Every game is an away game for the North Atlanta Warriors. The roaring cheers of fans who pack into the stadium seats just to get a viewing of the game is not something that the Warrior football teams currently enjoy. The sizable North Atlanta field is lacking in one major thing: seats. Without the ability to seat and host large groups of visitors and fans, what use is the beautiful turf field that calls North Atlanta home? From the excess amount of fans who would be able to attend games, to the money that the school would be saving and earning by hosting home games, there are a multitude of reasons why having a stadium would be greatly beneficial to the school.

North Atlanta’s home football games are currently held at the Grady stadium, which is home to one of our biggest rivals. Due to the NAHS field’s inability to hold an extensive amount of spectators, the Grady Stadium is where these games must be held. The location of the Grady Stadium is extremely inconvenient for many NAHS students, especially given the crazy rush hour traffic between the 11-story high school building in Buckhead and the Midtown location of the stadium.  Many of the North Atlanta students simply can’t get to these games, which only puts a damper on the school spirit by limiting the size of crowds at our “home” football games.  To make matters worse, our football players don’t get the chance to practice on the field on which they will be playing the game. Is there any correlation between this lack of a true home-field advantage and their current record?

Those are just a few of the many issues that arise from North Atlanta’s current home field situation. The present building became home to all of its students and staff back in 2014, and the building’s impressive amenities and size should be seen as a symbol of Warrior pride looming over the team’s opponents just beyond the Friday night lights. There is no better intimidation than that of being bigger and better in the way that the NAHS building often comes across. Parking would be a breeze if games were held at North Atlanta, considering the massive parking deck and other parking lots around the campus. Students would be able to forget the worry of getting booted by having to park in restaurant parking lots, as is often the case with games played at Grady. From the parking deck to the building itself, the North Atlanta campus is more than capable of being “the move” for high schoolers across the city on Friday nights; if only it had a stadium that matched the state of the art design of the rest of the campus.

It is understandable that after the millions of dollars that were dished out for the building itself, APS would be hesitant to spend additional money on building a stadium just for North Atlanta to be able to host home football games. The long term benefits are definitely something to be taken into account, however. The school would be able to bring in a great deal of money by charging for entry, food and parking at their football games. Having home games at NAHS would also make it much easier for many students to attend such events. This increase in student availability to participate in school events would also likely lead to larger numbers of attendance and, in turn, even more money for the school. You reap what you sow, so if the district puts in the money they will get back all of it and then some.

North Atlanta has its fair share of issues according to its attendees and staff, but a few of these issues can be tied to the lack of a stadium. It isn’t uncommon for the students of this school to complain about the underwhelming school spirit among their peers or the disparagingly low number of exciting high school events. Both of these can be traced back to the lack of a stadium.  This is a fix that will send a wave of new excitement and enthusiasm throughout the school, so APS had better start gathering more funds. After all, who is to say a new stadium won’t help the North Atlanta boys take it to state? Then, the press alone would help to pay for the stadium.