The Board of Trustees for Billings Public Schools postponed a vote after a competing bid emerged for the future name of Daylis Stadium, wanting more time for public input.
Longtime Billings family Greg, Eileen and Debby McDonald submitted a bid to give $2 million over four years for stadium naming rights Friday. Law firm Heenan & Cook previously submitted to give $1.5 million over 10 years for the opportunity.
The name of the stadium if the McDonald bid is successful would be the Sam McDonald Memorial Stadium at Daylis. Under the law firm’s bid, the stadium would be named Heenan & Cook Stadium.
The board, though happy with the competing bids reflecting community interest, decided unanimously to delay the decision until October’s school board meeting.
“It’s a big change,” Superintendent Erwin Garcia said. “When we had the name Daylis changing to Heenan & Cook, we gave it a month and we heard some feedback. Now on Friday, we receive an offer from another outstanding partner in our community, someone who has done tremendous work for our community. Both partners are great, and I hope that we can continue having them engaged, but just for the same fairness I hope that we give the public a month of reflecting on this.”
The stadium naming rights are a part of a larger push to fundraise more than $8 million for the leveling and long-considered renovation of bleachers and facilities at the nearly century-old stadium. The district is more than half-way there with private fundraising, even with an added cost of the field being unlevel surfacing this August. The cost totals around $14.8 million. The school itself is contributing $6.25 million.
“Everybody in Billings just wants the best stadium improvements possible,” Greg McDonald told the Billings Gazette in a phone interview. “There is still lots of money to be raised.”
Greg and Eileen McDonald had previously put in a $500,000 bid for the closed west side grandstands before putting in the stadium naming bid. It’s uncertain if that bid would still stand if the board would reject their bid for stadium naming rights.
“Whatever decision is made, I am deeply, deeply hopeful that we can make the case to the donor, that the goal here is an excellent stadium for student athletes, for the community, for visitors and attendees, and that they they will be inspired to retain their support, but it is not a given,” Chase Rose, a Bannack Group consultant helping lead the fundraising, told the trustees.
Greg, a Billings West High School graduate, was president of Wendy’s of Montana from 1994 to 2014. Then, the company was sold to a Spokane-based franchisee Wenspok Resources after decades of local ownership, with the land underneath the restaurants owned by the McDonald family at the time. Greg is currently the president of McDonald Land Development in Billings.
Sam McDonald, for whom the stadium would be memorialized, died in 2012 at 76. A Billings Gazette obituary described him as a “standout athlete, successful businessman and noted philanthropist” in Billings.
A Montana High School Association hall of famer, Sam previously graduated from Billings Senior High School in 1954, where he was an all-state and all-American football and basketball player, in addition to an American Legion Baseball Player that went to the national competition. He founded Wendy’s of Montana before Greg took over operations.
Sam established the Wendy’s Foundation in 2000 which gave out hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. He helped purchase the McDonald Hall that was home for the Montana State University Billings’ College of Business from 2002 to 2023. He also with Wendy’s of Montana donated funds for the first placement of synthetic turf at Daylis Stadium in 2006, with the pitch still called Wendy’s Field.
Greg seems set to continue his family philanthropic efforts. Greg and Eileen McDonald had previously received a local humanitarian award in 2015 for continued volunteer service to local nonprofits and continued contributions to fundraising efforts.
In 1947, the formerly-named Billings Public Schools Stadium was named after Billings Senior High School principal Fred Daylis after he died in a traffic accident returning to Billings from a sports game, according to past reporting in the Gazette.
While the board delayed approval of the naming of the stadium Monday, the board approved other naming partners including Intermountain Health for the west ticket entry, Bravera Bank as the concessions naming partner, and Bill and Pat Ryan for the West High School locker room. The Ryan family intends for the locker room to be named in honor of Paul Klaboe, who coached the Golden Bears football team at West High for nearly three decades.
The board also approved a line of credit to make up for the gap not currently fundraised for Monday night. As a part of their continued months-long fundraising push, the district is hosting an event on Oct. 2 with Denver Broncos hall of fame running back Terrell Davis.
Renovations of the stadium are planned to begin in December after the end of football season, with the stadium expected to complete its grand opening in October 2026.
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