From a massive building to various extracurricular activities, North Atlanta offers students a great high school experience. However, one thing is missing: a home stadium. As a football fan and a supporter of the school, going to games just isn’t the same since we really aren’t playing on our own turf. This leads to a lack of attendance, as well as a disadvantage in home games.

Ever heard the saying “There is no place like home?” This is relevant in football games too. As great as Grady stadium is, it just doesn’t feel like home due to its distance from the school. Having to drive so far just to see your home team play is very unattractive to fans when Friday comes around. This causes a lack of attendance, and the feeling of a “home game” to fade away. For me, unless there is a rivalry game, I generally don’t feel like spend 45 minutes in traffic in order to see my favorite team lose. If a stadium was built near the school, I would probably find myself cheering for the team at more games throughout the year.

Although North Atlanta’s football team isn’t the best, their record could be better if they received better attendance in order to create the home-field advantage that most high school have. The intensity of the crowd of being at home can be enough to change the outcome of a game. However, the lack of a real home stadium takes this effect away from the team, and can make games at Grady feel like nerve-racking away games.

Potential wins are not the only thing the North Atlanta football team is missing out on. Many private schools are able to entice talented athletes to play for their football team due to these schools’ attractive home stadiums. Without a real home stadium, North Atlanta’s team is automatically being neglected of some of Atlanta’s best players. No matter how good of a coach a team has, or how comfortable they feel in certain games, if a team doesn’t have talent, they aren’t going to win games.

It is kind of surprising that a stadium hasn’t already been built at North Atlanta. The school’s campus has increased largely due to the school moving into an old IBM building. With all the new property, the school was able to build a variety of athletic fields and facilities. However, a stadium was not included in these new facilities. Instead, there is only a practice football field will small stands. There is plenty of land around the field and stands, so I believe North Atlanta would be able to build a stadium.

In my opinion, the construction of a stadium can only help North Atlanta. If the school had a home stadium, more students and fans would show up to the games because of how much easier it would be to get to games. Also, the team would be able to have “home-field advantage” in big games played on their turf. The team would also become more talented due to the fact that they can lure in great players. With all that said, if I could say one thing to the school’s administration and Atlanta Public Schools, it would be “Build that stadium!”