A 75-year-old football stadium in the heart of Mobile will be given a “new life” after the Mobile County School Board unanimously approved Monday an agreement with the City of Mobile that will transfer Ladd-Peebles Stadium to Alabama’s largest school system.

The approval came one week after school officials and the Mobile City Council reached a verbal agreement to allow the school system to reduce the stadium’s seating to 25,000, and to allow the facility to serve as the permanent home for Murphy High School football.

That agreement was worked into a new contract that was backed by the council last week, and the school board on Monday.

But board president Sherry Dillihay-McDade – who represents the area around the stadium – and Superintendent Chresal Threadgill said there were some “minor changes” that needed to be finalized within the agreement.

“We’re getting a 75-year-old stadium and we’ll bring it into the 21st century,” said Dillihay-McDade, following the board meeting. “I think the community will be excited about it as well as Murphy High School.”

Mayor Sandy Stimpson said it could take another 45-60 days for the closing documents to be finalized and recorded.

School officials did not provide any details about what their long-term plans are for the stadium, aside from hosting high school football.

They also provided few public comments about the deal, other than to chastise a local media report quoting city officials who stated they believe the school system was poised to invest in an athletic complex within Ladd-Peebles Stadium’s property.

Said Threadgill, “I’ve heard $30 and $40 and $70 (million). But that allocation is not determined.”

“The primary purpose is for Murphy High School,” said board member Don Stringfellow.

Indeed, the stadium will be the home for Murphy’s football games and will make it one of the largest venues hosting high school football permanently in Alabama.

Nearby Williamson High School will also have its home football games at the stadium this fall before moving into a new on-campus venue in 2024.

A construction project to replace the stadium’s field turf is expected to be finished before the high school season kicks off in late August.

Under the agreement, the city is spending close to $10 million on future renovations to the stadium. That includes a $650,000 replacement of its field turf.

Stimpson told reporters at Government Plaza that he anticipates the field turf starting “as quickly as we can to meet some deadlines for upcoming games.” A city work crew was at the stadium earlier in the morning.

Mobile City Councilman William Carroll said the agreement represented a compromise between the two government agencies. The biggest hangup appeared to be an agreement on the stadium’s future size.

According to the agreement:

• The school system agreed to build a stadium with a seating capacity of 25,000 seats and designed in a manner to increase temporary seating capacity or future expansion to 30,000. The flexibility to add more seating was something the council’s three Black members wanted as a way to continue hosting Historically Black College and University (HBCU) football games. The city hosts four of them each year, though the average attendance for them has been around 21,000 fans.
• If temporary additional seating is needed, it will be allowed but it will be at the responsibility of the event sponsor to arrange for it. City officials said that depending on the event, the city could help pay for additional seating.
• The school board does not want improvements to the stadium to be subject of approval by the Mobile City Council. A previous agreement voted on only by the council in June required that any improvements come back to the council for consideration.

“It was a compromise that I wasn’t all that happy with, but with the ability to add the additional seating when we need it for large scale games and, even better yet … the school system’s (willingness) to completely do a 30,000-seat stadium based on what the need of the city is, I’m OK with that,” said Councilman William Carroll. “As long as it remains useful to the constituency base to the city, it’s always needed.”

Carroll said that whatever the school system has in mind for the future of the stadium, he hopes it’s with maintaining the venue as a “cultural amenity.”

School board member Reginald Crenshaw, during the board meeting, said it could be another year or longer before decisions are made.

“Culture is any event that improves or continues to excite the quality of life in which people live there (and) where we do not change the basis of living,” Carroll added. “But we also enhance the quality of life, entertainment, concerts, football games and all of those things that are part of our culture. And right now, that’s a big part of my constituency’s basic culture.”

Carroll said his constituents “don’t attend the Civic Center as much as they attend Ladd Stadium,” referencing the limited events at the aging downtown sports and entertainment venues that primarily serves as the home facility for Mobile Mardi Gras balls. The nearly 60-year-old Civic Center is poised to undergo a massive, multi-million reconstruction.

Carroll said the agreement represented a good first step in developing a partnership between the council and the school board. He said that unlike other large cities, there isn’t a much of a “big partnership with our local school system.”

Danny Corte, executive director with the Mobile Sports Authority, said the agreement represented a life saver for an aging football stadium that once housed the Senior Bowl and University of South Alabama home football games. Both events have since left the venue in favor of Hancock-Whitney Stadium at the USA campus.

The stadium is also packed with historical moments. It’s where a young University of Alabama head football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant coached his first football game for the Crimson Tide in 1958. A young Elvis Presley once performed on the stadium’s football field. And Donald Trump held his first major stadium rally at the stadium in 2015, an event that helped buoy his presidential prospects in 2016.

“I think this is an important day because the resources of the school board and the city combined will give Ladd its next life,” said Corte, whose offices were once inside the stadium from 1998-2005. “If you are a fan of Ladd-Peebles (Stadium), this is a good day.”