This article was updated Oct. 13 with comments from Winston-Salem State athletics director Eric Burns.

Winston-Salem State has hired an outside firm to paint Bill Hayes Field at Bowman Gray Stadium before the Rams’ next home game, athletics director Eric Burns said, after video of the field’s yardage markers from the Rams’ last home game went viral.

Burns had already taken responsibility on Monday in a statement posted by WSSU Athletics, saying the markings “fell short of WSSU Athletics’ standards.” The statement came the same day the video circulated widely on social media.

Winston Salem University grounds crew seen eyeballing the field yardage markers.

Third down and ehhh https://t.co/gcqTspTtrd

— Mr. RedDey (@UDCincyFan) October 12, 2026

 

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A post shared by WSSU Ram Athletics (@wssu_athletics)

The statement reads:

“The field markings at our last home game fell short of WSSU Athletics’ standards, and I take responsibility. We’ve secured additional field preparation support and implemented new checks to ensure this is addressed before our next home game. Our student-athletes and Ram Nation deserve the highest standard, and we are committed to meeting it every time.”

What Burns Said

Burns spoke about the field markings in an interview with reporters, including Steven J. Gaither of WSSU Ram Nation, who recorded the video below.

Video courtesy of Steven J. Gaither, WSSU Ram Nation.

Asked what happened, Burns said the department is “hiring an outside entity to come in and paint the field for next week, and so we’ll be ready to play on Saturday.”

He laid out the work timeline. “They’ll begin painting the field on Thursday, and so it should be ready by noon Friday,” Burns said.

Asked what measures would be in place, Burns pointed to the outside firm and new quality-control checkpoints. He said he was “very confident” the field would be ready, with “all the hashes” painted.

Gaither asked Burns why the department chose to respond to a video, given how much circulates on social media.

“It’s our brand,” Burns said. “Anytime you see a video that goes viral like that … you want to make a statement and make sure your fans understand that you don’t take it lightly.”

Burns did not say what caused the problem. Asked where things broke down, he said, “You have challenges where you have to pivot, and so we pivoted this week.” Asked who painted the field before, he said, “We don’t really discuss personnel matters.”

Data Driven HBCU has not confirmed how the problem occurred, and this article does not weigh in on the explanations circulating online.

Painting yardage lines is a small job. But who does that job at Bill Hayes Field at Bowman Gray Stadium, and who pays for it, runs through more than a decade of agreements between Winston-Salem State and the City of Winston-Salem, and through an athletic budget where game-day operations get a small share of the money.

A Home Field the University Does Not Own

Bowman Gray Stadium, and Bill Hayes Field inside it, belong to the city. Winston-Salem State is a tenant.

The stadium opened in 1938 as a Works Progress Administration project and has hosted Rams football since 1956. It seats 17,000 and also hosts racing. Stock-car racing arrived in 1949, and the quarter-mile track is now the longest-running weekly track under NASCAR sanction.

Since 2021, the football playing surface has been named Bill Hayes Field, while the stadium kept the Bowman Gray name. Hayes coached the Rams from 1976 to 1987, going 89-40-2 with CIAA titles in 1977 and 1978, and later returned as athletics director from 2010 until his retirement in 2014.

A December 2018 presentation to the city’s Finance Committee listed Winston-Salem State’s lease as running through June 2037, and Winston-Salem Speedway Inc.’s through August 2031. That puts the university nearly 11 years from the end of its current lease.

As a tenant, the football field sits inside a facility the university does not control and shares with another major user. It also means agreements, not ownership, set the responsibilities for that field.

One Stadium, Two Seasons

Sharing the stadium with racing also means the field Winston-Salem State plays on can look very different from one season to the next.

The stadium runs on two calendars. When the city and university announced the 2018 improvement plan, they said they would brand the stadium for Rams football in the fall and for Bowman Gray racing in the spring and summer. Construction was limited to the four months from December to March, the gap between the two seasons.

The city’s 2018 memo said the project would “present challenges with coordinating the construction work in a way that will minimize the impact on the football and racing seasons.”

The racing side of that calendar is full. The 2026 season ran 18 Saturday nights, from April 18 through Aug. 22, and it was not limited to stock cars.

The NASCAR presence is growing. The Cup Series held the Clash at Bowman Gray in 2025 and 2026, its first races there since 1971. The council’s 2025 scoreboard resolution said a new board would position the city to host more NASCAR events, and in August NASCAR announced the Truck Series race for Friday, Aug. 20, 2027, on the weekend the track traditionally holds its weekly finale.

The council described the stadium as hosting NASCAR events, Winston-Salem State football games, and community events. All of those events use the same venue as Rams football. That leaves the field’s condition, and the work needed to get it ready for a home game, dependent on what the stadium hosted before.

How Winston-Salem State Became a Long-Term Tenant

It was not supposed to work this way. The city agreed to sell the stadium to the university in 2013, and for several years Winston-Salem State ran the stadium while the sale waited on state approval.

The AD’s statement confirms the university is responsible for the painting of the field.

The 2018 decision settled the broad division of costs. The city would keep the stadium and fund its major improvements. The university would remain a tenant.

