LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) -- Right now, the Butchertown Stadium for Louisville City FC is full of dust, gravel and construction equipment. But each piece of this build is full of something else: pride.
"It's tremendous to look around and start picturing, 'Alright, here is where our field is going to be. Here is where the midline is going to be. That's where the goal is going to be,” said Howie Lindsey, Louisville City’s director of public relations.
Jason Larkin is Messer Construction’s project manager for the new stadium. But in a lifetime before, he was playing in stadiums as a collegiate footballer.
"Being a soccer player, it's awesome to bring it full circle,” Larkin said. “I tell my soccer coach from high school or college that I'm building a soccer stadium, they're like, 'No way! We never would have thought this is what you would have done!'"
It's not just Larkin who feels a special purpose with this project. He says 75 percent of the workers on the build are local--which really goes with the message Louisville City has always embraced: “Our City.”
"When they placed the last bit of steel the guys came down off the lifts and, talking with them just a bit, they are both local guys, they graduated from local high schools, and that was a pretty cool moment. Something you can say, ‘I put the last bit up and this is in my hometown.’ A pretty cool moment there,” Lindsey said.
Now the next stage begins: putting in the field. A full-size soccer pitch that extends right up to the edge and puts fans right in the action.
"We checked the rules and said, 'Okay, how close can we get fans? Alright let's get them that close,' because we want to be able to whisper to the goalkeeper every now and then,” Lindsey said.
And Larkin says if Lou City ever needs a ringer, he's ready and knows the lay of the land.
"I'll probably be the first one to kick a goal out here. Don't let anyone know, but I'll be the first goal scorer out here.”
