Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

West Bank Town Becomes ‘Big Prison’ as Israel Fences It In

1 day ago

Trump Says He’s Willing to Let Migrant Farm Laborers Stay in US

1 day ago

US Electric Vehicle Tax Breaks Will Expire on Sept. 30

2 days ago

Eyeing Arctic Dominance, Trump Bill Earmarks $8.6 Billion for US Coast Guard Icebreakers

2 days ago

Trump’s Sweeping Tax-Cut and Spending Bill Wins Congressional Approval

2 days ago

Americans Celebrate Their Independence With Record-Breaking Travel Numbers

2 days ago

US Supreme Court to Decide Legality of Transgender School Sports Bans

2 days ago

Nvidia Set to Become the World’s Most Valuable Company in History

2 days ago

Poll: 41% in US ‘Extremely Proud’ to Be American, Near Historic Low

2 days ago
Planned Clovis Unified Events Center Aims for Tournaments, Concerts
NANCY WEBSITE HEADSHOT 1
By Nancy Price, Multimedia Journalist
Published 4 years ago on
September 16, 2021

Share

The new educational center that Clovis Unified School District is preparing to build southeast of Fresno will include an events center that could host statewide volleyball or wrestling tournaments, robotics competitions, and concerts.

The Student Activity Center would seat about 5,000 to 5,500 — larger than high school gyms that typically seat about 3,000 — and would be about a third of the size of the cavernous Save Mart Center on the Fresno State campus, Denver Stairs, assistant superintendent of facility services, told GV Wire this week.

Adding seating to the center’s floor would increase capacity to 6,500. That’s ample to accommodate all of Clovis Unified’s staffers for a districtwide meeting, or for robotics and eSports tourneys, other sporting events, and concerts, Stairs said.

“This facility gives us the opportunity to really open up and use it for a multitude of things,” he said. “A gym, no matter how you dress it up, it’s still a gym. And so this would give us an opportunity to just showcase a number of other co-curricular endeavors that kids are involved in. It would be something that is still part of the district and that we can use as the need arises with different student groups.”

Measure A Provides Funding

The Terry Bradley Educational Center, located between Leonard and Highland avenues north of McKinley Avenue, is in unincorporated Fresno County that’s within the city of Fresno’s sphere of influence.

“This facility gives us the opportunity to really open up and use it for a multitude of things.” — Denver Stairs, assistant superintendent of facility services, Clovis Unified School District

The campus will eventually include an elementary, middle, and high school, and the events center, which is proposed for the west side of the campus near Leonard Avenue and adjacent to plenty of parking. The elementary school will be in a future construction phase, Stairs said.

It will be a few years yet before the Student Activity Center opens. The district is in the process of receiving requests for proposals from contractors bidding on the lease-leaseback project. The cost for the campus is yet to be finalized, but the district expects most of it — $250 million to $300 million — will be covered by the $335 million Measure A that voters approved in November 2020.

There will be other funding sources to complement the bond money, Stairs said.

Under the current schedule, construction will begin in March 2023 on a new middle school that would open in 2026, followed by a new high school.

‘Marquee’ Facilities for Clovis Unified Campuses

Including an events center in the campus plan follows the Clovis Unified blueprint of providing each high school campus or education center with a “marquee” facility that’s available for use by the community as well as the district, Stairs said.

Such specialized sites include the Shaghoian Performing Arts Center at Clovis North, the Veterans Memorial Stadium track and field facilities at Buchanan, Lamonica Stadium at Clovis High, and Clovis West’s aquatics center. A soccer complex is under construction at Clovis East High and should be completed in the next 12 to 18 months, district spokeswoman Kelly Avants said.

With its central location in California and its top-flight facilities, Clovis Unified is able to attract a number of statewide tourneys, and the new events center could continue that trend, Stairs said.

The district receives queries on a daily basis about the availability of school gyms, and the larger size of the events center could provide more venue options, he said.

For example, Stairs said, NBA star recruit Jalen Green recently hosted a two-day basketball camp at Clovis North. The camp was divided into multiple sessions to accommodate all who wanted to attend, but with a larger venue there could have been a single session, he said.

District Facilities Boost Local Economy

Statewide sporting events can generate a significant local economic impact, said Aimee Caneva, marketing and communications manager for the Fresno/Clovis Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The California Interscholastic Federation track and field championships in 2019 — the 2020 event was canceled because of the pandemic — brought 11,000 attendees to the Fresno-Clovis area and had an economic impact of $1.3 million, Caneva said.