The City Pays for the Big Projects

After the sale fell through, the city proposed investing $9 million in the stadium, financed through limited-obligation bonds. The work was scheduled in three phases from 2020 through 2022, between the end of football season and the start of racing season.

The playing surface itself was part of the city’s plan. The first phase called for regrading, irrigating, and resodding the football field, and the plan called for branding the stadium as the home of Rams football, with the field to be renamed “Rams Field at Bowman Gray.” The field has been called Bill Hayes Field since 2021.

Data Driven HBCU has not reviewed records showing which of the proposed improvements were completed or what they ultimately cost.

For the university, the appeal was clear. At the 2018 announcement, Robinson said the arrangement would be “accomplished without committing student funds.” That year, Winston-Salem State adopted a 20-year master plan that included a 6,000-seat on-campus football stadium, but Robinson said the university had hundreds of millions of dollars in construction and improvement needs that would take priority, and he did not envision building a stadium before the lease concluded in June 2037.

Shared Costs Follow the Calendar

The most recent investment in the stadium shows how the three users divide costs when all three benefit. On June 16, 2025, the City Council voted 8-0 to approve agreements with Winston-Salem Speedway LLC and Winston-Salem State to replace the scoreboard, which dated to 2008.

The council’s resolution said NASCAR officials had received negative feedback about the old board and considered replacing it the top priority to bring the Clash back in 2026. The city reported net income of $120,220 from the 2025 Clash, excluding one-time spending to expand the concourse.

The 2008 scoreboard had been split equally among the city, the speedway, and the university. The new one is split by each party’s number of events at the stadium:

Under those terms, Winston-Salem State pays its share of the estimated $1 million cost over five years. The city and the university split annual operating and maintenance costs the same way, with the city responsible for operating and maintaining the board. The university keeps the advertising revenue from the scoreboard during its own events.

The pattern is the same across both deals. The city carries the large capital costs, and the university’s share is small and tied to its use of the stadium. That leaves the cost of putting on a home game, what fans see from the stands, in Winston-Salem State’s own athletic budget.

What Game Day Costs Winston-Salem State

That budget shows how little money is set aside to run events and maintain facilities.

In the 2024-25 school year, Winston-Salem State athletics reported $126,991 in game expenses, which cover game-day costs such as officials, security, event staff, and ambulances. Only $2,500 of that was charged directly to football. The department recorded the other $113,946 at the department level, not assigned to any sport.

Facilities maintenance and operations, which covers upkeep, utilities, and equipment repair charged to athletics, came to $66,545, about 1.1 percent of the department’s $6.08 million in spending. None of it was assigned to a specific sport.

The university also reported no uncharged support to athletics for services such as facilities maintenance, security, or utilities. The one exception was facility debt service, leases, and rental fees, a $235,897 cost the university covered in full without charging athletics. The report does not break that figure down by facility.

Taken together, game operations and facilities upkeep accounted for less than $200,000 of the department’s spending, in a stadium where the field has to be brought back to football condition around a racing schedule. Burns’ statement said the department “secured additional field preparation support,” and he has since said an outside firm will paint the field. He did not say what the firm will be paid or how the department will cover the cost.

A Budget Built on Student Fees

Most of the money that funds those game-day costs comes from students and the state. Winston-Salem State athletics reported $6.86 million in operating revenue for 2024-25 and $6.08 million in expenses, a surplus of $774,253.

Student fees and state government support made up 74.5 percent of revenue. Ticket sales brought in about 7 cents of every dollar.

On the spending side, scholarships and salaries take up most of the budget. Game expenses and facilities maintenance sit near the bottom.

The department also reported $1.53 million in total athletics-related debt, $209,946 in annual debt service on athletics facilities and no athletics capital spending for the year.

Football’s Ledger

Football, the program playing on the Bowman Gray field, is the department’s largest. It carried 116 players in 2024-25.

The program brought in $639,028 in football-related revenue, including $490,810 in ticket sales, nearly all of the department’s ticket revenue. It spent $1.33 million, with $622,889 on scholarships and $499,121 on coaching salaries and benefits.

Football’s own revenue covered about 48 percent of its direct costs. Student fees, state support, and the department’s other shared revenue, totaling $5.94 million, are reported at the department level rather than assigned to any sport.

For context, athletics spending was about 4 percent of Winston-Salem State’s $150.1 million in total expenses for 2024-25. The university reported $68.7 million in total debt and $65.0 million in endowment assets, including $553,848 dedicated to athletics.

Which Division 2 HBCUs Are Built for the Jump to the MEAC or SWAC? takes a deeper look at Winston-Salem State’s earlier move toward Division I and the financial pressures that ended it.

The Road to 2037

This week, Burns says an outside firm will paint the field starting Thursday, with quality-control checkpoints in place and the field ready by noon Friday, ahead of Saturday’s game.

The arrangement behind that field is fixed for years to come. Winston-Salem State plays on Bill Hayes Field inside a city-owned stadium it shares with NASCAR, a field whose condition depends on what the stadium hosted before each home game, under a lease that runs into 2037. The city funds the major projects, and the university’s athletic department, drawing three of every four dollars from student fees and state support, covers the cost of game day itself.