Shaw Drops Stadium Deal With Durham County

Durham, N.C. — Shaw University has dropped out of plans to assist with extensive renovations to Durham County Stadium.

Shaw moved its home football games to the 50-year-old facility last fall after Raleigh officials declined to build a stadium that Shaw and St. Augustine's College could share.

Shaw spent $90,000 cleaning up and painting the stadium last summer, and the university and Durham County officials were negotiating a 10-year deal to pump $6.4 million worth of upgrades into the facility, such as new field turf and an eight-lane track.

Shaw's Board of Trustees recently voted against the agreement with Durham County, however.

Durham County officials said Monday that the county would proceed with renovations on its own, but the scope of the project and the time line for completion would change. County staff members are working to execute a design contract for the stadium renovations to present to the county Board of Commissioners for approval.

Shaw has reserved the stadium for its 2008 football season.

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Latest Comments

I'm student at Shaw and this whole mess about the football stadium is insane to me. They have all this money for football stadiums but we ask them to fix our parking lots or put white boards up instead of these thirty year old, cracked and lumpy chalk boards and they do nothing. I just want to get my degree and get out now that I'm so close to being done, but this whole thing about the football stadium is a real shame.

Maybe WRAL can come do a story about the shape some of our buildings and parking lots are in.

JMcLean
February 5, 2008 2:54 p.m.

I say we build a new stadium on Shaw University not at Shaw but on Shaw. A new really big stadium say about the size of the whole university with 2 or 3 really big hotels. A new place for the Canes to play and a big attraction for tourists

normalthinking
February 4, 2008 4:56 p.m.

I have been to Europe four times. It's a cold, dreary place filled with hopeless, miserable people. They have obscene tax rates, negative population growth, massive unemployment, and are being overrun with immigrants who want to destroy their culture.

Any time someone says we should do something because Europe does, it makes me want to do the opposite. Remember, this country was founded on the idea of not doing what Europe does.

Chuck U Farley
February 4, 2008 3:49 p.m.

Talkabout,

If our American sports cultures operated in the same manner as the Europeans; we wouldn't have this issue.

Other than that, athletics is the window to a university and often drives the perception of the entire university. Would anyone even know about Grambling State if not for Eddie Robinson and their football team? Jerry Tarkanian put UNLV on the map. George Mason was unknown outside of the east coast until their Final Four run. Appalachian State's upset of Michigan caused their merchandise to be sold in Ohio.

That's the nature of the beast, and the colleges who are best able to exploit that, are the ones who are generally the most successful.

issymayake
February 4, 2008 3:06 p.m.

college should STOP putting $$$ into athletics and more into the education. SPorts=$$$ and that's about it. No one leaves a game smarter than they came, or better educated. Quit wasting $$ on people that can run fast, jump high and throw things a long way.