Want to get people hemming and hawing in our community? Just ask if we should build a new football stadium.

I got to witness instant division based on the question recently when Matt Turner visited Noon Rotary as guest speaker. During his Q&A session, there was only one question, and it was a big one. Somebody asked the fifth-year Pioneer head coach if they needed to change venues.

If Turner’s bemused look to the question didn’t give away any of his thoughts to being asked, then Director of Schools Dr. Grant Swallows – seated behind Turner at the podium – probably did. Neither Turner or Swallows dodged the question, but it’s hard to answer without addressing the elephant in the room.

Namely, it’s hard to be the person – or people - asking for a lot of money for a football stadium in Warren County when football isn’t good right now (and hasn’t been good for four decades). It’s even tougher to be the person asking for it when you know you have no power in the decision-making process.

Turner wears a lot of hats for Warren County sports. He’s the football and wrestling coach, which also makes him the equipment manager for both. He’s also the maintenance man, bus driver, uniform washer and – at least this year – the lawn care supervisor of his practice field and Nunley Stadium. I don’t think he needs to add a construction hat to his collection. He probably doesn’t want that title either.

What he does want, and what I think a lot of people in the school system do too, is a new stadium. He said it at Noon Rotary – offering up the anecdote that his kids say they play “at the middle school,” and not “at Nunley Stadium” when asked about their home field – and others seemed to nod in agreement.

Consider me as one of those who wants a new stadium too.

I don’t want to get into a giant pros and cons list for it, but here’s a quick one anyway: The pros would be that we’d be more modern, it could attract more players and generating any kind of excitement for Pioneer football is a good thing right now. As for the cons: It would be expensive, people love Nunley Stadium and football – while popular – isn’t the end-all, be-all in our community. 

Taking the price tag out of the equation, I think people are going to fight tooth and nail to keep Warren County playing at Nunley Stadium unless they’re blown away by a new layout. It can’t be a cookie-cutter setup (something Turner said wouldn’t happen at the meeting) and you’re going to have to go all-out: Jumbotron, great sound system, all the bells and whistles. 

Even then, people are going to want to stay at Nunley Stadium based on tradition. My counter argument: The biggest tradition we have at Nunley Stadium is losing. We’ve done plenty of it for half a century.

Maybe changing locations won’t help, but as somebody that has no control over the program or the checkbook for school projects, I’m curious to find out. 

Standard Sports Editor Jeffery Simmons can be reached at (931) 473-2191