Construction began this week on a new “Field of Dreams” football stadium next to George Washington Carver High School, which is set to open in the fall of 2027.
The 3,700-seat open-air stadium and artificial-turf football field was officially named Raising Cane’s 9th Ward Stadium at LCMC Health Field at Monday’s groundbreaking. The facility’s plans also include a pressbox, locker rooms, concessions, restrooms and other amenities.
The stadium is located in the Desire Housing neighborhood at 4300 Almonaster Boulevard, and will serve as the anchor home for the orange-and-green Carver High School Rams. The multi-use stadium will be available to high school teams from all Orleans Parish public schools and will also host graduations, concerts, festivals, and other community events.
Nearly two decades ago, in 2008, the project was first envisioned as the “9th Ward Field of Dreams” by Teach for America member Brian Bordanick, who served as athletic director at Carver. The school held classes out of metal trailers and other temporary facilities for years after 2005 floodwaters ruined its building; its athletes – like many schools in the city – had no gym and no practice field, much less a venue for games.
Within a few years, the idea had garnered so much support that President Barack Obama mentioned it during his visit to New Orleans, five years after Hurricane Katrina struck the city.
“We see that resilience — that hope — exemplified by students at Carver High School,” Obama said. “They’ve helped to raise more than a million dollars to build a new community track and football field — their ‘Field of Dreams’ for the 9th Ward.”
The project stalled out after a group that took control of the project ended up squandering the money. But a group of backers brought the nonprofit project back on track.
After decades of planning, the project is finally coming to fruition because the Carver community and the 9th Ward as a whole “never let go” of a vision for the field, New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno said at the groundbreaking ceremony.
“This right here is what ‘all-in’ looks like,” Moreno said. “It means investing in our amazing, talented young people of New Orleans. It means investing in communities that have so long been underserved, by building first-class facilities.”
Sports teaches important lessons about resilience and perseverance, said Todd Graves, the New Orleans-born founder of Raising Cane’s, a lifelong football fan, who learned those lessons playing sports as a child growing up in Baton Rouge, he said on Monday.
The 9th Ward Stadium is supported by $2 million from Raising Cane’s and $600,000 from LCMC Health, along with funding from federal and state governments and the New Orleans City Council.
“For the kids who are going to play here, I can’t wait to see them have the proper facility to go for those goals and those dreams,” Graves said.
Others saw the possibility of a stronger 9th Ward thanks to the stadium.
“This is one of the least-developed [communities] since Katrina, and I think this facility can give people hope and belief that people care about them, and that we want to rebuild,” said Arnie Fielkow, a board member for the nonprofit stadium who served on the New Orleans City Council during key recovery years after Hurricane Katrina.
Neighborhood residents echoed Fielkow’s hopes that the stadium will have a positive impact on the sometimes-isolated neighborhood, which is bounded by the Industrial Canal and railroad tracks. As a result, Carver students haven’t always felt that they mattered to the city, some residents said.
“Society has given them poor self-esteem, but this stadium will help them build self-esteem,” said Sheila Veronica Williams, a 1974 Carver grad and 30-year alumni association president, who wore an orange dress and green hat for the occasion.
Gus Bennett contributed reporting.
