Mooseheart stadium facility getting $3 million makeover

The Mooseheart Red Ramblers are getting some much improved places to play, as their football stadium and field house are poised to undergo a $3 million renovation starting next week.

Thanks to a gift from the Ohio State Moose Association, Illinois Memorial Stadium, visible from Route 31, will get:

• New bleachers;

• Concrete repairs;

• Improved air conditioning and heating systems;

• Updated electrical and plumbing systems;

• Roof replacement;

• Remodeling of the current locker rooms;

• Addition of two locker rooms;

• Stripping of paint that covered half of the glass-block windows, to let in natural light; and

• An artificial-turf field in the stadium.

The work starts May 24, and is expected to be done before the Ramblers' home-opener football game Sept. 11.

The football stadium opened in 1940, with seating for 3,500 people and a 12,000-square-foot concourse beneath the bleachers.

In 1963, it added a field house, with bleacher seating for 1,500 and auditorium-style seating for 4,000. Besides Mooseheart school events, it hosts functions associated with the International Moose Convention and local events such as craft fairs and children's clothing resales.

Mooseheart officials say it is the single-largest construction project, in terms of dollar value, to be undertaken there since it completed the House of God worship facility in 1950.

Mooseheart Child City & School is a 1,000-acre campus and community for children and teens located just south of Batavia.

The stadium is a local landmark, with its big white "M" on the stadium's fiberglass bleachers. The new bleachers will be aluminum, so they might not be able to keep the initial.

"That is the hope - that there will be some sort of coloration to the seats," said Darryl Mellema, a spokesman for Moose International.

The artificial turf will eliminate some of the drainage problems the field has had, and enable it to be used more by community groups, such as youth sports teams, Mellema said.

"It's hard to keep a good grass field," he said.

Having more locker rooms will enable the field house to host more multi-team events and tournaments.

The stadium was used in 2007 to film the Dennis Quaid movie, "The Express," about the first black football player to win the Heisman Trophy, collegiate football's top honor.

The stadium and field house will be renamed the Ohio Moose Sports Complex.