Even under ideal weather conditions, three football games on successive nights would damage the grass surface at Haskell Stadium through overload alone.

Then it rained. And rained. Then it rained some more. What a mess : and I’m not talking about the muck at Haskell Stadium.

Ever since Free State High opened in 1997, the school district has believed it is cheaper to rent than to build, particularly in the case of Lawrence High.

Why build a soccer field for the Lions when they could rent one from Youth Sports Inc.? Why build a baseball and softball complex when they could rent the city facilities at Holcom Park? Why build tennis courts when they could use the city’s adjacent Lawrence Tennis Center?

And, in the case of both Lawrence High and Free State High, why build football facilities when they could rent Haskell Stadium?

Enough already. If everything goes according to plan, including approval tonight by the City Commission, both Lawrence High and Free State High will have combination football-soccer complexes on campus for the 2009 season, each with artificial turf.

How important is ersatz grass? Let’s put it this way: If it weren’t for the grass that cows won’t eat, the Lions probably would have had to play Shawnee Mission East on the still soggy real stuff Monday night at Haskell Stadium.

Instead, the Lions opted to switch home dates with SM East – the Lancers will come to Lawrence next year – and play on the artificial turf last Saturday at SM South District Stadium.

Notably, that was the second game played that day at the SM South football-soccer facility. Earlier, another football game postponed from Friday – SM West-Olathe South – was staged there.

“Isn’t that amazing?” Lawrence High coach Dirk Wedd said. “They could play two games there, and our practice field, where we were going to play, had standing water.”

The Shawnee Mission school district refurbished its SM South stadium with turf three years ago and did the same thing to its other stadium at SM North two years ago. Meanwhile, Johnson County’s burgeoning Blue Valley district also boasts turf, in some cases even on practice fields.

Then there’s Lawrence, with its two high schools playing football at an archaic stadium built in the 1920s – a sub-par facility with rest rooms on only one side, glaringly insufficient paved parking and, like any grass field, incapable of holding up under the pressure of use by three different teams.

As an aside, I don’t agree with the proposal to combine a new Lawrence High football stadium with a Kansas University track facility. From a utility standpoint, the idea makes sense, but it would be just another example of the school district leeching off another city entity. Haven’t we had enough of that?

For too long, the Lawrence school district has avoided its responsibility of serving its patrons and students with the sports facilities they deserve.

No more excuses. No more dilly-dallying. No more alternative proposals. Find the money. Build the stadiums. And build them right.