This Is What A $60 Million High School Football Stadium Looks Like

[FarCenter]

Allen High School in Allen, Texas will play their first home game in their brand new $60 million football stadium later this month. The stadium, which holds 18,000 is expected to be sold out all season, with over 8,000 season tickets sold. For comparison there were 17 Division I-A (FBS) football teams that averaged less than 18,000 fans per game in 2011.

The $60 million stadium was part of a $119 million bond package that was earmarked for new construction projects by the school district, and approved by voters. This particular package came only after it was determined that all other building needs in the district had been met.

In other words, they had an extra $60 million laying around that had to be used on construction of a new building, so they built a new football stadium.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/texas-high-school-stadium-2012-8

[tularetom]

1. When Texas turns Hispanic they can use it for the real football

Ya know, like they play it in the rest of the entire world.

[Logical]

19. Real boring football, 90 minutes for a 1-1 tie. No thanks.

[coalition_unwilling]

22. Oy vey. At least with 'football' as the word is used globally, there's

not this incessant stopping and starting of action after every 'play'. American football is a surefire cure for insomnia, imo.

[Logical]

29. Well, you are in a minority in my country. n-t

[crimson77]

31. High school football is is the 2nd most popular religion in Texas.

Fat chance of it ever going away.

[JHB]

44. It's the first. There's a lot of lip service to the nominal first, but...

...follow the money, and the money goes to football.

[coalition_unwilling]

37. It's my country too (I think). I happen to find American

football boring b/c of the stop-and-start quality of it. But I'm definitely in the minority there. (I actually prefer basketball to any other sport. Played it a bit when much, much younger.)

[Logical]

41. My son loves soccer, I just can't get into it. No doubt the....

Worlds most popular sport!

[cherokeeprogressive]

83. I've always thought basketball was THE most "stop and start" sport out there.

For instance; the last two minutes of the game sometimes take almost a half-hour to play.

[coalition_unwilling]

94. Yeah, you've got a point there (about the final two minutes of bb games). I don't

spend much time on any sports generally speaking and only watch basketball occasionally b/c I used to play it as a young boy.

[frylock]

35. you're right. real football just fills those voids with two guys passing the ball back and forth..

for 45 seconds. real compelling, that.

[coalition_unwilling]

38. LOL - Yeah, I think you have a point. I prefer basketball if

I'm going to watch a sport. (Used to play a bit when much, much younger.)

As for sure-fire cures for insomnia, nothing can beat golf or tennis, imo

[frylock]

61. golf for sure..

too much grunting in tennis. it keeps me awake!

[coalition_unwilling]

95. LOL. The grunting, when interspersed with the rhythmic thwack of

the racket hitting the ball, exerts a highly hypnotic effect upon me. But I take your point.

[Dreamer Tatum]

50. So you crave action, and the cure is...soccer?

[coalition_unwilling]

93. I actually find sports pretty boring in general and if I am going

to watch anything, it will be basketball (a sport I played when much younger).

When I 'crave action,' I usually go to a casino where craps is the name of the game

[Missycim]

97. Ya I thought the same thing

lol

[Posteritatis]

80. I find it kinda fascinating how cranky Americans get about soccer. (nt)

[Drahthaardogs]

85. What "rest of the world" are you talking about?

Italian was spoken in my house and it was called "calcio" which sounds absolutely NOTHING like the word football to me. Piede is Italian for foot, and ball is palla.

[coalition_unwilling]

108. Don't mean to bore you with pedantry here, but when I taught English as a Second Language

to a group of young Continental Europeans (mainly French, German and Italian), I'm pretty sure I remember 'football' (or the more colloquial 'foot') referring to what Americans refer to as 'soccer'. As I recall, these Europeans distinguished linguistically between 'football' (American's 'soccer') and 'American football' (what Americans call 'football').

I do not speak Italian, so I will have to defer to the Italianate experts out there like yourself. It could be that there is some dialect of 'European English' that is replacing your 'calcio' with 'football.' But that's just a surmise on my part.

