On Saturday, Aug. 12, 2023, Portland Parks and Recreation (PP&R) announced that the Grant Bowl, the turf field located in the Grant Park “bowl”, was deemed unsafe for athletic use. While the field remains open to the public, PP&R is no longer issuing permits for the space.
In its release, PP&R stated that the field has failed multiple impact tests (a test measuring a turf field’s ability to absorb impact) since November of 2022. After failing two in the winter of 2022, PP&R added more crumb rubber, the small rubber pellets that act as “infill” synthetic turf fields, to the field in an attempt to improve cushioning. Despite those efforts, the bowl failed yet another impact test in May 2023.
PP&R issued Portland Public Schools (PPS) a Non-Park Use Permit to repair the turf on Aug. 9. The repair was completed on Aug. 10. This was soon followed by another failed safety test and the announcement of the closing of the Grant Bowl.
Installed in 2013, the field had a life expectancy of 8–10 years, according to PP&R. However, due to a $600 million backlog in maintenance funding, the department has not been equipped to renovate the bowl. This December will mark the field’s 10th year in operation.
Grant Athletic Director, Odie Hollingshed, says that he was notified of the possibility of the bowl closure in the spring, but was also told that there was a high potential that it would be playable following another round of maintenance. Hollingshed says he was not notified that the turf would be closed officially until PPS did their round of maintenance on Aug. 9.
The Grant Bowl closure was announced one day before the beginning of the 2023 fall sports seasons, leaving Grant High School’s athletics department scrambling to accommodate the sudden change. Without the Grant Bowl, the school is left with one field for a total of eight high school sports teams, all with differing practice and game schedules.
Out of the eight teams, the football teams (junior varsity and varsity) have been given priority for use of the upper field, which was added in the recent renovation of Grant completed in 2019. This is due to the challenges of transporting the teams’ large quantity of equipment and gear.
Nevertheless, Thomas Browning, a junior on the varsity football team, says the change has taken a toll on the team: “It kind of affected all of our attitudes towards the season, just not knowing exactly when we’re going to practice or where we’re going to practice.”
Browning adds that he’s worried about how this change will affect the team’s performance this season. For the first three weeks of practice, the upper field had no yard markers, making it difficult to run realistic drills. Furthermore, practices are often cut short because of the tight schedule being run to allow for both football and boys’ soccer practices.
As a result of limited field space, the girls’ soccer teams have been relocated to Delta Park for practices and games. Commuting there after school can take up to 45 minutes with traffic. Bella Bohne, a senior on the varsity team, says that the commute not only takes away from the team’s overall practice time, but also valuable time she used to spend on her academics.
The change is upsetting, Bohne says, from a community perspective as well. “I think (high school soccer) is a community thing as much as it’s an athletic thing … Everyone’s practicing together and at the same place. People are coming out of school and if you have a game you’re warming up as people are walking out.”
In past years, the girls’ and boys’ varsity soccer teams have played the majority of their home games at Delta Park due to the absence of stadium lights on Grant’s home fields. These games often start at 4:15 p.m., requiring students to be released from school more than an hour early. Bohne says that not being able to have practices at Grant is just the “icing on the cake” of years of inequalities compared to other schools.
PP&R has faced backlash from students and families alike, who feel that PP&R should have anticipated these problems and created a more effective plan to replace the bowl as it neared the end of its lifespan. “I’m really sad and disappointed because it’s my senior year and I feel kind of screwed over by (PP&R),” says Bohne.
As a result, the Grant Bowl Community Coalition, a recently-formed group of community members with the mission of reopening the Grant Bowl, are calling for immediate action to repair the field.
PPS School Board Resolution No. 6755, which passed unanimously on Tuesday, Sept. 5, aims to begin the repair of the Grant Bowl and Buckman Track immediately. Buckman Track was also closed for permitted use (due to renovations at Benson High School) with no plan for renovation.
Under the resolution, repairs for both would be completed by the fall of 2023 — much sooner than PP&R’s expected completion date of fall 2024. To meet this goal, PPS is demanding a long-term lease for the facilities that will allow the district to aid in maintenance funding for the field and track.
A spokesperson from PP&R reports that PP&R is in communication with PPS about potential next steps regarding the repairment of the bowl. PP&R states, “At this time, the parties have committed to having the Grant Bowl usable for permitted sports activities, including high school athletics.” When and how this commitment will be carried out is unclear.
