Civic Stadium was an outdoor athletic

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

in the

northwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west— ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, located in Eugene,

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. For most of its history, it was owned by the Eugene School District. Opened in 1938, the stadium was destroyed by fire in 2015 on June 29. The stadium was replaced by Civic Park, which was built in phases for $42 million. Completed in 2024, the facility features a soccer field, fieldhouse, locker rooms, and seating for 3,500 spectators.

History

Civic Stadium, located near East 20th Avenue and Willamette Street, adjacent to South Eugene High School, had a

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

of 6,800. Built in 1938 through a public-private partnership between the Eugene Area

Chamber of Commerce A chamber of commerce, or board of trade, is a form of business network. For example, a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to a ...

, Eugene School District 4J, and the federal

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...

(WPA); the property had been owned by the

school district A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public Primary school, primary or Secondary school, secondary schools or both in various countries. It is not to be confused with an attendance zone, which is within a school dis ...

from its construction until spring 2015. In October 2008, Civic Stadium was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. Originally built for

high school football High school football, also known as prep football, is gridiron football played by High school (North America), high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular high school sports, interscholastic sports in both c ...

and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

, in 1969 it became the home of the Eugene Emeralds

minor league baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...

team, which previously played at the privately owned Bethel Park (north of Roosevelt Boulevard (); its outfield is present-day Lark Park). The Emeralds moved up to the

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade bel ...

( AAA) in 1969 and needed a larger venue. After five seasons in the PCL, they returned to the Class A

Northwest League The Northwest League is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Northwestern United States and Western Canada. A Class A Short Season league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Major League Baseba ...

in 1974 and played in the stadium through 2009. (High school football moved to the University of Oregon's Autzen Stadium in 1969, following the installation of

artificial turf Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass, used in sports arenas, residential lawns and commercial applications that traditionally use grass. It is much more durable than grass and easily maintained wi ...

.) Before the departure of the Emeralds in 2009, Civic Stadium was one of the ten oldest active minor league baseball facilities in the United States. The lighted playing field at Civic Stadium had an unorthodox alignment, oriented southeast (home plate to center field); the recommended alignment of a baseball diamond is east-northeast. The natural grass field was at an approximate

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

of above sea level.

Emeralds relocate

In August 2009, the Emeralds announced their relocation to the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

's PK Park for the 2010 season. The Emeralds cited Civic Stadium's need for substantial renovations, major problems with irrigation and electrical systems, and broken seats, and estimated that modernization could cost as much as $15 million. The Emeralds played their last game at Civic Stadium on Thursday, September 4, 2009, a 5–3 loss to the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes. Following the game, fans collected pieces of the outfield turf as souvenirs.

Disuse and destruction

By 2009, the school district designated the stadium a surplus property, although they had not decided whether to sell it. As recently as 2007, the school district examined options to redevelop all or part of the property, most likely as medium-density residential units. A local group, Friends of Civic Stadium, started a

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or continent movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from volunteers at the local level to imp ...

campaign in support of restoring the historic venue while also attempting to find alternative tenants. With the future of the stadium in flux, it was one of ten entries on Restore Oregon's Most Endangered Places in Oregon 2011 list. In April 2015, the Eugene Civic Alliance raised $4.1 million to buy the stadium and 10 acres of surrounding property from the school district. Eugene Civic Alliance is a non-profit made up of community leaders, including Lane United FC managing director Dave Galas, and the executive director of the Eugene youth sports organization Kidsports, former Ducks basketball player Bev Smith. On June 29, 2015, Civic Stadium was destroyed by fire. Two days later, officials charged four pre-teen boys in connection with the fire, although the cause had not yet been determined conclusively. It was delisted from the National Register of Historic Places on March 8, 2016. File:Civic Stadium Fire Eugene Oregon.jpg, The stadium on fire File:Civic Stadium Grandstand After June 2015 Fire.JPG, Grandstand, shortly after the fire File:Civic Stadium Fire-5.jpg, Former grandstand and field, July 2015

New facility

In 2020, the stadium site was replaced with a youth sports facility, Civic Park, with a fieldhouse and an outdoor artificial turf soccer field. In 2024, locker rooms and seating for 3,500 spectators was added to complete the stadium project. The USL Eugene soccer club will play its home games at the stadium beginning in 2025.

References

External links