‘How can you thank someone like her?’
Payden adds $420K to support for high school sports complex
DERBY — The woman behind the city’s renovated sports complex has opened her checkbook once again to pull the city out of a bind.
Joan Payden, president, CEO and founder of Payden and Rygel, has agreed to pay for a press box on the new turf-lined football field in the reconfigured Ryan Sports Complex.
She took on the whole project two years ago to honor her father, Joseph R. Payden, valedictorian of Derby High School’s class of 1915, who played on the baseball team. Since then, she has donated more than $20 million to demolish, move, reconfigure and reconstruct a new high school baseball and softball field.
Considering that the city’s entire municipal budget for the current fiscal year is $42.7 million, Payden’s generosity has earned her a place in local history.
“How can you thank someone like her who has done so much for our kids?” said Mayor Richard Dziekan. “She’s given our kids, living in the
smallest city in the state, a sports complex that I think rivals any Division 2 or 3 college program. We are so very, very lucky.”
Her latest gift came during a hastily called emergency joint meeting of the Payden Field House and Baseball Committee and the Athletic Complex Building Committee Wednesday night. Payden was patched into the meeting by phone.
The meeting was called because the location of the Payden Field House pushed the redesign of the football field about 30 yards to the right. It meant that the press box would be on the 20 yard line rather than the 50 yard line where it sits in most every other football stadium.
During the barely audible phone call, Payden was thanking the two committees for allowing her to be involved in the process, said Keith McLiverty, the city’s treasurer. “She told us she wanted everything to be right and to get it done.”
“This is incredible,” said Charles Sampson, Board of Aldermen president who attended Wednesday’s session as a member of the Field House and Baseball committee. “I can only say Derby gives a big thank you to the Payden family. Without their assistance, we wouldn’t have the complex we are building today.”
The two committees agreed to spend no more than $420,000 on a press box. Superintendent of Schools Matthew Conway said he would sign the press box contract with Turner Construction as soon as possible.
The new complex already is taking shape. In addition to the new play fields, the complex includes a two-anda-half story state-of-the-art field house with lockers, showers, a weight room, a banquet hall and memorabilia room.
Payden is also known for sponsoring an annual $6,000 scholarship for the Derby High School valedictorian.
“This is a daughter who reached into her pocket to build something that will honor her father,” McLiverty said. “He’s a Derby boy and she has never forgotten her roots.”
Payden became involved in the sports complex project after learning that Conway had to cut $1 million from a state grant that was expected to pay for a new field house, relining the football field with turf and building a track field alongside it.
She donated $2 million to fund a new field house in January 2017. Then she funded the new baseball and softball fields.
She also pulled the city out of an $80,000 hole in December when a section of the state-funded $2.9 million turf football field sank 12 feet into the ground.
“This was a state-funded project,” McLiverty said. “We had no money in the budget to pay for the engineering work which required the installation of piping under the field. Ms. Payden stepped forward.”
“My father was an only child,” Payden said during the March 2018 groundbreaking for the field house. “The high school meant a great deal to him.”
Payden has kept abreast of the project through her cousin, Meg Lampazzi, of Oxford. Payden, whose company is a $116 billion asset management firm with offices in the U.S. and overseas, has called her involvement in the project “the most exciting thing I’ve really ever done in my life.”
The city’s June 11 high school graduation will take place on the baseball field.
The football and track fields are expected to be completed Aug. 10. The high school football team will play its first home games in two years there.
Tentatively, the city is expected to hold a grand opening of the Field House on Oct. 12, the school’s homecoming. Conway said Payden will be there.
City officials said they hope the complex will be the site of state tournaments. Dziekan said he believes it will help attract visitors and business to the city.
“The people of Derby will be very proud of what’s happening here,” McLiverty said. “I can’t thank the Payden family enough for the generosity. This is truly, truly amazing.”