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COVID-19 keeps Shea Stadium empty

Shea Stadium sits empty on Aug. 31, 2020

It’s been months since Shea Stadium has hosted a sporting event of any kind. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Missouri Valley Conference postponing fall sports, the home of Bradley Soccer lays dormant and will be for the foreseeable future.

Under normal circumstances, the first games of the season would be occurring at this time of year. 

Despite the lack of action, head coach Jim DeRose is at the stadium every day. As the main groundskeeper for the venue, he and assistant coach Tim Regan are tasked with tending to the field.

“I’d be hard-pressed to find not a day that I’m not out here if I’m in town, even weekends,” DeRose said. “I love everything that goes about it, so when I’m not working, I like to spend a lot of time out here.”

DeRose said he spends anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes per day at the stadium making sure the irrigation system is running smoothly. The turf is routinely checked for any potential damages from pests, heat and drought.

As for event cancellations, Peoria City Soccer, the newest team in USL League Two, was to play its seven home games at the stadium during the spring, but the season was canceled. Another lost event was a high school soccer tripleheader benefiting cancer awareness.

With the field quiet for now, DeRose is preparing it for the possibility of a spring season. Though he has never faced the challenge of preparing a field after a harsh winter, DeRose has been reaching out to the Peoria Park District for help.

“They take care of the golf courses, so they’ve been a great asset because they have to go through that,” DeRose said.

DeRose thinks the surface will help provide a home-field advantage.

“Our guys will now in the fall be able to practice on it a little bit, we’ll be able to move around a little bit,” DeRose said. “The people that take care of it want us to play on the field a little bit. They don’t want it to sit dormant; they want some traffic for durability and how it comes back.”

DeRose also has plenty of confidence that the surface will be ready for a spring season.

“I know there will not be a better grass field in the Midwest and our planet coming out of it than us,” DeRose said.

In the present, the next event to be held at the stadium remains uncertain, which has affected revenue. Though the stadium is unaffected by television contracts, the main loss comes from people who are unable to pay admission to attend games.

DeRose said that this isn’t just a loss for the stadium, but that it is a loss for the Bradley and Peoria communities as well.

“We’re a great bridge to the basketball season,” DeRose said. “It’s not just the loss of dollars, it’s more just the loss in this place in particular for the freshmen to get to and the people to get out.”

 

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