Plans are going forward to return the 86-year-old Brickie Bowl to some of its past glory days.
The Hobart Board of Public Works and Safety agreed on Wednesday to forward a recommendation to the Hobart Redevelopment Commission a build, operate and transfer agreement, or BOT, with 523 Development of Indianapolis.
The redevelopment commission meets next on Sept. 29, Hobart Clerk-Treasurer Deborah Longer said.
The commission can accept or reject the recommendation forwarded to them after a committee composed of representatives from development, engineering and the chief of staff met independently and gave 523 Development the nod.
523 Development was also awarded earlier this month a BOT by the Hobart Park and Recreation Board to go forward with plans to make improvements to Festival Park.
In conjunction with the awarding of the BOT, the park board also approved a five-year term on the not-to-exceed $6.6 million bond issue for improvements at Festival Park, located at 111 E. Old Ridge Road.
“The Brickie Bowl improvements will be handled by the redevelopment commission in connection with the city. They (commission) will select the BOT operator,” Longer said.
Improvements under consideration at the Brickie Bowl include updating both the electricity and turf, possibly adding pickleball courts and taking the track there and lessening it and making it more accessible, Hobart Mayor Josh Huddlestun said.
His hopes are to have improvements in place by fall of next year.
“It (the stadium) has good bones,” Huddlestun said.
The Festival Park improvements will take longer.
Improvements for Brickie Bowl will be paid for in part through the redevelopment commission and in part from donations.
Huddlestun said that the city has already received at least some sizable donations from local sources.
Improvements to the downtown, including the Brickie Bowl and Festival Park, are all part of his plans to revitalize the downtown.
“We want to draw people to our downtown. They will eat, shop and spend money in the downtown,” he said.
According to the history of Hobart, the Brickie Bowl was constructed in 1939 for $30,000 and had an initial capacity of 1,000 people.
The stadium is located at Center and 4th Street, with the first game played there on Sept. 15, 1939.
A product of the Depression Era, the stadium was funded by the Works Progress Administration.
Fans paid 35 cents to sit under the lights on concrete bleachers to watch the Lew Wallace Hornets and the Hobart Brickies play a football game at the first game.
For $1, a fan could own a ticket to all four home games on the 1939 schedule, according to the Region Sports site.
The final regular season game was played on Oct. 24, 2008, when West Side played Hobart. The score was Hobart, 59 and West Side, 12.
The Brickie Bowl was transferred from the School City of Hobart to the city of Hobart in 2013.
The School City of Hobart in exchange obtained the city-owned property behind Fire Station 1, adjacent to Joan Martin Elementary School on 10th Street.
Officials in 2013 said they planned to remodel and use the Brickie Bowl for a number of recreational and community events, according to newspaper sources at that time.
Deborah Laverty is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.