North Ridgeville's school board voted unanimously on Sept. 15 to approve a $629,631 contract with Vasco Group to replace the worn-out artificial turf at Ranger Stadium, a project the district says has been years in the making even though it never came up in public meeting discussion beforehand.
The vote, approved through the board's consent agenda, came more than six weeks after Vasco Group submitted its proposal on July 31, according to Cleveland.com. In that stretch, the board held four separate meetings — Aug. 4, Aug. 10, Aug. 18 and Sept. 1 — and the turf project wasn't mentioned in any of those meetings' minutes. No board members raised questions about the project before the vote, and board member Frank Vacha was absent from the Sept. 15 meeting where it finally passed.
Why the Turf Needs Replacing Now
The current turf at Ranger Stadium was installed about 11 years ago, outlasting its expected eight-to-10-year lifespan. The outlet reports that the specific product used is no longer available, which has made repairs increasingly difficult as the field has aged.
Vasco Group, selected through the OMNIA cooperative purchasing program, will replace approximately 88,885 square feet of artificial turf with the FieldTurf Vertex Core system. The district expects the project to wrap up by summer 2027.
Two Options, One Pricier Upgrade
Vasco Group's proposal gave the district a choice. The FieldTurf XM360 option was priced at $554,835 and came with an eight-year warranty, while the Vertex Core system the board ultimately chose added $74,796 to the price tag in exchange for a 10-year warranty.
District communications supervisor Brooke Roshong said the newer turf carries a higher safety rating and offers more cushioning and impact protection than what's currently on the field. With proper maintenance, Roshong said, the district expects the new surface to last 12 to 15 years.
Funding and What Comes Next
The district says it will pay for the project through its Capital Improvement Fund, and had been setting aside money for the replacement for more than four years. A weaker search-result snippet tied to the same report suggested the funding source remained unclear, though the district's own account points to the Capital Improvement Fund as the source.
Ranger Stadium's field sees heavy use beyond Friday night football — it hosts athletic teams, daily physical education classes, outdoor recess for Academic Center students and marching band practice. The stadium is expected to remain the district's main athletic field even after North Ridgeville's new high school opens in 2028, a project voters funded in 2023 with a $143 million bond issue.
North Ridgeville's turf spending lands in a price range similar to other Ohio districts' projects, though none offer a true apples-to-apples comparison. Rocky River approved a $470,000 turf project for its high school stadium back in 2014, covering both materials and labor, according to Cleveland.com. More recently, Riverside Local Schools staff estimated that turf materials alone would run about $650,000 at today's prices, not counting underlayment, added sand or other subsurface work, per citizenportal.ai. Strongsville, meanwhile, separately authorized an eight-year turf maintenance agreement with Vasco Sports Contractors capped at $84,000, according to a separate citizenportal.ai report.
