This was actually part of a phased plan that was implemented when the stadium affectionally known as "The Jimmy" got a face lift in 2003 with the addition of artificial turf. Even though the grounds are placed at the location of Central High School, the stadium itself is run by Saint Paul Independent School District 625. It's not only home to the Central football teams, boys and girls soccer teams, as well as the track team, but the field is also home to three other St. Paul high-school football teams that have no stadium. In addition, Concordia College also use James Griffin for all their home football games. With all this use, the turf was much needed. But with the addition of the turf some of the track had to be taken out. So when this addition was made, the track was actually moved to the east by 6 feet. This originally just effected the west end of the track as it moved away from the stone wall on that same west end.

The completion of the track was finally scheduled to begin in the fall of 2006. According to Steven Sanneman, Project Architect for the department of Facility Planning for the St. Paul Pubic Schools, the demolition started just after the soccer and football season ended. Sanneman said, "There was a small window of time to get this project completed". With fall sports lasting into late October and the Minnesota freeze coming on shortly, workers had little time to waste. Mr. Sanneman said that again in the spring of the year they had to wait for the weather to improve enough to start the project, yet still needed to have it ready by the Thunder home opener on May 6th.

The new track at The Jimmy will be improved from six lanes to eight. In order to make it a full 1/4 mile track they needed to extend the track out to the east. In doing so they removed some of the trees that edged the field on that east end. They also had to fill in where the hill slopped towards Lexington Avenue. A new retaining wall can be seen from the street. Mr. Sanneaman said that currently the company of Midwest Asphalt, who have been contracted for the bituminous work, have laid down the base layer of asphalt. That is what Thunder fans will see when they visit the Stadium on the 6th of May. About two weeks after that date the track will get another 1.5 inches of asphalt. Finally, about a month later, when the asphalt has time to cure, the crew will lay down the final coating of rubberized track which is a tricky process according to Sanneman. "The rubber is only about a 1/4 inch thick and has a tendency to stick to itself, more than to the asphalt". When this work is done, as a general rule no motorized vehicles will be allowed on the track and special mats will be laid out for the players to walk on as cleats can damage the surface.

Changing the width of the track has dramatically changed the look of the stands on both the north and south sides. With this change the Facility Planning department decided to make both stands handicap accessible. One of the first things Thunder fans will notice is that the humps are gone in the walkway in front of the stands. Mr. Sanneman explained that these were originally exits before the new aluminum stands were installed. By removing the humps the walk way is flat. There will be ramps at the west end of both sections of stands with stairs at the east end. The walkways will allow enough space for wheelchair spots and a chair for a guest beside them. In doing this they had to remove the first row of seats. Surprisingly, this only eliminated about 300 seats to the 4,367 seat capacity stadium. LS Black will have their hands full to complete this work by the 1st of May which is the project completion date. With all this work yet to be done Mr. Sanneman assured Blue Sky Soccer that the work on the stands will all be completed by that date. But after the seating and track is completed there is yet one more project that will be going on in the stadium throughout the summer.

Several years ago work was done on the south stands. When the aluminum seating was put into place, workers buried the beams and columns in the brick facade that make up the outside wall. This caused the beams to rust and deteriorate. The project this time will effect the north stands and will only effect us fans by temporarily eliminating the top two rows. They will be fenced off and work will be done throughout the summer. Frerichs Structural have been contracted to complete this work by the fall season. When completed,  the outside of the north stands will actually have new support columns four feet out from the existing wall and will have 6 large flag poles installed.

Djorn Bucholz, General Manager of the Minnesota Thunder, was asked if the elimination of some of the seating allowed the Thunder to re-negotiate the contract with the City of St. Paul. Bucholz responded by email that the Thunder are currently in discussions with the city about this very subject. When asked what benefits the remodeling held for the Thunder, he responded that of course the handicap accessibility, but beyond that there really are none. He does feel that the stadium should look a lot cleaner when finished. When asked about contingency plans for the opener in case the work is not finished he responded, " It will be ready by the 6th. If not, we will make it work.  There are not a lot of options but I have trust in the school folks, especially Mr. Sanneman".

More photos of the construction as well as an architects drawing of the north wall can be found here.