The Illinois State Fairgrounds Coliseum has a new name and is expected to reopen for this year’s upcoming state fair, after being closed for repairs and renovations.  The facility is now known as the Coliseum of Champions, which will host the horse shows and other events at the state fair.  The Illinois Fairgrounds Foundation held a naming contest, open to members of the Illinois 4-H, FFA and the Junior Horseman’s Council.  The winning entry was submitted and approved from the Fairview Huskies 4-H, a Clay City FFA member and a 4-H club Member from Montgomery County.  The coliseum was built in 1901, and was closed in 2016, when engineers determined that it was structurally unsafe.  The coliseum has been closed since for the past 2 state fairs in Springfield.  The Illinois Fairgrounds Foundation was then able to raise $800,000, with some of the funds coming from ticket sales of current Governor JB Pritzker and his inauguration.  The acting director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture John Sullivan, stated on Monday that the fairgrounds has been neglected for many years, which as a result, took a huge backlog of deferred maintenance and repairs.  The General Assembly in Illinois also added in $30-million in their budget, which was passed last year for repairs of the state fairgrounds.  Total rehabilitation needs at the state’s two fairgrounds has been an estimated $185-million.