Local businesses directly received $795,792 from attendees, she said.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Trump to Sign Tax-Cut and Spending Bill in July 4 Ceremony

DON'T MISS

Madre Fire Spurs Evacuations Across 3 Counties, Grows to More Than 70,000 Acres

DON'T MISS

Clovis, Sanger, Madera, and Bass Lake Will Light the Sky With Fireworks Shows Tonight

DON'T MISS

Oil Dips Ahead of Expected OPEC+ Output Increase

DON'T MISS

613 Killed at Gaza Aid Distribution Sites, Near Humanitarian Covoys, Says UN

DON'T MISS

Fresno County Authorities Investigating Suspicious Death of Transient Man

DON'T MISS

West Bank Town Becomes ‘Big Prison’ as Israel Fences It In

DON'T MISS

Israeli Military Kills 20 in Gaza as Trump Awaits Hamas Reply to Truce Proposal

DON'T MISS

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Rachelle Maria Blanco

DON'T MISS

Russia Pounds Kyiv With Largest Drone Attack, Hours After Trump-Putin Call

UP NEXT

Trump Impounds Billions in Education Funding. For Fresno Unified, It’s $7.1 Million

UP NEXT

Americans Celebrate Their Independence With Record-Breaking Travel Numbers

UP NEXT

Poll: 41% in US ‘Extremely Proud’ to Be American, Near Historic Low

UP NEXT

Poorest Americans Dealt Biggest Blow Under Senate Republican Tax Package

UP NEXT

Poll: Most Americans Say National Divide, Political Violence Threaten Democracy

UP NEXT

Trump Pulls Back 150 Guard Troops From Federal Duties in California

UP NEXT

Fresno Unified’s Embattled Nikki Henry Exits. ‘I Own My Mistake. I Won’t Let It Own Me.’

UP NEXT

O’Brien Launches Fresno County Schools Chief Campaign by Handing Out ‘Homework’

UP NEXT

Suspect Identified in Ambush Shooting That Killed 2 Idaho Firefighters

UP NEXT

Suspect Identified in Ambush Shooting That Killed 2 Idaho Firefighters

Nancy Price,
Multimedia Journalist
Nancy Price is a multimedia journalist for GV Wire. A longtime reporter and editor who has worked for newspapers in California, Florida, Alaska, Illinois and Kansas, Nancy joined GV Wire in July 2019. She previously worked as an assistant metro editor for 13 years at The Fresno Bee. Nancy earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in journalism at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. Her hobbies include singing with the Fresno Master Chorale and volunteering with Fresno Filmworks. You can reach Nancy at 559-492-4087 or Send an Email

Madre Fire Spurs Evacuations Across 3 Counties, Grows to More Than 70,000 Acres

1 day ago

Clovis, Sanger, Madera, and Bass Lake Will Light the Sky With Fireworks Shows Tonight

1 day ago

Oil Dips Ahead of Expected OPEC+ Output Increase

1 day ago

613 Killed at Gaza Aid Distribution Sites, Near Humanitarian Covoys, Says UN

1 day ago

Fresno County Authorities Investigating Suspicious Death of Transient Man

1 day ago

West Bank Town Becomes ‘Big Prison’ as Israel Fences It In

1 day ago

Israeli Military Kills 20 in Gaza as Trump Awaits Hamas Reply to Truce Proposal

1 day ago

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Rachelle Maria Blanco

1 day ago

Russia Pounds Kyiv With Largest Drone Attack, Hours After Trump-Putin Call

1 day ago

Boxer Chavez Jr Expected to Be Deported to Mexico to Serve Sentence, Mexican President Says

1 day ago

How Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Will Make China Great Again

Can you hear it — that loud roar coming from the East? It’s the sound of 1.4 billion Chinese laughing at us. Thomas L. Friedman The New Yo...

8 hours ago

Solar Farm in Riesel, Texas
8 hours ago

How Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Will Make China Great Again

Caitlin Clark Signs T-Shirt
8 hours ago

What’s Caitlin Clark Worth to the WNBA? A Lot More Than Her $78,066 Salary.

President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 12, 2025. (Reuters File)
1 day ago

Trump to Sign Tax-Cut and Spending Bill in July 4 Ceremony

The Madre Fire burning near New Cuyama has scorched 70,801 acres as of Friday, July 4, 2025, afternoon, making it California’s largest wildfire of the year, with only 10% containment and multiple evacuation zones in place. (CalFire)
1 day ago

Madre Fire Spurs Evacuations Across 3 Counties, Grows to More Than 70,000 Acres

1 day ago

Clovis, Sanger, Madera, and Bass Lake Will Light the Sky With Fireworks Shows Tonight

A pumpjack operates at the Vermilion Energy site in Trigueres, France, June 14, 2024. (Reuters File)
1 day ago

Oil Dips Ahead of Expected OPEC+ Output Increase

Palestinians gather to collect what remains of relief supplies from the distribution center of the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 5, 2025. (Reuters File)
1 day ago

613 Killed at Gaza Aid Distribution Sites, Near Humanitarian Covoys, Says UN

Billy Wayne Sinisgalli, a 54-year-old transient known locally as Wayne, was found dead along a rural Fresno road Wednesday in what authorities are investigating as a suspicious death. (Fresno County SO)
1 day ago

Fresno County Authorities Investigating Suspicious Death of Transient Man

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend