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Union quarterback Liam Hughes delivers a pass while under pressure from Pacific's Luke Meyer in 2021 at Stierberger Stadium.

Union quarterback Liam Hughes delivers a pass while under pressure from Pacific's Luke Meyer in 2021 at Stierberger Stadium.

Union High School’s football and soccer teams could be playing on new artificial turf as soon as the 2023 seasons.

The existing turf at Stierberger Stadium will be 10 years old in spring 2023 and is scheduled for replacement, Union R-XI School District Deputy Superintendent Dr. Mike Mabe said. “We have low spots, some more worn spots,” he said. “I could show you a lot of areas where it has worn down over the years, our midfield, our kicking areas for soccer. A lot of people use that field.”

That includes groups outside the school system, such as youth sports organizations, Mabe said.

The district is reviewing all its upcoming building projects and had its first phone call a couple weeks ago with artificial turf supplier ATG Sports about scheduling, Mabe said. Officials with ATG, which is based in Kansas with a Festus office, determined they can do the project next summer. “It’s on their schedule, so it looks like we’ll be able to make that happen,” Mabe said. “They only do so many a summer, and they don’t have huge manpower.”

The district has not discussed details like the brand of artificial turf or the height of the synthetic grass blades, Mabe said. Also not determined is exactly what the new turf will look like.

“It will look a little different (than the current field),” Mabe said. “At the end of the day, our colors are red, black and white.”

Mabe said the district has a “placeholder” in the budget of $400,000 for the new field, but the final cost will be impacted by what custom graphics the district wants on the field. “That 50-yard line piece, sometimes they do it in a 10-yard span, some do it in a 20-yard span,” he said. “That all drives the cost, as well.”

Money for the turf will come from the district’s Fund 4, which is used for capital projects, Mabe said.

While it already approved the turf as part of the district’s 2022-23 budget, the board of education will, eventually, have to vote again to move forward with the project, Mabe said.

“It’s a concept right now,” he said. “There are so many things that have to happen before it’s a go,” including the design, which the board will determine, Mabe said.

ATG previously installed Union High’s artificial football and baseball/softball fields, according to a 2013 Missourian story. The company bid $1 million to complete the job, which also included a new track surface, interior fencing and visitor bleachers at the football stadium.

At the time, officials said the field had an eight-year life expectancy.

In 2014, ATG built a new baseball/softball facility at Union High, which included a turf infield and grass outfield, as well as bleachers, netting, backstop, foul poles, bullpen, removable pitcher’s mound, dugouts and drainage system, according to a 2014 Missourian story. That project cost $422,340.

In 2020, the district paid ATG $1.08 million to put in new artificial turf, as well as upgrade the track, at Union Middle School.

Mabe said no decision has been made on whether the new field will have sponsorships sold on its perimeter, as the school district did for the existing high school field. “We haven’t had any really in-depth conversations about it to this point, so I would say that I’m noncommittal either way,” he said.

ATG also has worked on artificial turf projects for St. Francis Borgia Regional High School, Pacific High School and Sullivan High School, according to Missourian archives.

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