Texas High School Building $ 60 Million Football Stadium (MOD: article from 2010)

[BostonBob]

MOD EDIT: This article is from 2010 and information in the article may have drastically changed between then and now.




http://thepigskindoctors.com/2010/04...tball-stadium/

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 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.

[Rickety Cricket]

I still like Arlen's chances.

[LatvianTwist]

Stunned Katy High School hasn't done this yet down here.

[What the Faulk]

Well, at least they're going to pack it.

That's bigger than most FCS stadiums.

[Finnpin]

How about building more schools? or making them better or educate the teachers better with that money?

....of course not. This is America...sports sports win win!

[Blades of Glory]

Rick Perry for President!

[octopi]

Hope they're charging admission.

Otherwise, the tax payers should be screaming.

[AP]

Just like universities, high schools are run more like a business. I feel sorry for all of those in the grey area of education who need more time and help with their studies because its more important to build state of the art stadium where not only where less than 1% who play Varsity High School Football at that school will make the NFL but the alumni donations the high school receives will not come close to off setting the costs of this stadium.

[Mayor Bee]

Originally Posted by Finnpin

How about building more schools? or making them better or educate the teachers better with that money?

....of course not. This is America...sports sports win win!

This is Texas we're talking about. A very small number of states have this type of fixation on football.

I know in our case (Ohio), we have about 720 high schools that play football. We have more D-1 football colleges than anywhere else in the country except Texas (which has a much larger population) and more colleges that play football overall than anywhere. We produce huge numbers of college players, huge numbers of NFL players, you get the idea.

In Ohio, we have no spring football (which some Southern states do). We have no huge stadiums; more are dilapidated than are "passable". We have no full-time football coaches (which some states do). Anyone who coaches any high school sport is allowed a supplemental contract, which ranges anywhere from $1,200 (most schools) to about $3,500...a few outliers like the huge city public schools go higher than that. And that's not for every coach on staff; most have a head coach and one or two assistants who get that, with everyone else being volunteers.

Also, state law dictates that if a teacher applies for a coaching position that has a supplemental contract, he/she automatically gets it. If no teacher wants it, then an administrator can. If neither of them want it, then and only then can someone from outside do it. I lost my last position because a teacher put in for it simply because he wanted the paycheck...our defense went from 12 points against per game to 27 the next year, then over 40. It happens.

It's an extremely small number of states that have a different setup. I think Georgia, Alabama, Texas, and Oklahoma are the only ones.