Gary, just something to keep in mind BEFORE you start the fundraising effort (since it seems like it would be a big ordeal). Those fields generally need to be replaced about every 10 years, so unless the district creates a sinking fund using the $$$ saved by the turf field, you will have a major fundraising need every decade or so.
Another thing to remember is that turf does still have to be maintained, too. You won't have to mow it anymore, but you will have to vacuum it. One school in our area put in a very nice turf field a few years ago only to be flabbergasted when they saw how much it would cost them to keep the thing looking nice until it's eventually replaced.
It really just takes one person to get the ball going and get media attention, but with educational politics being what they are, you want to make sure you have the Principal, AD, and HFC behind you. They almost surely will be, but make sure they're included from the start. Try to get to the superintendent early and get his/her consent, if not actual support. Contact the school board members one by one to let them know what you're up to, as well. Make sure you tell them you're not asking them for money, only "support" right now while you're doing work for them. That'll help insure no one with pull feels slighted.
Then, start putting it together. Don't just make it about just the playing surface but make it about a beautiful new stadium that the community can be proud of--have a real vision for people to get behind. Another thing that might help is to increase the economy of scale here. Instead of just making it about one HS's field, let the MS play games there, too. If there's another school in town, maybe you can share it. This is how it works in a nearby town and their "new" turf field is downright swank compared to most.
You'll need to get a movement going and promote the idea. Social media like Facebook and Twitter (come up with a clever, easy to remember hashtag) is good for getting people together to look in the same place--a friend of mine has had HUGE success using these things to promote community events he puts together. He makes funny little memes about his upcoming events that get picked up and spread all over Facebook and Twitter in a manner of hours--if you're like most places, there'll be a hometown Memes page on Facebook and it's a great resource for getting the word out. Make some of these goofy little memes based on what's already popular. You can do it or get some others (especially clever kids/college students) to do it. The best part of all this is that it's EASY to use this stuff and it's 100% FREE. Get the kids, teachers, players families, coaches, and fans to spread the world digitally.
While you're just trying to build enthusiasm, quietly go behind the scenes and find out how much it may cost you. Ask other schools who've built similar things, contact construction companies and see what they tell you, etc. Get a ballpark figure, focusing on getting as much of the materials and labor donated as possible. Try to find out how much it would cost to hire an architect to commission a study to tell you exactly what it would cost. Then see if you can get the school board to foot that bill. If not, offer to raise the funds to pay for the study as your first goal so it doesn't cost them. Then, when the schoolboard sees what it'll cost, see how much you can talk them (or the town) into paying, now that the community is behind you. Try to get them to commit to X amount of dollars or matching private donations dollar for dollar. Then see if you can milk more out of them by showing them a plan for how the new field would increase revenue or you'd raise the price of tickets by $1 or $2 each to offset the cost of financing such an endeavor--remember that this stuff is always financed by local governments, never paid for in cash they actually have lying around.
That'll get the ball rolling. Then you organize from there, creating lists of people interested in helping out however (maybe by working phones, going door to door, donating things for raffles, giving money, actually volunteering to help install it, etc.). Once you've got all this together, if they haven't already covered the story, go to the local papers and tv stations to get the word out to all the old folks who aren't online. Use your first donations to get signs and posters to spread around town showing support.
So now you've started a movement... some things that might help...
One thing that some teams around here have done to raise money for facilities improvements such as this is to sell personalized bricks with big donors names on them, then build a nice wall, entranceway, etc. to show them off. If you donate X amount of dollars, you get your name on a brick. They also sell off spots on plaques and reward donors with season tickets, jerseys, etc. for large contributions. People can buy, say, "Bronze" contributions for a $500 donation, "Silver" for $750, "Gold" for $1000, and then you can add "Diamond," "Platinum," etc. See if you can get a local mason (or even a vocational class at the school) to pay for building the actual thing.
If you aren't already, sell ad space within the stadium. This can be as simple as getting local businesses to buy $100 banners to hang on the fence around the edge of the field, or it can be as big as letting them post a freakin' electronic billboard behind the visitors' bleachers. Yes, it's kind of tacky, but inside a nice stadium it can actually help contribute to the big time feel. People like a big time feel and they will pay for it.
Another thing that's helped is to hit up bigwigs in the community who want exposure and PR. For some reason, the owners of car dealerships are very good for this around here. If you can get one of them to foot a huge portion of the bill, maybe you can offer to name the field after him (you can call it "Joe Snakeoilsalesman Field at City High Stadium" if you don't want to change the stadium name), let him run ads over the PA during breaks for the game, or put down a special plaque for him with his company logo at the entrance.
Another nice fundraising thing: see if you can get Coke or Pepsi to spring for a nice new scoreboard with a jumbotron attached--a nearby school did this as part of building a very nice new stadium a few years ago You might not think this has anything to do with the playing surface, but ad revenue from commercials shown on that jumbotron combined with the general excitement about a sweet new stadium (and not just a new playing surface) can really go a long way towards raising money for other improvements.
You may also see about licensing out the concession stand, too, to a private business. They'll probably pay more than you make with teachers and parents selling cokes and it saves you a lot of fuss.
Anyway, I'm rambling, but I hope some of this stuff is helpful. This is a big project so you've got to think big--it can be easier to raise money for a big $1.5 million project than it would be to get people to pay $100,000 for a small, less attention grabbing one. Candy sales and $5 discount cards are nice, but they're not going to rake in the kind of capital you need for this by themselves. The best part is that initiative, organization, and leadership don't cost a thing and neither does PR in the age of Twitter and Facebook.
Good luck!
