SPOKANE, Wash. — The downtown stadium is dead.
The Spokane Public Schools Board voted 4-1 Wednesday night to move forward with a project to replace Joe Albi Stadium at its current location.
In November, Spokane voters overwhelmingly approved a roughly half-billion dollar school bond that included $31 million for a new stadium. Joe Albi is currently quite dilapidated and oversized for the types of events it hosts – mainly high school football and soccer.
Voters also weighed in on where the new structure should go. They were given the choice between the same location in northwest Spokane or a location downtown near the Spokane Arena. Spokane voted nearly 2-to-1 to keep the stadium at the current site.
The Spokane Sports Commission together with the Public Facilities District recently proposed another idea. Rather than build a new stadium at all, they suggested modifying the designs of the upcoming Sportsplex facility to accommodate high school sports. They argued it would save millions of dollars.
Last week, the board narrowly voted to hear a presentation at Wednesday’s meeting, which seemed to impress board members and several members of the public who testified in its favor – including James Albi.
However, it was not enough to quell concerns about losing voter trust. Several members of the board felt that ignoring the advisory vote was simply not an option.
“Cost is less of an interest to me than public trust,” said Susan Chapin, the board’s president.
“If we are to go against the voters’ decision from this election, without another major election and voter turnout, we run the risk of losing hundreds of millions if not over a billion dollars in voters going against potential bonds and levies in the future,” said Jerrall Haynes, who serves as the board’s vice president.
“It was said tonight that we’re adding a third option, but no, I don’t see it as a third option,” Chapin said. “Two options were presented to the voters: downtown and north side. And this is yet another downtown, north bank option.”
“The reality is we can’t keep pushing things off, because there will always be another idea. There will always be a better option,” Haynes added.
Only Deana Brower voted against the motion to proceed with an Albi site replacement, saying she wanted to perform due diligence and hear more details about the Sportsplex proposal before making a decision.
The Sportsplex itself will still be built, as it is a separate project with already-secured funding, though almost surely without modifications for football.