The buzz at Ralph Tasker Arena the last few days during the Summer Leagues is that Hobbs High will actually be replacing Ralph Tasker Arena with a new state of the art Arena that will seat about 1,500 more fans than the 3,000+ existing one. It will be designed with seating all around.
The planning phase has just started and concrete details are few. The original plan to revamp and enlarge the current arena had to be scrapped because of design and construction limitations and issues. I for one don't really know what to think about all of this. To ease the pain of possibly losing the historic shrine it has been decided to keep it operational & basically a museum. This will result in having five gymnasiums on the Hobbs High/Freshman High Campus.
The recently remodeled & LED lighted,13 court tennis facility will be razed to make room for the new arena. The tennis facility is directly in between the Arena and the Watson Stadium. The new tennis facility will be moved to the new 240 acre sports and recreation park to be named Taylor Ranch Park. The end of this park is across the street from Watson Stadium. Phase One of the four or five construction phases of Taylor Ranch Park is budgeted at over 19 million dollars. A large apartment complex overlooking this park is already under construction.
This new park (Taylor Ranch) is often confused with the enormous health and wellness center about to break ground next to NMJC and Zia Park Hotel and Casino. Both of these sports/recreation/health/wellness facilities will be built at the same time frame. As of latest word, the 16 million dollar revamping of Watson Stadium is still in the works. No numbers for the new arena have been determined yet. However, the two new schools nearing completion came millions of dollars under budget so funding for the new arena should not be an issue.
The planning phase has just started and concrete details are few. The original plan to revamp and enlarge the current arena had to be scrapped because of design and construction limitations and issues. I for one don't really know what to think about all of this. To ease the pain of possibly losing the historic shrine it has been decided to keep it operational & basically a museum. This will result in having five gymnasiums on the Hobbs High/Freshman High Campus.
The recently remodeled & LED lighted,13 court tennis facility will be razed to make room for the new arena. The tennis facility is directly in between the Arena and the Watson Stadium. The new tennis facility will be moved to the new 240 acre sports and recreation park to be named Taylor Ranch Park. The end of this park is across the street from Watson Stadium. Phase One of the four or five construction phases of Taylor Ranch Park is budgeted at over 19 million dollars. A large apartment complex overlooking this park is already under construction.
This new park (Taylor Ranch) is often confused with the enormous health and wellness center about to break ground next to NMJC and Zia Park Hotel and Casino. Both of these sports/recreation/health/wellness facilities will be built at the same time frame. As of latest word, the 16 million dollar revamping of Watson Stadium is still in the works. No numbers for the new arena have been determined yet. However, the two new schools nearing completion came millions of dollars under budget so funding for the new arena should not be an issue.