[nichomachus]

109. American football -- 10 seconds of violence

Followed by a beer commercial. (Thanks to John Cleese)

[coalition_unwilling]

110. LOL - that's a good one! Thanks! - n/t

[trumad]

114. Well---if you like a flop a minute...

then go for it.

[Zax2me]

124. Screw 'globally'. I want my NFL.

They can call soccer football if they want.
Don't care.

[Zax2me]

125. Cool.

Nice digs.

[Egalitarian Thug]

69. Do you dislike baseball as well? n/t

[Logical]

73. At least no ties!

[TheMadMonk]

77. Why you think the "bit of biffo" on the way home? Gotta decide somehow.

Also I think behind the reason for the segregation of the fans.

[yellowcanine]

98. Hmm. Kind of easy to get higher scores when each goal counts 3 points or 6-7 points and there are

several ways to score. Just sayin'. Comparing apples and oranges will get you that. Ice hockey has 1-1 ties also but do people complain about it being boring? As with ice hockey, soccer is more than just about scoring. People who appreciate soccer understand that.

I would also note that some people like a game where the play is continuous, rather than stopping after every play. Now THAT is boring.

[Missycim]

40. Sorry

paint drying is more fun to watch then soccer

[GoneOffShore]

89. You've never watched cricket have you.

That's like watching water evaporate.

[Missycim]

99. Well if truth be

told I think golf is even worse then soccer

[jehop61]

2. I don't suppose

buying textbooks. building a new science lab or hiring more teachers was an option?

[madaboutharry]

5. Texas, the state where high school football is God

and critical thinking skills are Satan.

[coalition_unwilling]

23. And where they execute people with an IQ of 61 - n/t

[alp227]

53. Maybe the high school should add STEM and Chinese classes

So if the ex football players can't make the college or pro teams at least they can find an outsourced trade job in China.

[Scuba]

6. +1

[Initech]

25. You forget this is the state where the school board voted to write actual history out of history textbooks.

[erpowers]

49. Already Did Something Similar

According to Wikipedia:

"The final expansion of the school was completed in 2011. The expansion included a new 1,500 seat performing arts center, an expansion of band hall space and a Career and Technology Education center featuring a student-managed restaurant open to the public, a student-managed apparel store with student designed items, multiple new Mac labs, Mac-equipped rooms for the photojournalism, yearbook, commercial photography and newspaper classes as well as learning-classrooms for the medical education programs."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_High_School_(Allen,_Texas)

[cloudbase]

52. In Texas,

bond money can't be used to cover maintenance and operational expenses, and that includes salaries for personnel.

Not to defend the district, but the voters approved and will pay for the bonds issued to cover the construction costs. It will be a bit more expensive, since the state fund that guaranteed a AAA bond rating to school districts is broke, so the district will have to pay interest at market rates. The bond money doesn't count against tax rate caps. If they want more teachers, they'll have to increase the property tax rate.

[Dreamer Tatum]

55. Facts are never welcome when a good old fashioned Texas-bashing is underway. nt

[Missycim]

100. I agree with you 100%

and I am from NJ, Texas bashing can get pretty thick here.

[ag_dude]

65. Allen is building a new elementary this year.

[WI_DEM]

3. I'm sure if there was a bond issue for something that really dealt with education

like books, larger classrooms, science, math, or even the arts! it would have been voted down. But $60 million for a football stadium for a high school--we'll that's alright because football is a second religion in Texas and elsewhere.

[Missycim]

42. What would happen

if they made over a period of years the money back and used the extra for books and such? I am from NJ and no way would they spend that kind of money on any sport but if they can fill it and have it pay for itself (with food and drink prices being what they are) I dont see a problem with it.

[MineralMan]

4. My opinion is that there's something terribly wrong with that.

I'd be interested to see the schools in surrounding communities. If those schools are in need of improvements in facilities, then this edifice to sport is obscene.

