Construction will begin next year on a new outdoor sports stadium at Larkin High School in Elgin, School District U-46 has announced.
While the specific details of the project have not been released, plans for the long-sought venue were made public at the U-46 School Board meeting last week, followed by a celebration held at the school and the news posted on social media, including Facebook and X. A video of the school celebration can be seen on YouTube.
“Currently, the (Larkin) Royals play their home football and soccer games at Elgin High School’s Memorial Field. Construction (of a new stadium) will begin in the summer of 2025, subject to board approval,” the posts said.
More information will be available when “the proposal is formally presented to the board. Please stay tuned,” U-46 spokeswoman Karla Jiménez said in an email.
No plans or permit requests have been filed with the city of Elgin as of yet, according to spokesman Jeff Knox. It’s not known if the project will require review by the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission and approval from the Elgin City Council.
Confirmation that a stadium was in the offing came as a surprise to Elgin Mayor Dave Kaptain.
“It (was) news to me,” he said.
City and district staff discussed the possibility of building a stadium at Larkin or possibly at the Elgin Sports Complex on the Elgin’s west side four or five years ago but nothing came of it, the mayor said.
A lifelong Elgin resident, Kaptain said Larkin — which opened in 1962 — once played its home games at Drake Field Park on Hastings Street. Located near Huff Elementary School, the park was built in the late 1960s and is currently used by the Elgin Youth Football program.
For many decades, Larkin has used Memorial Field at Elgin High School for its home games, Kaptain said. The stadium underwent a $5.2 million renovation in 2020.
A photo posted by the school district with its announcement appears to superimpose the new stadium over the McLean Boulevard location of the school’s running track, but Kaptain said he’d anticipate “traffic and parking issues” were it built there.
He also wondered how much U-46 will be spending on a new stadium and what the timeline might be given that it took years for the city of Elgin to map out its $20 million plan to expand the Elgin Sports Complex, construction of which started in October.
Larkin High School entered T-Mobile’s inaugural Friday Night 5G Lights contest this fall but was not among the 15 finalists. However, the school did receive $5,000 prize in the first round of the competition.
The contest winner was Inola High School in Oklahoma, which received a multimillion-dollar package that included a $100,000 grant, a new scoreboard, a 5G network upgrade, weight room upgrades, professional consultation with football field experts, tailgate party and halftime drone show.
Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
