Facilities updates tops list

It’s easy to spend other people’s money. The government does it every day.

Now it’s my turn, with an eye toward aiding Eastern Maine’s sporting community.

The first choice on the shopping list is a new Bangor Auditorium, but I’m in a less panicky mood these days because there’s seemingly a plan in place that will procure a replacement at some point in our lifetimes.

The next priority is to refurbish Cameron Stadium in Bangor, particularly with an artificial turf field, with the ultimate goal of restoring the site as a prime destination for athletes of all ages and avocations from northern, eastern and central Maine.

The field already is heavily used, especially during football season when Bangor and John Bapst high schools call the field home as well as the city’s youth program. Such a load is tough on any natural turf, as the mud of autumn attests.

Add artificial turf, and the field becomes playable from early spring to late, late fall, enabling many other sports, including field hockey and soccer, to be added to the field’s schedule.

More widespread use, with seemingly lower maintenance costs, could help recoup the initial cost of the turf, as well as luring more championship-level events to the Queen City.

With a top-level facility at Cameron Stadium, it would be hard to argue, for instance, that the high school football state championship games shouldn’t come back north at least as part of a rotation with their current home in Portland.

Greater Bangor already is spoiled by its first-class baseball fields. A multisport facility of similar quality would be a great asset.

One final addition to the wish list would be a tennis facility for eastern Maine. Admittedly this is a tougher sell, because the market for tennis doesn’t match the crowds that flock to the Auditorium, nor would use of the facility approach the demands placed on Cameron Stadium.

A Hermon group last winter advanced a proposal to build a tennis facility in that town, but voters turned down a plan that would have allocated $400,000 in town funds toward a $1.3 million project that would have included eight outdoor, lighted tennis courts.

The plan proved to be well down on the voters’ priority list at the time, but the idea wasn’t without merit in addressing the need for a premier outdoor tennis facility to serve the region.

Consider this year’s state high school tournaments. Singles play was held at Bates College in Lewiston, the Eastern Maine team championships at Colby College in Waterville, and the state finals will be played Saturday at Lewiston High School.

Why? Because that’s where there are enough courts.

The Lewiston High site is an anomaly for public tennis facilities in Maine. But thanks in part to those eight courts, the city has developed a premier junior tennis program within its recreation department that has fueled the state’s top high school program and produced a bevy of lifelong athletes.

It’s more likely any solution to the tennis court dilemma in Eastern Maine would follow the model of Bates or Colby, in which a tennis facility is constructed at a college or university. Such courts could serve several purposes, among them becoming the home for intercollegiate teams at a college expanding its athletic offerings and providing a lifetime sport opportunity.

And if the high school tennis world from Fort Kent south can benefit, too, that’s good for all.

Now it’s a matter of money, but we can dream, can’t we?

Ernie Clark may be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or eclark@bangordailynews.net