Government

‘Coppo Field’ Turf Baseball Stadium at Waveny To Open Next Month

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The creation of a widely anticipated new baseball stadium at Waveny is on budget and nearing completion, according to the head of the nonprofit organization driving the project. The Coppo Field project, an approximately $5 million job—$2 million of which is coming from the town, while the nonprofit New Canaan Athletic Foundation is paying the roughly $3 million balance—is expected to significantly increase both the turf footprint and seating surrounding the field in an effort to create more space for the town’s youth athletics programs, NCAF Chairman Mike Benevento told members of the Parks and Recreation Commission last week. “Our biggest bottleneck from youth all the way through varsity sports is getting access to turf fields,” Benevento told Parks & Rec during its regular meeting, held March 5 in Lapham Center and via videoconference. “Especially in the busy spring. We had a wonderful fall last year but the fall prior to that was a total washout.

Board of Selectmen

Saxe Playing Fields To Be Surveyed for Artificial Turf Installation

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Faced with a need for more playing time, officials this week approved a contract to kickstart a look into installing turf fields at Saxe Middle School. The Board of Selectmen at its regular meeting Wednesday—its last as currently composed—voted 3-0 in favor of a contract with New Canaan-based RKW Land Surveying to survey the grass fields at Saxe. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams voted in favor of the $13,900 contract. The cost will be borne by the New Canaan Athletic Foundation. A recommendation to study the Saxe fields “for the potential to install turf fields” emerged because “some of the fields at Saxe are a little bit too wet for a gym class to go out, given the fact that the grass we’re not able to play on as much as we would like,” according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann.

Board of Selectmen

Construction of New Features at Dunning Stadium To Start in June

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Construction is expected to start toward the end of June for new features at Dunning Stadium, including an entranceway, ticket booth and “Donor Wall,” officials say. It’s unclear just when power will be run to another widely anticipated feature—a new press box, according to New Canaan Athletic Foundation Chairman Mike Benevento. However, the stadium’s PA system will be functioning through this coming fall football season as well as New Canaan High School graduation 2024, he said. Asked by the Board of Selectmen during its most recent meeting whether fundraising still needs to be done to build the new press box itself, Benevento said yes. “The project can‘t go forward unless we have $2 million sitting in the bank when we sign a contract,” he said at the selectmen’s May 2 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. 

The New Canaan Athletic Foundation or “NCAF” anticipates raising a good portion of the funding by selling naming rights for the press box, Benevento said.

Government

Athletic Foundation: Demand Rising for Use of New Canaan’s Turf Fields

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Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, a nonprofit organization that supports youth and high school athletics has seen a steady increase in use of New Canaan’s turf fields in the past three years, officials say. Gross revenues generated by events held on turf fields at New Canaan High School grew from $30,975 in 2019 to $67,095 in 2020 and then $81,675 in 2021, according to Mike Benevento, chair of the New Canaan Athletic Foundation’s Board of Directors. Crediting the organization’s executive director, Bobby Rushton, for the increased use of the fields as an “enterprise zone,” Benevento told members of the Board of Finance this week that “the fields are getting used as much as they possibly can.”

“And the other added benefit to this is we get a lot of positive feedback from people from surrounding towns who come in for these tournaments and practices and what not, that our field complexes are just the top of the game for the entire area,” Benevento told the finance board during its regular meeting, held Tuesday night via videoconference. 

The comments came during a general update to the Board from Benevento and Vice Chair Mike Murray. Benevento said that the Athletic Foundation between the 2021 spring and fall seasons also collected a total of $93,825 in “player use fees” from New Canaan’s youth and recreational sports organizations, and that additional funds were expected to come from men’s softball and flag football programs.

He added that the Athletic Foundation did well with respect to fundraising even though a major event that had been planned for the fall, the Field Fest, had to be canceled amid the pandemic. Two major capital upgrades that had originally been slated for the summer of 2022 have been pushed back one year, Benevento said—enhancements to the press box and entrance at Dunning Stadium, and a new varsity baseball complex at Mead Park.