Sports
Athens City School District Removes Donor Name From Stadium
By: Brad Friedman
Posted on:
A series of missed payments has forced the Athens City School District to remove Scott Riggs’s name from Athens High School’s stadium, as was first reported by the Athens Messenger.
According to The Messenger, Riggs, who has donated $50,000 dollars towards the stadium refurbishing project, missed payments during the fall and spring that would have kept the Riggs name on the stadium. Riggs did not donate directly to the school district, but rather, via “Bulldog Blitz,” the athletic group responsible for rebuilding the tornado-ravaged stadium five years ago.
Athens City Schools Superintendent Tom Gibbs reached out to Riggs via letter with regards to the donations that would ensure Riggs’s name remain on the stadium. Gibbs’s letter to Riggs was signed by somebody in his office, but Riggs never responded to the district’s inquiry.
After the district’s deadline passed, a maintenance crew was dispatched to remove Riggs’s name from the stadium. The district requested the facility be referred to as “R. Basil Rutter Field” for the time being.
Gibbs expressed his gratitude to the Riggs family for its support and said consideration for a new stadium name would not be opened until next spring.