Taft Stadium

[MikeOKC]

That is one great old stadium. Renovated, it would be an awesome venue.

[USG '60]

Has any of you ever been to Cambridge Mass. and noticed how much Harvard's stadium looks like Taft. We just need to encourage ivy to grow on it.

[soonerfan_in_okc]

Has any of you ever been to Cambridge Mass. and noticed how much Harvard's stadium looks like Taft. We just need to encourage ivy to grow on it.

haha, in the state it is in, ivy would tear that thing to pieces.

[soonerfan_in_okc]

and this should have been in maps 3. might as well, a few extra million wouldnt have hurt it considering how big it is, lol.

[Pete]

Plans are proceeding to renovate Taft and Speegle Stadiums at the end of this football season.

Long overdue and glad they are keeping the historic brick facade, but sad they only have the budget for tilt-up metal stands. Also note the capacity is being substantially reduced to about 5,000 from over 10,000.

Renovate Taft Stadium’s current facilities to provide a functional and
safe venue to use and enjoy. Taft Stadium is located at 2609 N. May
Avenue, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Taft Stadium is to be renovated based on criteria from the Base Project
Management Plan (PMP), current design standards, and the
educational specifications. These criteria have been narrowed to
necessary items based on budget constraints.
The new facilities that will be built consist of an artificial turf, resurfaced
track, locker rooms, pressbox, new metal grandstands, new concession
buildings, public restrooms, fenced storage, and structural repairs to
renovate the existing WPA wall on the East side of Taft Stadium. All
new construction will meet ADA guidelines and be up to current building
codes.

[Pete]

The home side is going to be very strange because the new metal bleachers will be much smaller than the historic massive concrete stands, and thus the brick wall will just be standing alone behind the stands, separated by a large gap.

Here is the current home side:




(from NewsOK.com)

And the visitor's:

[jedicurt]

great to hear... can't wait to see the renovations start. this place has been needing upgrades for awhile. Interesting to see them lower the seat by that much.. i have always thought it should probably be reduced, but i always through out the 7,500 number...

[Bellaboo]

great to hear... can't wait to see the renovations start. this place has been needing upgrades for awhile. Interesting to see them lower the seat by that much.. i have always thought it should probably be reduced, but i always through out the 7,500 number...

It's been several years, but the last time I was there, as in the visiting stands, the visiting team had a couple of thousand fans, NWC had a couple of hundred.

[Pete]

John Marshall and Northwest Classen only draw a few hundred, that's for sure.

Taft used to be the biggest stadium in OKC and was used for all types of things and even state title football games that would draw 20,000. It was in effect, the OKC stadium.


But of course, the priority is to make it usable and safe for the schools that use it now and this will represent a big improvement. I know they had severe budget constraints so at least the saved the facade, although I worry that it's going to look a little absurd standing alone.

Been trying to find a rendering that shows how that will look from the side or inside the stadium, but perhaps there are good reasons those perspectives are not being featured.


Anyway, lots of great memories sitting on those concrete steps. I went to Putnam City but we played many away games there and sat on the home side a few times for playoff games. Also remember seeing the Oklahoma City Slickers soccer team and some other events.

[Larry OKC]

Pete: Not pretending to be a structural engineer, but won't that wall require some sort of structural support, or the next decent Oklahoma wind will blow the thing right on over???

[Snowman]

Pete: Not pretending to be a structural engineer, but won't that wall require some sort of structural support, or the next decent Oklahoma wind will blow the thing right on over???

The press box or something structural may be going on that side as not to have a large blank wall on that side for seemingly no reason.

[ljbab728]

Anyway, lots of great memories sitting on those concrete steps. I went to Putnam City but we played many away games there and sat on the home side a few times for playoff games. Also remember seeing the Oklahoma City Slickers soccer team and some other events.

The Oklahoma City Dolls played there and I remember going to demolition derby events there when I was a child.

[Larry OKC]

Snowman: possibly but the schematic Pete posed shows little to nothing there to help support this decades old wall that I presume is an integral part of the concrete stadium step structure

Also there was a blurb in Monday's Oklahoman that the School Board had allocated some monies to add an unspecified amount of seating. Presumably, this is adding to the scaled back renovation and not the current???

