The Arcata High JV and varsity football teams each have two scheduled games at the Cal Poly Humboldt Redwood Bowl: one tonight for homecoming and the other on October 13th for senior night.
The Northern Humboldt Union High School District is renting the Redwood Bowl for the use of Arcata High School. The decision to allocate money from the district
general fund for the rental of the stadium was made primarily by Superintendent Roger Macdonald and Director of Fiscal Services Cindy Vickers.
The total rental cost of the Cal Poly Humboldt facilities will be $6,370, split $3,185 for each use. Although this may seem like a steep price for the district to pay for only two nights, they have been granted a 50% discount available to local nonprofit youth groups and schools. According to Aileen Yoo, the director of news and information at Cal Poly Humboldt, each rental lasts from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. and includes the use of the Redwood Bowl bleachers, field, track, plaza, and media booths; the use of the men’s locker room; hosting and administrative fees; and custodial, trash and recycling, stadium light, field prep, and equipment services.
Roger Macdonald’s main reason for choosing to rent the Redwood Bowl was to help alleviate the workload of district custodial staff. “A big part of [the decision] was the wear and tear on our staff. The facility at McKinleyville High School is used sometimes three days a weekend: Friday night, Saturday night, and on Sunday for youth football,” Macdonald said. “And so when we were thinking about whether we would allocate the dollars for the facility up at Cal Poly, part of it was wear and tear on the field, and part of it was wear and tear on people.”
Beyond the consideration of custodial staff, the rental is also intended to benefit Arcata High students.
“I know that the student-athletes and others in the school community would like to have the field for games,” Macdonald said. “But I wouldn’t have made that decision so that 30 guys could play their game up there, just for them. It’s for the families and for the rest of you that are going to homecoming.”
For the senior night games, a pushing factor in the choice to rent the stadium was that, if they were not to play at Cal Poly, the Arcata High football teams would play McKinleyville at the McKinleyville teams’ home field.
“I can see where a team wouldn’t want to have their senior night playing the opposing team on their field,” Macdonald said.
Roger Macdonald predicted that Arcata High School or possibly other schools in the district will have a couple of games at Cal Poly Humboldt per year, depending on their stadium availability.
“Possibly, probably,” Macdonald said. “Not definitely.”