[Horse with no Name]

70. You would first have to understand the school funding crisis in Texas that has existed as long as I

can remember.

You have rich districts and you have poor districts and many times, they exist side by side.

However, Allen is surrounded by a lot of other little bedroom communities that are wealthy as well...Frisco, McKinney, Melissa, Plano, etc. and those communities school districts are thriving. However, there is a little old school district to the North...the Dallas Independent School District...

[MineralMan]

87. We have similar situations here in the Twin Cities

of Minnesota. The districts in the nice suburbs have great schools, but the inner city has old, decaying facilities and poor education. I think that's universal in urban areas and their suburbs. It sucks. In one wealthy suburb near St. Paul, they have just built an olympic sized pool, indoors, and a brand new hockey facility with two rinks and seating for about 3000. Just down the street from me is a High School with nothing but classrooms with fifty desks in them and peeling paint.

[Horse with no Name]

91. I think it is an atrocity

and the attempts to make it "fair" defeated some good Democratic Governors and Democrats in general in Texas.

I live in one of the poorest districts in Texas.

We can't even get a bond passed for a new school because the majority of the school population has become "ethnic" and the white taxpayers/voters don't think "they" need a new school.

It is very sad.

[Missycim]

102. I dont get it

is your point that richer school districts have the property taxes raised to pay for school districts far away from their towns?

[MineralMan]

119. No, not at all.

My idea is that every school should get the exact same amount per student. Period. District funding is not acceptable, because in introduces advantages to some kids, while leaving the rest with nothing. School funding should be a state issue, not a local school district issue, in my opinion. Equality of services and opportunities for all kids, not just the privileged ones. That's what I want. It's one thing that should be taken away from districts to decide.

[hifiguy]

122. Very well said, sir.

[MineralMan]

123. Thanks. That's always been my opinion.

One school district in a suburb of the Twin Cities is handing out iPads to every student, starting with middle school. Meantime, the high school near my urban home is full of students who don't even have a computer at home, and the school's computer lab is full of out-dated equipment and the school has a lousy internet service. One can afford to hand out $500 pieces of technology, while the other tells kids to go to the local library and use one of their six public PCs.

The difference sucks! The people living in that suburb can afford to buy their kids iPods. Median family income there is over $100K.

[Kaleva]

96. It highlights the problem of supporting schools by local property taxes

I think there ought to be minimum state property tax rate and that money is distributed amongst all the state's school districts based on how many students there are in the school district. Local areas, such as wealthy ones, would have the option to add to the tax for their own district if the voters support it.

The current system means that schools in poor areas are underfunded while schools in wealthy areas have extra money to spend on 60 million dollar football stadiums.

[MineralMan]

118. Exactly. Some states have that, but it funds all schools at

some minimum level, leaving all the extras to be levied on the local property owners. Rich districts vote it in and the discrepancy continues. Personally, I think all schools should be funded at the same rate, regulated by the state, and levied on property taxes. No ups, no extras. What that would mean is that the rich districts would push to increase the funding, and when they did, that funding would be the same across the board, since it would require a state vote.

The federal government should be involved, setting the standard for the minimum per student funding that would be allowed in any state. That would keep at least a certain level of funding supplied to every school district. States could opt to pay more, as long as every district got the same amount per student.

[Kaleva]

120. I think I'll fire off an e-mail to my state Representative and Senator

[MineralMan]

121. That's a start, for sure.

Even better, we can all work to elect state legislators who are really education supporters. It may take some time, but those local races are the most important races in any election, in terms of making changes. They also are the graduate school that feeds the federal government. Almost all House and Senate members started out as state legislators. Every election is an opportunity to improve those state legislatures, and it's the real reason to GOTV.

[RC]

7. They can't afford to pay their teachers, or even pencils and paper, but they can afford this?

For a high school? Do they have the cages for the tigers and lions installed yet?
I bet the coach gets paid as much as the Principal. And doesn't have to teach Phys-ed either.

