New Stadium May Be Built at Calabasas

In an effort to alleviate overcrowded stands and improve facilities, Calabasas High boosters have proposed building a new $300,000 stadium in time for the start of the 1988 football season.

Under the proposed plan, seating would increase from 650 to more than 2,500, and portable bathrooms and a wooden snack bar would be replaced with more permanent facilities.

The Las Virgenes Unified School District board studied the plan Tuesday evening and could vote on the matter at its next meeting Oct. 27.

“I’m really excited about the idea of a new stadium” said Calabasas Coach Larry Edwards, who estimates home-crowd averages at 1,200. “It’s been getting pretty cramped for the spectators to watch a game.

“I think players will have more pride playing in the new stadium and more students will want to come out for the team.”

Superintendent Dr. Albert Marley said the school district would allocate $100,000 toward the construction of the new stadium. The district also would grant the booster club a $90,000 interest-free loan that would be repaid over a three-year period. An additional $50,000 would be donated by the Keith Ritchie Trust Fund.

Ritchie was a captain of the Calabasas junior varsity football team when he was involved in a 1977 traffic accident that left him a quadriplegic. Ritchie returned to graduate from Calabasas before he died in 1985. His family was awarded $4.5 million in a 1983 insurance settlement. A $100,000 perpetual fund was set aside for the athletic program and Calabasas named the football field in his honor.

The additional funds will be raised by the booster club, which already has received $60,000 in pledges toward labor costs and building materials, according to Larry Dinovitz, a Calabasas booster who owns a construction company.

The proposed 2,000-seat bleacher would be built on a hill on the north side of the field, according to Dinovitz. The bleacher would be approximately 180 feet long, 16 rows high with three aisles, and extend between the 10-yard markers.

Structures for the snack bar and bathrooms would be constructed on the west side of the field.

“It would take six months for the stadium to be approved for building permits and another six months to construct it,” Dinovitz said. “If the school board approves the plan, Calabasas should have a new stadium about this time next year.”