Finish Strong Getting Started

The vision of the Strong Center to be renovated into a state of the art sports and arts facility is 35,000 steps (or one scoreboard) closer to reality. 

The center’s board of directors announced that they have secured enough funding to purchase a new scoreboard that will accommodate all the sports that will be played at the center, according to a report in The Day. 

The report says that Madison Exchange Club donated $25,000 to the “Finish Strong” campaign and a private donor gave $10,000. 

A private group, the Strong Center Board of Directors, hopes to renovate Strong Field and transform the sports field into a “first-quality state of the art facility that celebrates local life through sports and the arts,” according to its website. They established the “Finish Strong” campaign to raise money for a new scoreboard, new and more bleaches, a new press box. 

In an effort to help the campaign along, the town plans to sell the top soil of the current field, which will be replaced with NFL quality turf, to the highest bidder and to sell the old bleachers for scrap metal, said a report in The Day. 

As a sports venue, the center anticipates that 100 percent of Daniel Hand High School home football games will be played on the field along with soccer, lacrosse and slow-pitch softball. 

The center also hopes to be a cultural center, in fact, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra has expressed interest in playing there when it’s finished, according to The Source. The Strong Center’s website says the stage will be “ideally suited” for musical performances, dramatic performances and dance.

Click play on the video above or follow this link to You Tube to learn more about the Finish Strong campaign.