ARC President Thomas Greene welcomed a small audience of sports players and supporters on to the official ribbon cutting and grand opening of the new soccer stadium inside a room to the left of the bleachers on Friday.
The dedication was supposed to happen outside but plans changed due to the possibility of rain.
“As many of you know, these fields have been serving our student athletes and others for quite a long time,” Greene said. “A few years ago we realized these fields needed to be expanded. We needed a new stadium to better serve our student athletes as well as provide for the potential expansion of our athletic program.”
Greene said that administration had numerous conversations about how best to move forward and expand these fields to meet the evolving needs of our students.
“In the end what we have is an absolutely beautiful soccer stadium and an opportunity to support both our current and our future athletic programs,” Greene said.
Greene thanked the construction company that built the stadium as well as local residents for their support for Measure M in 2008.
Measure M is a general obligation bond that provides $475 million to fund classroom and facility improvements and construction for colleges in the Los Rios Community College District.
According to Los Rios Vice Chancellor Sue Lorimer the total project cost was over $7 million.
“I hope especially for the athletes in the room that you’re able to stay for tonight’s games. Soccer under the lights is a wonderful thing,” Lorimer said.
“We’re excited tonight to see two talented teams playing even though they’re all from Los Rios, but you know they’re all still talented and we really appreciate this new beautiful stadium,” Los Rios trustee John Knight said.
Greene introduced ARC soccer player Khalil Kirksey who thanked those behind the effort to build the new stadium.
“I would like to first say thank you to everyone who took part in the construction of our beautiful new stadium and I would like to say secondly that I’m very pleased in the diligent efforts of the administration for allowing this to all take place and happen,” Kirksey said.
“Being a transfer, ARC is a great place with a great group of guys and great coaching staff and now we have a phenomenal stadium to showcase our ability and take us all to the next level in our lives,” Kirksey said. “I would just like to say thank you very much to everyone, appreciate it.”
After the introductions the audience walked outside to the front gate where Greene and Kirksey each held one side of a large pair of scissors and cut the ribbon.
The audience then proceeded to their seats to watch the women’s soccer team play Cosumnes River College.
