Upgrade Cardinal Stadium. Now

The press release from Greenwich Public Schools hit hard.

Superintendent of Schools Ralph Mayo has announced that the Greenwich High School Cardinal Field home side bleachers are closed effective immediately pending repair to bring them up to current code and/or replacement as part of the Cardinal Field development project.

To say this is overdue is simply understating the issue.

The Cardinal Stadium bleachers (and press box) are laughably outdated.

Let me count the other issues there.

No restrooms (I've used porta potties there for almost 20 years). A brick concession stand shell that hasn't been used for years and is now a storage shed. So, therefore, food trucks (outstanding ones at that) are brought in.

If they want to use the locker room, teams have to basically head to Cos Cob, where they might as well grab a bite at Caren's Cos Cobber while they're at it.

Lights? Haha, I say. First, they're not very strong. Second, they've got a bit of a ... er ... problem with a neighbor.

PS: Do NOT play the music/PA system too loud.

(Incidentally, the neighbor in question still has an invitation to discuss all of this with me on WGCH, and will not)

At this point, Cardinal Stadium has two things going for it: 1) the turf. 2) the scoreboard.

People come to Greenwich and marvel at how woeful Cardinal Stadium is. Yes. You've read that correctly.

My mother is 82 years old. Once in a rare while, there's an idea of her going to a game to watch me in action. But no dice. There's no elevator. There's no ramp (!). The bleachers -- the old, crumbling bleachers -- far predate the Americans with Disabilities Act and thus are grandfathered. Indeed, when the press box got a touch up a few years ago, why do you think it wasn't rebuilt?

Correct: It wouldn't have been ADA compliant. Thus the bleachers wouldn't have been.

The wonderful (interim) Greenwich superintendent Ralph Mayo says in the press release: “We realize this is an inconvenience for upcoming athletic and ceremonial events, however, we will not compromise the safety of our staff, students, families or visitors to our schools. The high school is working on alternative plans for graduation and athletic events and will issue details as soon as they are available.”

Yes. Safety first. Absolutely. That should have been a topic years ago.

So now what? In a town that can take a ridiculous amount of time to allow so much as the aforementioned concession stand to get built (let alone the lights fiasco), I can imagine there will simply be a patch job to make it safe.

Indeed, graduation is approaching, but the spring season is likely lost. Enjoy sitting in the visiting bleachers, which might not be a huge hardship. Or standing on the perimeter of the field. But in football season? Oh hells-to-the-no.

As opposed to, you know, actually upgrading Cardinal Stadium the way that it should be.

I'm not a Greenwich townie, as you probably know. People have been kind to me in the 22 years since I first arrived at WGCH. But I do know a thing or 22 about Greenwich. I certainly know a lot about Cardinal Stadium, having spent so many hours there, and actually considered trying to stay there once due to being snowed in (I know I wouldn't have been allowed, but it is heated after all).

Besides, after 22 years, I still don't have a key to the place.

But in the name of safety. In the name of graduation. In the name of the myriad events that take place there, it is time to do it right.

Don't piecemeal it.

Greenwich is seen as being the gateway to the "gold coast" of Fairfield County. There is money for these projects. Plus the Greenwich Athletic Foundation would like to help (I'm not speaking for them, of course, but just reading the "tea leaves").

New Canaan has a nice facility. So does Darien. Staples also.

How about Greenwich?

Indeed. How about it, Greenwich?