Newark Schools Stadium Newark Schools Stadium ( nicknamed " The Old Lady of Bloomfield Avenue " ) was a reinforced concrete horseshoe - shaped stadium located on Bloomfield Avenue in Newark , New Jersey . The stadium was used primary for football and was built in 1925 . It was the home of the Newark Tornadoes of the National Football League during the 1930 season . The stadium was used for high school football until 2006 . Baseball ' s Newark Stars of the Eastern Colored League , which was a part of the Negro Leagues , also used the stadium in 1926 . Soccer . For the 1967 - 68 ASL ( American Soccer League ) season , the Newark Ukrainian Sitch club moved its home games to this field . Prior to that season , ' Sitch ' played at Ironbound field . The move to an approx . 25 , 000 capacity ground was welcomed as an improvement . The crowds never filled the stadium however and the Ukrainian Weekly refers to crowds only in the hundreds rather than thousands . Football . After the Tornadoes folded , Newark ' s American Association team became the primary tenants for the stadium . The American Association was the first attempt at establishing a farm system for the NFL . In 1937 , the Tornadoes left Orange , New Jersey again for Newark . The team was once again called the Newark Tornadoes . In 1939 , the team was purchased by George Halas , the owner of the Chicago Bears , and called the Newark Bears . Most of Newark ' s public school football teams played at the stadium as well until 2006 . The Stadium also served , since 1955 until its closing for reconstruction , as the home of the North Newark Little League ( formerly the Saint Francis Xavier Little League ) . Baseball . Schools Stadium was also used for baseball . In 1926 , the Newark Stars of the Negro Leagues played at stadium . When the stadium was configured for baseball , the distance down the foul lines was so short , that balls hit over the fence were ground rule doubles . High school teams also used the field for baseball until 2006 . The Stadium was also the original home of what has become one of the largest youth baseball programs in the City of Newark - the North Newark Little League . Formerly the St . Francis Xavier Little League , the youth of the program utilized the baseball fields from 1955 . It was the last organization to have continued use of the facility ( even after it was condemned in 2006 ) right up to the point of its closing for reconstruction . Track and field . Olympian Jesse Owens , once ran track there and lost to a Newark local named Eulace Peacock . Meanwhile another Olympian , Milt Campbell began his track career at Newark Schools Stadium . The National Women ' s Olympic Trials also were held in the stadium in 1928 . Riots . During the 1967 Newark riots , Schools Stadium served as the staging area for the New Jersey National Guard , who were summoned to Newark to reinforce the overwhelmed Newark Police Department . Decline and a new stadium . Years of neglect allowed the stadium to experience a large amount of deterioration and compromised structural integrity . In 2009 , the City of Newark announced that the stadium would be domolished and replaced with a new stadium . It was condemned in the fall of 2006 after it was deemed unsafe for players and spectators . In 2006 , a capital bond request was approved by the Newark City Council that included $ 63 . 7 million in funding for 14 projects that ranged from a new robotics center to the rebuilding of Schools Stadium . However the construction of the new Schools Stadium did not begin until June 2008 . The project is expected to cost about $ 24 million .