A little less than a year ago, Ceres Unified School District broke ground on a new a $16.2 million athletic stadium. Construction is nearing the end with the field complete as well as the home and visitor side bleachers and on target for an August opening to coincide with the start of the 2026-27 school year.
“We’re very excited,” said Greg Magni, who has been at Central Valley High School since opening and is now its Athletic Director. “It’s becoming a reality.”
Since opening in the fall of 2005, Central Valley Hawks football teams have been forced to leave campus to play home games. But that soon changes.
“Our goal is to (host) our first football game on Friday, August 28. We host Pittman after Turlock.”
The stadium is what Magni called the “last piece of the puzzle that will complete the school.” The centerpiece of the new athletic stadium will be large building and landscaped entryway complete with restrooms, ticket booth and concessions.
Magni said the CV Athletic Boosters will have all rights to the main concession but an area for food trucks is being created for local vendors.
When it’s done by August the project will have a:
- 1,800-seat home grandstand and press box made of steel;
- 1,000-seat visitor grandstand;
- Ticket/restroom/concessions building;
- Extended bus loading zone and sidewalk;
- Artificial turf field and all-weather track;
- Synthetic football field surface with the school name and logo imbedded.
- Fencing and improvements to the parking lot and the entrance to the stadium.
Second and third phases will include a home and visitor tool room, and a restroom/concession stand on the visitor side. Funding for those phases will be about $5 million.
The project provides handicapped accessible facilities, including restrooms and bleachers, ramps and a designated wheelchair seating area.
“The track’s getting close,” Magni said on Friday. “The bleachers are done. The press boxes are in, but it’s a matter of the bathrooms aren’t done yet, and the concessions and those are the pieces we’re waiting on to get finished before we open, and that’s all phase one of the projects.”
