After a nearly decade-long delay, plans to build a football stadium in the 9th Ward are moving forward again.
The project has been in the works for so long, Carver High School students who first dreamed of playing on the field are long grown.
The next generation had no idea about plans to build the facility until a few years ago, when the project was revived, said Carver’s athletics director, Dwana Caliste.
“With them not knowing, it makes it better,” she said. “Just imagine the letdown of thinking you could have had this years ago.”
The new facility is expected to have up to 5,000 seats, with an artificial turf football field, eight-lane track, concession stands, parking and other amenities, which can be used by kids from across the city.
It would serve as Carver’s home field, since the site is located behind the school on a 60-acre tract of land owned by the school board.
Caliste said her students’ eyes lit up when they heard about the plan.
“They were like, ‘For us? We can play here?’” she said.
“The kids have the opportunity to play in their backyard,” Caliste added. “It’s gonna be a good time.”
For now, the football team practices on a makeshift field behind the school.
On a recent Tuesday, a few players practiced sliding, using garbage bags as an improvised slip-n-slide, while the rest of the team ran plays on the grass.
“It will be big for the school. Not just the school, but the community itself,” said the team’s quarterback, 17-year-old Jadan Verrett.
“It’s gonna be a place we call home,” his teammate Rayhienz Henry, added.
Frederick Barra, was thinking long-term. “This will be something I can come back to,” the 15-year-old said.
Barra was in kindergarten when officials first broke ground on the so-called “Field of Dreams.” But construction never started.
An investigation from FOX 8 and The Athletic in 2019 found that the group backing the project misspent $1 million, almost all of the money it raised through donations
Some of the funds were from people from across the country who wanted to help the neighborhood rebuild after Hurricane Katrina.
In 2019, a new nonprofit formed and began fundraising again. A second groundbreaking is set for early next year.
“It’s real. We have the money,” said board member Stacy Martin.
They have $10 million in the bank, she said. It comes from the federal government, the state and the city, which recently donated some of its COVID relief money.
They still need another $2 million to fund the project in full. “But whether we get it or not, we know that there’s going to be a stadium here,” Martin said. Just with fewer bells and whistles.
Carver’s football coach, Lewis Figueroa says his players will take care of the stadium and cherish it.
“I’m more excited for my boys than I am for myself,” he said, picturing the day they’ll walk out of the building and march toward the finished stadium.
“The streets are flooded with orange and green, everyone in the neighborhood,” Figueroa said. “It’s gonna be like a college atmosphere.”
Even players who graduate before the stadium is complete will benefit. If they play college ball, they’ll be able to train there when they’re home for the summer, Figueroa said.
“There’s just so many endless possibilities and we’re just super excited for it,” he said.
The board hopes construction will be completed by fall 2026.