[hack89]

11. It appears to be a well funded high performing school in a wealthy school district

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_High_School_%28Allen,_Texas%29

The median income for a household in the city in 2007 was $93,392, and the median income for a family was $100,736.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen,_Texas

[Missycim]

43. it looks like they can afford it

so I dont see a problem unless you feel their property tax dollars should be seized for other purposes?

[Dreamer Tatum]

8. I don't see the problem.

Taxpayers in the district overwhelmingly approved it.

http://www.allenamerican.com/articles/2009/05/13/allen_american/news/63.txt

[Remmah2]

9. I wonder what the classrooms look like?

Wonder what they pay their teachers?

I wonder what the graduation rate is and how many kids go on to graduate from college?

[hack89]

12. It appears to be a very well funded high performing school

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_High_School_%28Allen,_Texas%29

[FarCenter]

13. Several of their notable alumni have gone on to college or pro football careers

[Yavin4]

21. Most Pro Football Careers Last 3.5 Years or Less

That is if the players defy all odds and become pros. So, the school district invested $60 million so that a small percentage of kids can have a three year career. Genius.

[Eksess]

17. yeah and?

It doesn't matter how well the school performs, or how affluent the area is. They just blew 60 million dollars for a football stadium. Correction, a high school football stadium. That is taking wasteful to new heights. I love football as much as anyone. But in my opinion the words high school football is just a nice way of saying really bad football.


Especially considering the school my stepson goes to had to turn one of their parking lots into a trailer park because they ran out of room from already existing trailers/classrooms.

[hack89]

26. And they have 8000 season ticket holders and sell 10,000 more tickets per game.

I have no problem with this - it is the tax payers money and it is not like they are neglecting academics.

[Missycim]

46. some people fail to see the forest for the trees

(i hope i said that right)

But they will make their money back and use the extra to pay for other things

[erpowers]

15. All Around Good School

As poster #12 stated, according to Wikipedia, the school is a all around good school. Many of the schools programs, aside from football and sports, have done well. Some of the success dates back to 2006, but they had some additional sports and non-sports related success in 2011. In addition, before building the football stadium they invested money in the school.

"The final expansion of the school was completed in 2011. The expansion included a new 1,500 seat performing arts center, an expansion of band hall space and a Career and Technology Education center featuring a student-managed restaurant open to the public, a student-managed apparel store with student designed items, multiple new Mac labs, Mac-equipped rooms for the photojournalism, yearbook, commercial photography and newspaper classes as well as learning-classrooms for the medical education programs."

Based on what is said on Wikipedia those classrooms should look really good. If the graduation rate is low at the school it seems the reason would be something other than misallocation of funds. The school seems to be pretty well funded.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_High_School_(Allen,_Texas)

[uponit7771]

30. Great for funding other schools in the DFW area...

[Horse with no Name]

71. unfortunately that isnt how Texas

school funding works.

[Missycim]

104. Those blighted schools

should get more state and federal money but Is not right to take other school districts property taxes to pay for others schools.

[Odin2005]

10. I am reminded of the movie "Friday Night Lights"...

...where the caller into a talk radio show says they should cut academics to pay for football.

Stupid Texans.

[benld74]

14. Any idea of graduation rate? Books they teach from? I mean the things that really,,

count later in the kids lives!!!

[erpowers]

34. A Few Examples

The two links below are to the suggested summer reading lists of the grade levels in the Allen Independent School District and one of the assignments that must be turned in during the second week of the upcoming school year.

http://www.allenisd.org/cms/lib/TX01001197/Centricity/Domain/31/2012%20Summer%20Reading%20English%204%20AP.docx

http://www.allenisd.org//site/Default.aspx?PageID=334

[ag_dude]

66. Allen is actually a really nice school.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

16. Taxpayer money... Taxpayer approved. I've got no problem with it.

[1-Old-Man]

18. If even one kid dropped or flunked out in that school the entire approving board should be fired

[Dreamer Tatum]

20. The entire "approving board" is the local population.

They voted for it.

