Helias High School has released some specific details about its new athletic complex, currently under construction and set to be complete in time for the first game of the fall football season.
Helias President Rev. Stephen Jones gave the visiting Jefferson City Area Chamber of Commerce's Leadership Jefferson City class a visual overview of the site Thursday as they stood overlooking it from the lower parking lot of Capital City Christian Church.
"Cecille B. DeMille would be proud," Jones said, comparing the site to a 1930s set of a movie epic.
The design of the complex is meant to be comprehensive and aesthetically pleasing, with "a sense of harmony between facilities," he explained.
The church parking lot itself is in a way part of the complex; Jones explained Helias and Capital City Christian have reached an ongoing agreement for the church to use the new parking spaces that will be around the sports complex for its weekend worship services. In exchange, Helias sports fans can use the church parking lot when they attend events at the athletic complex.
Helias is also building Capital City Christian a new playground, as it needed the land the original was located on for the footprint of the athletic complex.
These are some of the new details about the sports complex, which will enable Helias to host soccer and tennis tournaments and track and field competitions - "no more asphalt track of death," in Jones' words:
The football stadium will be able to seat 2,864 fans of both the home and visiting teams. There is also room for future expansion, which Jones said could raise the seats available to approximately 4,000.
The soccer facility will have 300 seats. The football and soccer fields will be striped so teams of either sport can warm up or practice on either field.
The football scoreboard will have a large TV-like screen above the digital score boxes - a full-color, LED display measuring about 9 feet by 12.5 feet.
The tennis pavilions will have a viewing deck to allow 60 spectators to overlook all eight tennis courts. The southern and larger of two multi-level locker room, concessions, storage and office buildings adjacent to the football stadium will feature a top floor viewing deck, too.
The complex will feature 130 new parking spots. There will be 180 spots available in the Capital City Christian lot, along with 410 spots in the Helias school parking lots.