Athens Drive High School booster club president Karin Evanoff was hoping Thursday would bring the school closer to getting approval for a $7.4 million plan to renovate Williams Stadium.

But the Raleigh Parks & Recreation board will wait another month to decide whether to forward its recommendation to the Raleigh City Council. The board is expected to have a decision by its Dec. 15 meeting.

Most of the board spoke in favor of the suggested changes, which would be the first improvements to the stadium since the school opened in 1978.

The Athens Drive's stadium, located next to Lake Johnson, is in desperate need of renovation.

The parking lot is gravel and the football field is dimly lit.

The press box is so cramped that only three people can sit inside. Without a field house, it can be hard for football players to find a bathroom, so they sometimes use the woods instead.

Williams Stadium is the only Wake County high school football stadium that sits on land owned by the city of Raleigh, not the Wake County Public School System.

The red tape stemming from an arrangement in which the city leases the stadium to WCPSS has frustrated and confused the school's boosters, who have been trying to improve the facilities for decades.

Before Athens can be included on a WCPSS school construction bond, it must be approved by Raleigh Parks & Recreation board, then the Raleigh City Council.

It can be hard to get things done. For example, former Athens Drive football player Donald Evans, then an NFL player, donated $50,000 to build a field house in 1993. The money has yet to be spent.

Alan Keith, an Athens Drive parent involved in the Jag club, said the stadium's roof over the concession stand was leaking earlier this year. But because the building was a non-conforming structure, Keith said, it took months to get a permit from the city to repair the roof.

Evanoff said there are records of parents donating money for stadium improvements only to ask for it back when nothing could be done before their kids graduated.

"People at Athens are to the point now where they are resigned to the fact that nothing will ever be done," Evanoff said. "And they'll say to me, 'Why are you even bothering, Karin? There is $50,000 sitting in the bank that we can't even use.'"

Among the upgrades needed at Athens Drive:

Handicap entrances and bathrooms that meet American Disability Act requirements.

Stadium lights that meet N.C. High School Athletic Association standards. Failure to improve them could jeopardize the school's ability to host playoff games.

A new press box. Currently, assistant coaches from either side stand on wooden decks that bookend the stand.

A field house.

A paved parking lot.

Increased stadium seating capacity.

Emergency vehicle access to the stadium.

Getting organized

While the Jag club started its most recent push for renovations, parents learned that Raleigh has not been able to approve previous plans partly because the action was tied with the Lake Johnson master plan calling for a new multipurpose and environmental building.

The location of the building has been under dispute since 2007, stalling Athens' plans. In October, the Athens Drive stadium renovations finally were separated from the master plan.

In 2010, the Jag booster club paid more than $19,000 for facilities analysis conducted by two school parents, who are also architects.

The recommendations - totaling more than $7.4 million - were brought to Lynn Sullivan, project manager for Raleigh parks and recreation.

"We really came to recognize that the Jag club's original design was really the most effective," Sullivan said. "Kudos to them for having gotten something moving. The city needed to do its own process without bias. But ultimately, the city's process has supported much of their suggestions. They're very much in tandem."

Plans ahead

There was the potential for a vote Thursday to recommend the renovation to the City Council, but that didn't happen.

Much of the board's discussion centered around the location of the field house.

The public leadership group published its findings on whether the field house would be constructed in the south end zone or the north end zone and where to build the sewer line for each.

Both options for the field house in the north were about $850,000 more expensive than building one in the south, no matter which way the sewer lines extend from the proposed south end zone's field house. There are sewer lines to the north (Bea Lane) and south (Lake Johnson) to connect to, but a line to the north would require a lift-station pump and long-term maintenance costs.

One to the south would not require a pump, but it would mean disrupting the line of trees separating the stadium from the lake.

A 20-foot-wide swath would be cut through the trees, but the line could have a bend in it.

Benson Kirkman, chairman of Friends of Lake Johnson - a group that advocates for the preservation of the lake's resources - spoke in favor of this proposal, noting environmental possibilities in the space created, such as planting wildflowers.

Still, the board wanted to decide on one location or the other, and plans to reach a decision on whether or not to pass along its approval to the Raleigh City Council.

After 30 years without real progress, the Athens Drive stadium has to wait another 30 days.