I grew up in Texas. Football is ubiquitous in Texas. Pro football, college football, high school football, Pee-Wee football; in fact, every form of football except the original: European football, which most Texans believe to be a commie plot.
Posted on 08/30/2012 1:56:51 PM PDT by C19fan
Call it the palace of high school football: A gleaming $60 million facility with seats for 18,000 roaring fans, a 38-foot-wide high-definition video screen, corporate sponsors and a towering upper deck. Welcome to the new home of Eagles Football. As school districts across the country struggle to retain teachers, replace outdated textbooks and keep class sizes from ballooning, the wealthy, burgeoning Dallas suburb of Allen is preparing to christen its new stadium with a sold-out Friday night matchup against defending state champions Southlake Carroll.
(Excerpt) Read more at sportsillustrated.cnn.com ...
It’s not just Texas, but ALL over the South, football even at the peewee level, is HUGE. It’s seen as a man-thing; as opposed to limp-wristed soccer up North, where non-athletes can “compete” in a game (not really a sport for athletes or men).
Our northside ISD here in San Antonio now has a a BILLION dollar budget.
Uh, we play lacrosse up North. Think of it as football, without as many of the girlie-man Southern padding.
I grew up in Texas. Football is ubiquitous in Texas. Pro football, college football, high school football, Pee-Wee football; in fact, every form of football except the original: European football, which most Texans believe to be a commie plot.
“Apparently, Texans love spending other people’s money on football even more”
Well two thirds of the voters approved the bond issue from my experience down there I would have expected about 80% support.
As anew Texan, may I ask one question:
WHY?”
That is just the way it is. Same as it is in Oklahoma, Nebraska and Kansas, where I raised my kids. If you had a son and they didn’t play football, they were obviously butterfly collectors. Daughters were the cheerleaders or on the drill team. Keeps the boys as boys and the girls as girls.
“This stadium will bring in money for the school district.”
Do you have an objective source that will back up you assertion that 60 million dollaf high school football stadiums earn money to a school district?
How do you think this school district will be able to pay off the 60 million dollar loan, finance maintance and insurance and turn a profit?
I played for a smaller 3A team (Allen and The Dragons I think are 5A) in Texas in 69’ and 70’. Only one time did we play for a crowd smaller than 5000. Our ISD has revenue from oil wells. As a matter of fact, they ended up slant drilling a well right underneath the football field.
It is in the small Ohio town of Massillon, too.
Also kind of big in SW PA, too. That region has given the NFL many of its greatest quarterbacks.
I don’t really care whether you are a HS football fan, or not . . . but at first glance, this appears to be an unnecessary expenditure of taxpayer funds.
A good argument for a big intramural program in which as many kids as possible get to put on the pads and play.
Not so good an argument for a $60 million stadium where maybe one in twenty of the male students will ever be on the field.
Full disclosure: I played baseball and wrestled in high school, never touched a football except for sandlot games.
And of course now Plano is going to want one just like it, then Southlake, and on and on...
“at first glance, this appears to be an unnecessary expenditure of taxpayer funds”
Well two thirds of the tax payers voted for it. It may not be what two thirds of the taxpayers may have voted for in your neck of the woods but as they say the voters have spoken...
Good grief ... the media are having a field day with this one.
FWIW ... it’s not just a football stadium. The stadium itself is surrounded by offices, classrooms, exercise facilities, and so on. Those structures are included in the $60M tab.
As does the Allen High band ... the largest in the country.
Funny, I heard the same argument about Obamacare just last week.
That's for those who participate in Curling in the off-season, right?
Two REALLY well-attended "sports".
Gee, it might actually bring some community spirit to Allen, you know, where neighbors might actually know each other.
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