Burke High alumni working to upgrade Nebraska state track meet facilities

The Nebraska State High School Track & Field meet has become a tradition in Omaha.

For close to 50 years, the meet has been held at Burke High School’s stadium, and now there’s a fundraising effort going on to give the stadium a facelift.

Every year 30,000 athletes and spectators — families and fans — come from across the state. For two days, the Burke High stadium stands are packed.

There’s always talk of someone wanting to move the event to another location, but fundraising organizers want to keep the event — and the crowds — here.

They believe making this place more fan-friendly could help do just that.

“While the facilities, the track, and the turf have all been updated through Omaha Public Schools, the actual stadium itself has never been updated,” said Burke alum Lisa Carlson. “The restrooms, things like that, while they’ve been maintained and kept up, we’ve never had any expansion ADA updates that kind of thing has never taken place.”

Carlson is a Burke alum, part of a private venture of alumni who want the renovations to happen. They have ideas of what they want the stadium to eventually look like, how to make things look better for the state meet, and hopefully to attract other competition to the stadium.

“Junior Olympics track meets, there are regional track meets, there’s even national track meets,” she said. “If we had, I think, a little nicer facilities, (it) would be something that more would consider coming to Burke.”

Fundraising organizers have made some improvements, but the major work on the stands, bathrooms concessions, and entrance points will cost $2.4 million. Right now, they’re about $150,000 short.

“That $150,000 needs to come from alumni and smaller donors in order for us to get some matching donations,” Carlson said.

Organizers hope to have all the money raised by the end of May — at the end of this year’s state track meet — and to have most of the work done by next year’s event. The improvements will have to made in phases because the stadium is so heavily used.

Carlson said she is hoping the stadium’s new look will keep fans here in Omaha watching athletes come out of the blocks.