Everything's bigger in Texas

[brew]

Don't know if this has been posted yet, but it seemed interesting to me. We have major debates here on building a new $15 million school to ease overcrowding, but a $60 million stadium passes with very little discussion.

Saying that, I'm sure they will fill it up 6-8 Friday nights a year with no problem.

[Wakebrad]

Interesting debate for sure. I'd be willing to bet that the stadium would pay that $60 million back in ticket sales where the school is just going to return 0. It is an interesting look at how sports are over-emphasized in our society.

[brew]

I was thinking through that payback and here it would never work out, but I'm sure it's different there. Here they charge about $5-8 for a ticket (season tickets are like $50) to a high school game and they usually do a 75/25 split with the opposing team. So for a total of 8 games including playoff games you would pull in about $720,000 a year based on the stadium size and standing room tickets. Also, the money here goes back into the individual school budget to fund school activities and capital projects are covered by the central office and local property taxes.

They may run school athletics more like a college where there is an athletics department that is funded by donations, season tickets, and gate/concession revenue and then the expenses and debt service are covered out of that. I could see it working without taxpayer money then, but I have a hard time believing that is the way it's set up.

[goofyboy]

http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1074494

I am ok with this. The town passed the measure that included almost as much money for a performing arts center. To be fair, my highschool's stadium held 16,000 and was only used for football and soccer. Its a way of life in Texas.

Also, if that is how that town wants to spend its money, more power to them.

[churchy]

I haven't read the article, but I wouldn't be surprised if a large chunk of the funding came from donations.

[goofyboy]

"The stadium was part of a larger $120 million bond package passed in May 2009 that included nearly as much money for a state-of-the-art auditorium for performing arts"

[Blindside_137]

[Big Al]

The high school I went to was just completely rebuilt like 2 years ago, which it needed badly. The football stadium has been legit for as long as I can remember...it's like that everywhere. I've seen a million ghetto lookin run-down high schools with huge fancy football stadiums around here.

We're almost like our own country, trying to understand Texas is a waste of your time.

[ohsix]

[brew]

I'm not saying people here don't take high school football seriously, but it's nothing like that. I went to a high school of about 1,500 and the football stadium they played at was falling in on itself on the wrong side of the tracks. The older private schools around have the nice stadiums, facilities, etc., but public schools are way behind the times.

[Sinkoumn]

Not gonna lie, I clicked on this thread thinking there was going to be some female 'T' and/or 'A'

[scott a]

Student section in the end zone FTL.

http://www.allenisd.org/20061061015583133/lib/20061061015583133/Bond%20Project%20Artwork-Files/Stadium%20Update.pdf

[Rhawn]

I was expecting huge texan racks. You have failed me brew.

[jt09]

the money was raised 100% by bonds voted on by the taxpayers in that school district, and the vote was a landslide. their old "stadium" was simply a bunch of semipermanent bleachers. it's a very wealthy school district and they can afford it no sweat. they've been neglecting the athletic faclities for years while they added and upgraded other campuses in the district. it was time for the athletic facility to be upgraded and a fine arts center, auditorium, maintenance building, etc to be built.

we have these all over texas, but the unique thing about this stadium is that only one high school will be using it. katy, cy fair, round rock (just off the top of my head), all have giant athletic faclities for their districts, but they are shared by 5-7 high schools. afaik, this will only be used by allen hs, and there are no plans for a new hs in allen any time soon.

hell, my biggest complaint is where they stuck the student section. i know they have to recoup costs w/ ticket sales, but throwing the students in the end zone is freakin weak.

[Faust]

omfg

[Wakebrad]

wow, that's pretty damn impressive. Better stadium than Baylor has. They probably have more attendance too haha.

[Porterwake]

Considering how the school curriculum/school boards have been hi-jacked by a bunch of morons and have become the laughing stock of the country, the Texas schools won't be getting any better.

http://cbs11tv.com/local/texas.textbooks.curriculum.2.1635858.html

In case people don't know what's going on, Texas won't be talking about Thomas Jefferson or Martin Luther King Jr. anymore because they weren't big figures in history. What a joke.

[jt09]

[Porterwake]

If you're going in invest in a brand new school, I would suggest making it the highest quality. Start first by getting a competent state board of education (i.e. that criminally uneducated dentist needs to get out of dodge.)

Sending kids to a think-tank bugs me.

[jt09]

still not sure what that has to do w/ this thread.

[ontrider]

Wait, this is a high school stadium???

Our "stadium" didn't even have "semi-permanent" bleachers... lol.
Football game attendance was probably a solid 20 people.. 15 of those waiting for their bus to come.