School Stadium Closer to Reality
Ravenna businessman Ed Frost has promised $500,000 to help the group fund a stadium for Cardinal Schools.
Ravenna businessman Ed Frost has promised $500,000 to help the group fund a stadium for Cardinal Schools.
Other donations to the project mean the Cardinal booster group Huskie Nation Foundation will have about one-third of the amount needed for the entire athletic complex, said Cardinal Athletic Director Jimmy Soltis.
Frost, who bought the Mespo Expo Center in Mesopotamia Township in the last month, met with Middlefield businesspeople Bill and Staci Poole Feb. 22 at the center on state Route 87, Stephanie Austin said at the Cardinal Schools Board of Education meeting Feb. 27.
Bill, president of the booster club Huskie Nation Foundation, told the board they chatted for a few hours and when the discussion came around to the foundation’s efforts to fund a school stadium, Frost seemed interested.
“He asked, ‘Does this project have naming rights?’” Poole said.
When he was told $500,000, he replied, “’Okay, I’ll do it.’”
Bill, Cardinal Superintendent Scott Hunt and Soltis met with Frost again Feb. 24 to show him the plans drawn up a few years ago for a concession stand/field house with restrooms, an all-weather track, football field and stands.
“It was a big surprise,” Bill said. “He’s a generous man. He’s done well for himself and tries to distribute $2 million a year.”
He recently gifted $450,000 to the Mesopotamia Fire Department for a new tanker so it will be the second quarter before the Cardinal check is written, Bill said.
That adds up to $600,000 in large contributions to the project, he said.
“I think we’ve got some headway,” Bill said, adding he had plans to meet with other local business leaders in the next week.
“I’m hoping they jump on the bandwagon,” he said.
Bill said Frost upped the ante, saying if anyone donates another $500,000, he will add another $250,000.
Solitis said it might be possible to start several phases of the project with the funding that has been promised.
The entire project cost is around $1.8 million, he said.
“A huge portion of this project could be done by August,” Soltis said, adding contractors have said the actual excavation and construction could be done in about a month, once funding is secure.
Stephanie Austin, the recreation and athletic manager for All Star Enterprise, said Frost, 29, wants to add a fourth building to the Mespo complex to provide a six-lane bowling alley, an indoor swimming pool and warehouse space.
“He’s an excellent businessman and he knows what he wants to do,” she said. “He likes to be generous in neighborhoods where he owns businesses.”
Auctions are held at ASE on Mondays and Fridays and a basketball tournament is in the planning stages.
On March 26 country singer A.C. Jones is scheduled to perform there, as well, Austin said. She also said she graduated from Cardinal in 1998 and her parents are Larry and Spring Hunt – no relation to the superintendent.
“I appreciate all the legwork you did putting this together,” Hunt told Poole.
