco to exchange parcels of land to accommodate the estimated $40 million expansion of the events center and refurbishment of the 60 acres around it. The district, city and county each own part of the 258 acres on which Paul Tyson Field and the Extraco Events Center sit.
In 2017, voters approved county taxes on hotels and rental cars to fund the events center project.
In September, the school board approved an agreement to give Paul Tyson Field and a 1.6 acre property west of 44th Street to the county after the new field is built. But the county asked the school district to convey ownership of the land now so the county could move forward with the renovation project. Waco ISD will still have access to the field until the new one is built, Assistant Superintendent of Operations Israel Carrera said.
No firm date has been set for when construction on the new field will start, Carrera said. But once all the land has been swapped among the three parties, the replacement field should take about 14 months to finish, barring any unforeseen circumstances or additional design elements. The new Paul Tyson Field will have 1,500 to 2,000 seats, down from the current 9,000 seats.
The field is primarily used for junior varsity sports games and junior high football games, but Waco ISD also leases the field to smaller schools in the area for their games, Carrera said. Those schools should be able to use the new stadium once it is built.
The district plans to build the new stadium on the site of the city’s Cobbs Recycling Center, which also will be demolished and relocated, according to the agreement. The new filed will cost the county about $2.4 million to build.
As part of the land exchange, the city agreed to transfer the recycling center, 11.2 acres, and Lake Air Little League fields, about 9.5 acres, to the school district with the understanding the county will build replacement Little League fields, including one for the special-needs focused Challenger Little League, west of 44th Street.
The school district is still working out the details of the stadium’s design, DeBeer said.
Waco and University high school football teams competed for decades under the lights of Paul Tyson Stadium, named for Waco High School coach Paul Tyson. It was built in 1961.
— WACOTRIB