$1 Million Renovation Nears Finish : Football: Channel Islands expects to open the season at home for the first time in 24 years.

After a 24-year hiatus, the Channel Islands High varsity football team will return to its own turf and play at a facility that has undergone nearly $1 million in renovations since June.

Channel Islands has played its home games at Hueneme High in Oxnard since 1966, but two years ago, school officials launched a drive to bring football back to the Channel Islands campus. Work is expected to be completed in time for the Raiders’ Sept. 7 opener against Rio Mesa, the first of five home games.

“My fingers are crossed tightly,” said Tom Parizo, the school’s activities director. “All that’s really left to finish is the snack bar, and it’s 98 to 99% completed. Also, they’re still working on the bleachers. But if things move the way they have all summer, it’ll be done.”

According to Parizo, the Oxnard Union High School District provided more than half of the funding and the school generated the remainder. Before renovation, the football facilities had been limited to games at the freshman and junior-varsity levels.

Bleachers have been constructed on both sides of the field. A press box is located on the home, or east side, which seats 3,000. Capacity on the visitor’s side is 1,000.

A concession stand, with restrooms in the rear, has been constructed on the field’s east side. Improvements also include a scoreboard, a flagpole and lights that were installed last year.

Parizo said that, eventually, school officials would like to add an all-weather track, a concession stand on the west side of the field and a drainage system.