Staff photo / David Skolnick Dolph Carroll, director of athletics and the men’s basketball coach at Valley Christian High School, talked Wednesday to the Rotary Club of Youngstown about the school’s plans for the former South High Fieldhouse location and the school’s stadium.

YOUNGSTOWN — Plans to transform the site of the former South High Fieldhouse as well as the old school’s stadium into a new football and track facility are in the works, but the initial project is being scaled back because of the costs.

The initial project was for $9 million to $10 million. With reductions, the cost is $3 million to $5 million, Dolph Carroll, director of athletics and the men’s basketball coach at Valley Christian High School, said Wednesday. The school’s Valley Legends Stadium Consortium is spearheading the project.

Carroll spoke Wednesday about the project to the Rotary Club of Youngstown. Joining him was Gary Frost, president of the consortium.

The school’s football and track teams have used the former South High stadium for the past seven years after a number of years at different high school stadiums in the area and Ipe Field in Youngstown.

The project should start in the fall of 2026, Carroll said.

The Valley Legends Stadium will hold between 1,500 and 3,000 spectators, he said.

“These things still have to be finalized,” Carroll said.

Valley Legends Stadium will honor the eight City Series schools and some of the great athletes who played for those teams with a feature at the entrance, Carroll said.

But the entrance and a building at the stadium will be smaller than originally planned, Frost said.

“We had a gateway building planned, but it is too cost prohibitive to do at this time,” he said. “If the opportunity and resources become available, we’ll do that.”

The track could be used by walkers at any time and Carroll said other schools could possibly rent the stadium from Valley Christian for its football games and track meets.

Demolition of the former fieldhouse was finished in May at a cost of $158,876. The city hired a contractor to do the work with most of the funding coming from a state grant.

The fieldhouse at 1840 Erie St. opened in 1940 and was used by Youngstown State University, then Youngstown College, and South High School, which closed in 1993, for basketball games and numerous other events. The fieldhouse also hosted other activities and shows, but fell into disrepair before its demolition.

Carroll said his school’s basketball team used the fieldhouse in 2009 and those were the last events at the building.

City council voted June 18 to sell the fieldhouse site to the school for $64,460, its appraised value.

The school is having the stadium’s bleachers demolished this week, Carroll said.

After the bleachers are demolished and the school takes ownership of the fieldhouse property, Carroll said fundraisers will be held — either in the late fall or early next year — for the project.

“We’ll start the process of raising money and we wouldn’t be ready to break ground until fall of ’26,” Carroll said.

Frost said: “One of the key words is catalytic. We see this joining in with other activity already going on with Market Street and we want to be catalytic with the restoration of the South Side of Youngstown.”

Carroll said: “It’s not just about us. We want to include the beauty of the city and the Market Street corridor with this project. Can you imagine a brand new stadium on the Market Street corridor and what could possibly happen around that with economic development?”

Carroll said he wants to eventually build baseball and softball fields nearby and block off the entire area for an athletic complex.

Carroll said Valley Christian’s “vision is to eventually move our high school to” the former South High School building at 1833 Market St. from its current location at 4401 Southern Blvd.

“That’s a process,” he said. “It’s so exciting.”

Carroll said the school’s administration toured the former South High School on Wednesday.

Youngstown Jubilee Urban Development purchased the 114-year-old building in 2023 for $500,000 and announced efforts earlier this year for an education and workforce center.