• The board approved about $400,000 in extra funding for the renovation of Taft Stadium. More seats will be added.

Read more: http://newsok.com/oklahoma-city-scho...#ixzz27UrUfqOM

[Pete]

Glad to see they are adding more seats!

Still want to see how the home stands related the historic brick wall.


FYI, the press box is on the visitor's side.

[bombermwc]

Aw man, that's too bad that they're taking out the current seating. I can understand and appreciate why, but man the height ratio of those made for AMAZING sight lines that you just don't get anywhere else!!!!!!

I would rather have seen metal seating attached on top of the conrete...think OU seating. It's not really attaching a whole new seat, it's just slapping the butt section to the conrete so you aren't sitting on the actual concrete.

The place is long overdue for it's share of renovations. I'm just sad that it's going to lose a lot of the historic character it once had.

[warreng88]

High schools: Taft, Speegle stadiums will be flattened, rebuilt
Two of the city's most historic stadiums have become run down over last decade or more. The Oklahoma City Public Schools' administration has worked to clean them up in their current form. But the time has come to rebuild.

Speegle and Taft Stadium, two of the city's most historic stadiums, have become run down over the last decade or more. The current administration at Oklahoma City Public Schools, led by athletic director Keith Sinor, has worked to clean them up in their current form.

But the time has come to rebuild, in the form of a $19 million project scheduled to begin in four months.

Read the full article at:
High schools: Taft, Speegle stadiums will be flattened, rebuilt | NewsOK.com

[Just the facts]

I hope the new stadium are built in a historical style. A scaled down version of University of Pennsylvania's Franklin Field would be awesome.

[yukong]

The article says the WPA portions of the stadiums will remain. So for Taft, they will leave the big stone wall with the art deco Taft Stadium logo. From May, it should look the same as today. I love that place. I remember seeing many a North West Classen game there. As well as the Oklahoma City Plainsmen semipro football team. Had a family friend play for them. And, i remember the 1978 State football championship game between PC and PC West. That was a great game. Marching band contests. Drum Corp International competitions. It was a great place. Hate seeing the stands go. But glad they are saving the WPA wall.

[Pete]

Building permits issued Friday for the work at Taft and Speegle stadiums.

Recent article:

High schools: Taft, Speegle stadiums will be flattened, rebuilt | NewsOK.com

[BB37]

Was by Taft Stadium on Saturday 9/1/13, and the demolition is well under way. The west stands and press box are completely gone, and several sections of upper seating on the east side have been removed. The stepped concrete diagonal beams supporting the east rock wall are still in place; the plan may be to leave them. Sad to see the old stadium go, I spent a lot of happy hours there in high school.

[zookeeper]

Isn't the plan to leave a lot of the east facade up?

[mugofbeer]

I took a quick look at it earlier today and it would appear that is the plan. I could see that east wall being somewhat fragile so they seem to have left some of the horizontal segments in place to help give some support. Otherwise, as BB37 said above, about everything else has been removed including the south seating and the field itself!

[Pete]

OKC school district leaders work to improve Taft, Speegle stadiums without destroying historical elements | News OK

[BB37]

Isn't the plan to leave a lot of the east facade up?

The east wall with the Art Deco "Taft Stadium," as well as the much smaller wall that borders the north end of the stadium, is to remain intact. Again, the stepped diagonal beams that supported the upper seating sections as well as the outer wall, are still in place. It's not clear from the renderings if diagonal beams will ultimately be kept, but they're going to have to do something to provide the lateral support for the wall.

[mkjeeves]

I've looked at the plans. The first row of columns parallel to the WPA wall and about 15 feet to the west of the wall will remain. (As will the ticket booth building in the center area of the wall and between the wall and that row of columns, formerly below some of the seating.) The columns get backed up with new 2.5 foot by 5 foot thick concrete buttresses from ground level to about 10 or 15 feet below the top of the wall and beams will be added at the top of the buttresses back to the wall. The old raker beams (sawtooth beams running up at an angle that used to support the seating) will remain way up high between the columns backed up by the buttresses and the old wall. Everything west of those buttresses goes away after the buttresses cure...columns, raker beams etc, and the new seating will be 100% new construction in that space.