The Billings school district is firming up plans to revamp Daylis Stadium, unveiling a new $10.5 million design.
Safety concerns forced officials to close the west concrete stands for 2024 football season.
The home and visiting fans, along with students, are on the same side of the field in the east bleachers, and the bands are in the end zones.
It was a different feeling for Billings West High School cheerleaders during the crosstown game against Senior High School last Friday night.
“It's just different not having the full big grandstand, and Daylis and kind of known for that,” said Tayler Schlehuber, West High head cheer coach. “You walk into the stadium and it just feels almost empty because you look out and you don't see anyone. So it just kind of feels a little like a ghost town.”
Schlehuber says while the in-game experience is largely the same, the atmosphere has certainly changed.
The stadium capacity is down from 5,000 to 3,800 this year.
A Daylis master plan update, presented at a school board meeting last week, shows a $10.5 million project scaled down from a previous proposal.
“Taking down this west structure and replacing it with roughly 3,000 seats,” said Mark Sulser, School District 2 athletics & activities director. “The overall stadium would seat about 5,000 people.”
New buildings would house locker rooms for Senior, West, Skyview, and visiting teams, along with other facilities for fans, ticketing, concessions and other things.
“New lighting, security fence, inside and out around this facility,” Sulser said. “So, it's a very simple, basic plan, but it gets us back to what Daylis used to be.”
The track would be widened to eight lanes with 10 lanes on the west side or home side.
"We could host any track and field event that's high school related," Sulser said. "Obviously, (the Montana High School Sports Association) prefers a 10-lane track. But with the infrastructure that we have in Billings, whether it be hotels, lodging or food and then a facility that can take on a state track meet, we could certainly do that with eight lanes and then 10 lanes on the straight away."
Sulser has enjoyed Daylis as a player, a coach, and a parent.
“Oh, it's huge, kids love it,” Sulser said about a full stadium of cheering fans. "And the more people that we get in the stadium the better.”
That's also good for the fans and cheerleaders. But that's missing this year.
“Typically, the tradition at West is during the third quarter, we shout go, the parents section shouts West High," Schlehuber said. “So it's like this big kind of cross-the-field ordeal, and right now it's not happening.”
Sulser says the Bannack Group is helping the district figure out how much and how soon money can be raised.
The fundraising could start in four to six months with the construction sometime after that.
“It's likely we'll have this year and then probably next season too. And at the end of next season, this all comes down and we get going,” Sulser said as he pointed to the current structure.
