Garrett: $30 million and our students still won’t have a field to call their own

Letter to the editor

On Tuesday, June 16, at 5:30 p.m., the Alachua County School Board will meet to discuss the proposed purchase of Citizens Field from the City of Gainesville. Before the Board signs a contract that could saddle taxpayers and students with decades of financial and environmental risk, the public needs to understand what is actually being proposed and what is being ignored.

The pitch sounds simple: purchase and renovate Citizens Field so that Buchholz, Eastside, and Gainesville High School have a shared athletic facility. The estimated cost is $30 million. But a closer look reveals a deal that appears to benefit the City far more than our students.

The costs begin before construction even starts

The School Board would pay $500,000 to purchase the stadium, a price that does not include the surrounding land used for parking. The Board would also be responsible for half of an estimated $5 million in environmental remediation costs, bringing the pre-construction tab to a minimum of $3 million, before a single shovel hits the ground.

The City has classified Citizens Field as a brownfield, a designation that signals known or suspected contamination. That alone should give the Board pause. But the contract makes it worse. The cost-sharing arrangement explicitly does not cover any environmental remediation that may be necessary on the Citizens Field property itself after purchase. If asbestos is found in the stadium structure, or any other contaminants are discovered during demolition, those costs fall entirely outside the agreement. The School Board would have no contractual protection. Purchasing an off-campus brownfield with this level of unknown liability would be unprecedented for a Florida school district.

Three schools sharing one field is not a solution

Eastside, Buchholz, and Gainesville High have been forced to share athletic facilities for far too long, and it has real consequences for students. This is not just a football issue. It affects soccer, track, lacrosse, cheerleading, band, graduations, and pep rallies. There is no evidence that any other county in Florida has three large high schools sharing a single athletic facility. Every other county has found a way to give each school a home. Why are Alachua County students still being asked to accept less?

The shared arrangement also costs student programs real money, year after year. Buchholz alone spends over $20,000 annually busing students and equipment to Citizens Field. Eastside and Gainesville High face similar costs. Because the field is shared, sponsorship banners cannot be sold, costing each program an estimated $5,000 per year. Concession revenue suffers because volunteers must haul food and supplies for every game. And because the School Board would not control the surrounding parking under this contract, parking revenue would continue flowing to the City, not to the schools. All told, the shared Citizens Field model costs student programs an estimated $40,000 per year per school, or $120,000 across all three. That money should be going to athletes and programs, not to buses and missed revenue.

There are better alternatives that have not been seriously explored

Eastside High School has significant land available for a stadium upgrade. Buchholz also has room for expansion. A real feasibility study might reveal that upgrading both campuses costs less than the $30 million being proposed for Citizens Field, while giving each school something Citizens Field can never provide: a home field of their own. The School Board could also explore building on land it already owns, eliminating purchase costs entirely. Gainesville High could share temporarily with a neighboring school while a longer-term solution is developed. That is not ideal, but it is still better than what is being proposed now.

Has the Board commissioned a feasibility study comparing these options? Has anyone done a side-by-side analysis of upgrading Eastside and Buchholz versus purchasing Citizens Field? If that work has been done, the public has not seen it. If it has not been done, it must be completed before any contract is signed.

This deal serves the City’s interests, not our students’ interests

Citizens Field has been a financial challenge for the City of Gainesville for years. This proposed sale transfers that burden to the School Board, along with environmental uncertainty, off-campus logistics, and the ongoing costs of a three-school sharing arrangement that has never worked well and will not work better simply because the stadium gets a renovation.

Our students deserve fields they can call their own. They deserve the school pride, the convenience, and the financial benefits that come with a home campus facility. Eastside deserves a home field. So does Buchholz. So does GHS.

On Tuesday evening, the School Board has an opportunity to pause, ask hard questions, and demand that real alternatives be explored before committing $30 million of taxpayer money to a deal that carries significant risk and uncertain benefit for students. The community should show up, speak up, and make clear that our students deserve better than a rushed decision that serves the City’s budget before it serves our kids.

The meeting is Tuesday, June 16, at 5:30 p.m., in the Boardroom at the District Office, 620 East University Avenue. Write to the board. Be there.

Jenn Garrett

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