Overwhelmingly.

[NCTraveler]

24. A great way to bring the community together for some fun...

while supporting the kids.

[1-Old-Man]

36. So is feeding the poor.

[NCTraveler]

39. I agree.

With 18,000 people showing up I hope they do can food drives and other similar actions to benefit their community.

[Missycim]

47. dont forget

tax revenue raised from food and drinks being sold.

[Fumesucker]

56. I ran a HS football game concession stand for four years..

I don't know if it's the same in Texas but we never collected sales tax.

In our system the band parents ran the concession and the band got the concession money, the football team got the ticket money..

[Missycim]

57. well either or

someone from the school got the money. I cant see the school not getting a cut.

[uponit7771]

27. That stadium is small, only has 1 jumbo tron, the HS were I live in TX has 2....

...I thought it was a little small for the NFL when I moved here.

[datasuspect]

28. high school football, church, and jesus dinosaurs

god bless texas.

i got a taste for frito pie all of a sudden.

[dembotoz]

32. and so the products of this rich school system will be compared with the products of schools with no

resources

and the republicans will blame the teachers.....


money and resources are everything but it is something

[Horse with no Name]

72. Yep. n/t

[NV Whino]

33. I'm way behind the curve

When did they start charging admission for high school football games?

[Dreamer Tatum]

48. You're roughly 40 years behind the curve. nt

[NV Whino]

67. Ha! That sounds about right.

[hifiguy]

45. Whether it was voted on or not,

this represents priorities that are so fucked up as to defy description.

[muntrv]

51. "The $60 million stadium was part of a $119 million bond package

that was earmarked for new construction." That's socialism! Bet the teabaggers are dead silent on this one.

[Dreamer Tatum]

54. How is voters approving a bond issue socialism?

Your comment is silly.

[Missycim]

105. I am scratching my

head at his post as well

[Fumesucker]

111. Even the poor students at that school (if there are any) will get to use the $60M facilities..

Now if they apportioned the use of the facilities according to how much each family paid in property taxes it wouldn't be socialism..

[progressivebydesign]

58. I knew it would be Texas. I work with a company that does biz with schools in Texas.

I always feel sorry for the teachers I work with, because the entire school has to cancel events, dances, tests, etc, if the school gets into any kind of chanpionship. The entire town closes down, and school is secondary to football.

[tammywammy]

64. As someone born & raised in Texas

It sure wasn't like that when I was in high school. I still live in Texas and the city I'm in doesn't shut down based on sports.

These broad brushes are silly.

Oh and my high school football team wasn't even that good. Now the girls volleyball, girls soccer and baseball were good teams. The high school was much more enthused when volleyball and theater won state than anything the football team did.

[YoungDemCA]

59. Obsession with high school football, AT THE EXPENSE of academics and even other sports....

..and extracurricular activities, for that matter, is fairly common in many American high schools, unfortunately.

[Dreamer Tatum]

60. But not in this case, evidently. nt

[WillowTree]

86. Since you seem to know so much about it, please do tell...

....what academics and other sports and extracurricular activities are being shortchanged at this school or in that school district in favor of building this stadium?

[Missycim]

106. You dont seem to

understand the voted on a Bond to pay for this, it doesn't come out of the schools revenue

[WillowTree]

126. I understand that perfectly. It's the person I was replying to who doesn't get it.

[ileus]

62. WOW....how nice is that....

Ours is a dump.


I'll be there 2.5 hours this evening as a matter of fact.

[Brigid]

63. Let me guess . . .

Texas, right? Yep, Texas.

[slackmaster]

68. My high school (class of 1975) is still using the same football field and bleachers it had in 1922

[Liberal_in_LA]

74. WOW! that's a fancy stadium. This is where fans sit to watch California HS games

[tanyev]

75. Holy crap. I didn't realize the interior was so posh.

I drive by there every week and the parking lot area still looks like a construction site--temporary fences, piles of bricks, etc. I'd heard they were going to play their first game there and I wondered how close it was to ready. Pretty close, looks like.

