Link Everything is bigger in Texas. And that includes high school football. Allen High School, located in a growing suburb of Dallas, has approved the construction of a new stadium to house their football team that will break ground next month. The price tag is a whopping $60,000,000 and comes at a time when most school districts are slashing budgets just to keep their doors open. So how does a school of 5,000 students justify a new, state-of-the-art stadium that seats 18,000 and a video scoreboard? It’s because football is big business in Texas. Heck, they have the largest high school band with 800+ people (see video) so you can see that they go all out in Allen, Texas. Allen High School is one of the largest schools in the state and their football team is one of the best. The Allen Eagles are winners of the Texas 5A state title and finished as the No. 2 team in the RivalsHigh Top 100 football rankings in 2008. Allen Texas High School $60 Million Stadium The new stadium will feature: * Video Scoreboard * Two level press box with film deck and Observation deck * Home side reserved seating with seat backs * 1,5000 additional parking spaces with 4,500 total parking spaces * 18,000 seat Stadium with upper deck seating including: o 5,000 reserved seating, o 2,700 General Admission o 4,000 Students o 5,300 Visitor o 1,000 Band Their old stadium seats around 8,000 and was built 30 years ago. They bring in another 7,000 or so portable seats for fans to max it out. Many people stand to watch the game and a trip to the bathrooms can take quite awhile. The facilities are outdated and overrun so having a new stadium constructed is not unexpected. Dropping $60 million is a little outrageous but this is the team that helped fill Texas Stadium with 50,000 last year. And one way to look at it is that the new stadium is just half of the expenditure. 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. The new Allen Eagles Stadium is set to open in 2012. You can take a virtual look at the new Stadium by clicking here.
I would pitch a fit if it were my property taxes. It's a good thing it's not not in Harris County. That's going to be a fat increase in property taxes to cover the bonds.
Why would a single high school need a $60,000,000 stadium?... I would understand College... but High School?
It was voted overwhelmingly by the people in the city, so I guess they're not complaining. As far as I'm concerned, if the people there want to pay for it, so be it. The state's not paying 1 dime for it, so I can't complain. I've been to the old stadium there...it was way past time for a new one. They had to bring in 5-7 thousand temporary seats in for each game. It will also include a wrestling practice area and a fine arts area IN the stadium building.
Correction...it has a Golf practice area and a wrestling gym, In the building, but NOT a Fine Arts center..my mistake.
Yeah, if I was a teacher in that district, I'd be looking to transfer out right about now. That district doesn't have it's priorities straight.
They do. they graduate 98% & both academics & athletics are steller. They compete well in everything from Photography to student council.
http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1074494 Per this article, it wasn't money that could be used on the classroom or teachers' salaries anyway. The funding is organized in such a way that it's not a "priorities" issue. It's often about bonds, and the community has to vote for it. In this case, that happened without much controversy.
Every now and then a topic comes along in which I have the same response to... this is that kind of topic. ...and you wonder why they shove airplanes up our ass?
I think the point is that if this was a bond issue, voted on by the residents of the community, then it would be a damn shame if they voted to spend THAT kind of money on building that stadium if their school wasn't literally on the bleeding edge of academic excellence. Yes, it isn't like they stole the money from the text book fund, but money used for this project is just less money that could be raised for other projects. So everything is about priorities.