CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Walk into American Legion Memorial Stadium near uptown Charlotte and you will see a few changes, starting with heavy machinery and construction crews scattered across the site. Beyond the hard hats, you’ll notice that, at the far end from Kings Drive and the Grady Cole Center, what used to be a grass berm is now a fixed seating area with aluminum benches.
Look at the playing surface — soon to be completely installed — and you will realize that what was formerly a narrow football field now stretches much wider. That’s 50-feet wider, to be exact, meeting the standards for professional soccer.
And, oh by the way, the upper level is gone, reducing capacity to 10,500 from 17,000.
Bonus: The place no longer looks like a meteor just dropped in to pay its respects.
Nods abound to the 85-year-old stadium’s history. Stones from the original wall lining the interior wall facing the playing field were dislodged, cleaned and affixed to a newly built backdrop. Rectangular concrete blocks, standing about 5-feet tall along the concourse, feature accents used in the original design. In similar fashion, the newly built ticket buildings feature Art Deco-style exteriors.
Lee Jones, director of Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation, led a delegation of his colleagues as well as a reporter and photographer from CBJ recently on a tour of the construction site. The revamped stadium should be ready by early spring, he said.
Read more and check out photos of the progress here.
Cox Media Group
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