[rrneck]

78. And they still got shitty textbooks. nt

[Posteritatis]

113. Yep. I imagine they'd freak if asked to pay for teachers or educational materials. (nt)

[Posteritatis]

79. No K-12 school, anywhere, needs or deserves a $60 million stadium. (nt)

[Missycim]

107. If the tax payers in that town want to pay for it, more power to them

nt

[Posteritatis]

112. And what actual useful things are they shortchanging for their little temple? (nt)

[Missycim]

115. Why does everything have

to be "useful"? Can't joy and happiness and fellowship be considered useful?




If the schools in that district are well maintained I still dont see the problem.

[Posteritatis]

116. A k-12 school burning $60 million on unrelated expenditures is a complete waste, full stop.

Universities often have cheaper facilities, and they occasionally actually bring some tangible benefits beyond mere sports worship at that level.

It is perfectly possible to find "joy and happiness and fellowship" without spending several times more than what it often costs to build a complete new school from scratch. This kind of expenditure given the general state of schools these days, particularly when so many are opposed to paying teachers enough to live on, or escaping Texas' toxic stranglehold on schoolbook publishing, is nothing more than an obscenity.

[Travis_0004]

127. I think a lot of people forget that you have to pay to get into a football game.

How many highschools would love to have 16,000 people pay to get into every game.

If the revenue from the statidum pays for the bond payment, then they break even, and have a great stadium. Once the bond is paid off, they will make a few hundred thousand (maybe 1 mil depending on how much they charge). That income can be used to help pay other cost, which I think others forget, so I agree with you. It looks like a cool stadium.

[Codeine]

81. Jesus. The Columbus Crew built the first MLS soccer-specific stadium back in '98 for half that. nt

[freethought]

82. As obscene as that stadium is, I am NOT surprised

The high school I attended was in a small town in Massachusetts. Two sets of seats. Couldn't tell you how many people could sit in it. I think it was given a paint job and some new seat planks to sit on.

The university I attended was at a large university in rural Massachusetts. They had a large football stadium which was essentially two huge concrete blocks with a football field in between. I spent my entire 4 years there and never went to a football game.

Some years ago I went to visit my older bro in a town outside Houston, TX. When he had picked me up at the airport we were driving through the area and my eye spied a football stadium as big or perhaps a little larger than the one at my university.
"What university is that?" I naively blurted out.
"University? That's a high school field!" he replied
"Football is really big down here."

This does not surprise me at all, given that it's Texas. I still shake my head at it though. Half of a voter approved bond for a high school football field. Well, perhaps it will pay for itself in time.

[uponit7771]

103. The Allen Stadium is fairly modest, the one where I live in TX is bigger has 2 jumbo trons

[RedCappedBandit]

84. Does football bring in enough money to justify this sort of crap?

I've heard that argument before, but honestly have no idea. Never lived in a town where high school football was such a big deal.

Edit: I have to assume it's just a nonsense talking point though. Even if it did bring in that kind of money, I have to assume it would just go back into the athletic department, rather than supplementing the actual, you know, learning part of school.

[uponit7771]

101. no, not hs football

[Pithlet]

88. That is obscene. n/t

[WinniSkipper]

90. This seems to be a good investment

Allen Football http://www.allenwranglers.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=178&Itemid=173

Looks like they average about $35 a ticket. 8 homes games. 18K seats. Thats over $5 million a year in ticket revenue alone. Add concessions, parking. This will pay for itself in 7-9 years.

[jmowreader]

92. Allen, Texas, has more money than they know what to do with

This is part of the Texas High School Football Dick-Sizing Contest. And as you can see in the article, the citizens of Allen approved a $119 million bond package for school construction, and they ran out of other things to build about $60 million before they ran out of money.

Look at the bright side: That's $60 million the fine citizens of Allen won't be able to contribute to Republican politicians.

[Stinky The Clown]

117. That is frighteningly common in Tejas.