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College and community sign agreement
A decade from now the Beaver Falls Fighting Tigers will still call Reeves Field their home. Geneva and the Big Beaver Falls Area School District signed an agreement March 27 that will allow the high school football team to play in the college stadium through 2024.
Geneva has shared the stadium with the school district since 1936, and as a result some familiar names tore the turf in Reeves Field during their high school games: Joe Namath, Mike Ditka, Ty Law. But just a few months ago it looked as though that symbiotic relationship might end. The stadium had fallen into disrepair, and the high school games were an added strain on a field that was already inadequate to meet just the college’s needs. The rent Beaver Falls paid the college for each game wasn’t enough to cover the expenses of keeping the lights on, but the school board was in the middle of a building project and couldn’t spend more on a football field. The Tigers’ lease was set to expire in 2009, and the parties had reached an impasse.
Pennsylvania Representative Mike Veon helped end the stalemate by securing a $1.25 million state matching grant that will partially fund the upcoming stadium renovations. The grant will enable Geneva to transform Reeves Field into a first-class stadium, one that will withstand all the punishment that two football teams and two marching bands can hand out.
The $1.25 million grant must be matched by contributions from Geneva’s alumni and friends. All told the stadium improvements, which are part of the Beyond the Bend project, will cost $3 million.