A Real Field of Dreams

Our community of Fort Bragg has been hit hard economically with the shut down of the local Georgia Pacific Mill and the tightening of commercial fishing regulations. However that has not stopped the community spirit of giving and caring.

In 1991 a foundation was formed by local residence to build a lighted field on the Mendocino Coast, prior to that there had never been one. With the formation of the Mendocino Coast Sports Foundation the idea of Timberwolf Stadium began.

Timberwolf Stadium is today a reality thanks to the generosity of the members of the community. Although only partly complete the Stadium has been in use since 1999. There are still areas of seating to be completed as well as some entry and parking areas and eventually an all weather track.

The interesting thing about this stadium is not that it became a reality but how it came about. The entire stadium, which has a value at this time of 15 million dollars, was put together for less than 1. 3 million, and with only one government grant of $47,000.

Some of the innovative ways that have made this project a reality are:

Purchasing lights and poles from the Port of Oakland for approximately $8,400 and refurbishing them. Had the lights been purchased new they would have been approximately $150,000.

Getting local truckers, as well as the National Guard, to haul 800 truckloads of soil to be compacted into place (24,600 cubic yards). The soil was donated by a local business and the local fuel distributors paid the truckers fuel.

Installing the 80 foot poles by drilling bases 4 feet wide and 30 feet deep and filling them with concrete and rebar. We were able to get a bridge crew who happened to be retrofitting a bridge nearby to bring their equipment and drill the holes and saved approximately $50,000.

The Foundation board found out Anaheim Stadium was remodeling its stadium and negotiated a price of $10 a seat and purchased 2,500 seats (this will be the seating capacity when the stadium is finally complete). Had these professional style individual seats been purchased new they would have been approximately $375,000.

A local businessman donated a piece of property valued at approximately $200,000 to the foundation and the foundation was able to finance the property to obtain cash to move forward on the project until it was able to sell the property. This businessman later died and left an additional $150,000 to the stadium. In his honor the Stadium was named "The James G. Cummings Timberwolf Stadium".

There have been many other things that have saved thousands of dollars on the cost of building this stadium but I thought I would give you just a few examples above.

Our stadium is not yet complete but we believe ours is a great story -- a small community, a diverse board, banding together to build ourselves the best stadium, and using our local resources to leverage our means. If our story gets out, we believe it will engage "lost" Fort Braggers, companies, and philanthropists to take an interest in this project. We have no paid staff and everyone is a volunteer. You are cordially invited to come up and see Timberwolf Stadium for yourself and show others what community spirit can do! Thank you for taking your time to read this. We are proud of what we've built, and hope you'll visit our community and stadium.