For nearly 80 years, Citizens Field has served as the epicenter of Gainesville’s high school sports — yet it’s gone two decades without renovations. That might change as the city and school board consider giving the field a makeover.
At an Oct. 9 meeting, Gainesville City Commissioners voted unanimously to begin negotiations with the Alachua County School Board regarding ownership of the field, which Buchholz, Eastside and Gainesville High Schools share.
The commission is considering selling the field to the school board under the condition that the field will receive major renovations and remain a football stadium. Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward said the stadium isn’t the only aspect of the project the city is focused on.
“When we talk about the Citizens Field and larger park area there, it’s not only the stadium we’re talking about,” he said. “It’s all the infrastructure that goes with it.”
The field’s redevelopment is one portion of a plan to renovate Eighth Avenue and Waldo Road’s public facilities. Martin Luther King Jr. Multipurpose Center and Dwight H. Hunter Pool would also receive major renovations. The school board would only be responsible for renovating Citizens Field.
The project, not including the stadium, would cost around $84 million for the city.
City staff said a new stadium could reportedly cost upwards of $35 million, while a renovation of the current stadium would be around $10 million.
The city would be responsible for the surrounding site work, including the facilities and parking.
The board and the commission’s partnership has been synonymous with the field for decades. In 1984, they signed a 40-year contract transferring ownership to the school board, which owned the field until 2024. When the contract expired, ownership returned to the city.
Jackie Johnson, an Alachua County Public Schools spokesperson, confirmed the negotiations.
“The district has been in discussion with the city for several months regarding Citizens Field,” she said. “We are certainly considering acquiring the stadium property.”
The school district can only spend money on the stadium if it owns the property, Johnson added.
The school board’s capital funds are used for long-term investments in school facilities and infrastructure. If the school board acquires the field, it will only use capital funds rather than general funding to renovate the field. General funds are used for day-to-day costs, such as salaries, transportation and supplies.
If the proposed deal is accepted, the school board would be responsible for the completion of a new stadium by 2028.
Ward said he believed negotiations will end in a deal both parties are comfortable with, and city staff was instructed to come back with a potential agreement by early December.
“It will require displacement of games for at least a season of football,” Ward said, adding the school board “will have to do some shuffling and some very creative sporting event replacement.”
Ward said he wasn’t certain about the timeline of construction, but he felt optimistic about the future of the project and the partnership with the school board.
Some aren’t as confident.
Peter McDonough, a 53-year-old Gainesville resident who serves as a booster for Buchholz High School sports, said the school board and City Commission have been promising renovations for years.
“I’m not going to hold my breath on this one, and I still have a child playing the next two seasons after this year,” McDonough said. “Somebody’s got to take ownership of the situation.”
McDonough said the longer the field goes without a renovation, the more unsafe it becomes.
“The playing surface is a joke and has been my entire time sitting on the board,” McDonough said. “I’ve had a child personally get his ankle stuck in one of those sand pits and almost break a leg.”
McDonough said the average grass high school field lasts eight to 10 years for one high school, and Citizens Field has gone without significant field service for nearly two decades with three high schools utilizing it. McDonough said he feels on-campus practice fields at the three high schools are all safer than Citizens Field.
McDonough wondered if the board and commission would consider giving schools their own fields, especially because of the stress the shared field places on local schools.
For now, Gainesville’s high schools will continue to play on the city’s home field, with Buchholz and Eastside hosting playoff games on Nov. 13 and Nov. 14.
Contact Logan McBride at lmcbride@alligator.org. Follow him on X @logandmcbride.
Logan McBride is a journalism junior and the Fall 2025 K-12 education reporter. In his free time, he enjoys watching TV shows or playing basketball at Southwest Rec. He is also a big football fan and will die for Dak Prescott.
