Only in Texas....$60 Million High School Football Stadium

Texas High School Gets $60 Million Football Stadium

April 15, 2010 – Dr. Wedge Buster
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.

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:
  • 5,000 reserved seating,
  • 2,700 General Admission
  • 4,000 Students
  • 5,300 Visitor
  • 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The facilities are outdated and overrun so having a new stadium constructed is not unexpected.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.

Let's see, if they charge an average of $20 per ticket and sell out each game, they will make $360,000 per game. That means that it will take approximately 165 games to pay for it.

However, I'm guessing there will be a lot of corporate sponsors for a team like this. I can see how it would be worth it in the long run.

Wow! That is unreal. For $60 million you'd think it would seat more than 18,000.

QL, not sure what they'll charge...but if they do like most colleges they'll have a booster fee included in the ticket price. So face value will be X dollars....but the ticket will actually cost the season ticket holder Y dollars (they could probably charge $10/ticket and another $100 "booster fee" per season ticket).

Also, there's probably a set price for admission to HS football games in Texas (and most states), unless Texas allows each HS to charge whatever they want.

For a public HS this is incredible....

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Idiots. I live in the next city. Only in my area are they this stupid.

Doesn't every school have a stadium like this?

If they believe the $60 Million stadium is deserving based on the the state's talent, then I suppose California & Florida both should build an $80 Million Stadium...

Why is the article dated April 15 2010 ?

Bruins4Life said:

Why is the article dated April 15 2010 ?

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Just saw this thread. If I am not mistaken the stadium is supposed to be open or opened here in the next few weeks. I am pretty sure they are going to be hosting tons of events at this stadium besides the 5 or 6 home games that the team will have...

Parlays Stole My Money said:

Just saw this thread. If I am not mistaken the stadium is supposed to be open or opened here in the next few weeks. I am pretty sure they are going to be hosting tons of events at this stadium besides the 5 or 6 home games that the team will have...

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Lets Google Earth this place and see.........

What I can tell by google earth is that the stadium was under construction. You can clearly see the outline and raw construction taking place. I don't know the date of the photo though...

The place is built.

Link -

http://www.kvue.com/news/state/60-million-Allen-High-School-stadium-is-one-of-a-kind-165007846.html

quantumleap said:

Let's see, if they charge an average of $20 per ticket and sell out each game, they will make $360,000 per game. That means that it will take approximately 165 games to pay for it.

However, I'm guessing there will be a lot of corporate sponsors for a team like this. I can see how it would be worth it in the long run.

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Allen Eagle Athletics Department​

Athletic Department News & Announcements​

Allen - Southlake Game Tickets On Sale August 27th
General admission tickets for the Allen - Southlake HS game on August 31st will go on sale Monday August 27th at the Allen ISD Athletic Offices (301 Rivercrest Boulevard). Reserved season tickets for Allen are sold out for the 2012 season.
Individual game tickets go on sale each week of the season for the game that coming weekend. The cost is $6 for adults and $4 for students and children age 3 and older for advance tickets. All general admission tickets purchased at the gate on the night off the game will be $8.
http://www.allenisd.org/domain/3

Texas school to open $60M football field of dreams

By NOMAAN MERCHANT (Associated Press) | The Associated Press – 3 hours ago



ALLEN, Texas (AP) -- 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.
It's not the biggest high school stadium in football-mad Texas, but Eagle Stadium is the grandest, with a spacious weight room for the players and practice areas for Allen High School's wrestling and golf teams. The school district decided to build it in a down economy, knowing full well it will never recoup the costs.
It's a decision that local officials and team supporters defend, saying the stadium will serve as a community centerpiece and source of pride for years to come and will more than pay the costs of operating it.
''There will be kids that come through here that will be able to play on a field that only a few people will ever get the chance to play in,'' said Wes Bishop, the father of a junior linebacker on the team and head of the local booster club.
For longtime Allen fans, it's a giant step forward from a facility that district spokesman Tim Carroll called ''inadequate in almost every way.''
The old building opened in 1976, when Allen had fewer than 8,000 residents, with 7,000 permanent seats, one concession stand and one set of bathrooms. As the town grew to its current population of 87,000, the school had to add portable toilets and rent temporary bleachers, which added 7,000 seats at a cost of $250,000 a year, Carroll said.
Today, the high school has 4,000 students enrolled and a 700-member band that's among the biggest in the country. Collin County, which includes Allen and other Dallas suburbs, is one of the wealthiest areas of Texas - and home to some of the state's top football teams.
About 63 percent of voters supported a $119 million bond package in 2009. Construction on the stadium began a year later. District officials went with more expensive concrete seating over all-aluminum benches, adding perhaps $4 million more to the cost, according to officials. But they said they expected this stadium to last decades.
''Our intention is not to recoup the money it cost to build the stadium,'' Carroll said. ''It's not practical to say we'll get that money back. (But) the revenue we receive from the stadium will far exceed the cost of operating it.''
While the district did not have estimates, Carroll said he expects the stadium to be competitive in hosting high school playoff games and other events. The school has also sold six sponsorships for about $35,000 a year, he said.
The new stadium revives an old argument in Texas about whether communities and their schools have their priorities straight.
In 1982, when the West Texas city of Odessa built a 19,000-seat stadium for a then-unheard-of $5.6 million, it drew scorn from some people who questioned the district's priorities. Odessa would be featured a few years later in the book ''Friday Night Lights,'' a national best-seller that inspired a movie and a TV series.
Ross Perot, the billionaire businessman and former presidential candidate, repeatedly took aim at his home state's football culture as he pushed the state to shed extracurricular activities and increase accountability measures.
''Do we want our kids to win on Friday night on the football field or do we want them to win all through their lives?'' Perot said in a 1988 Washington Post column. ''That's what we have to start asking ourselves.''
Today, neighboring Plano High School's stadium seats more than 14,000 people. Mesquite, about 30 miles away from Allen, has a 20,000-seat stadium. And the Berry Center, a suburban Houston facility with a stadium, an arena and theater, opened in 2006 and cost about $84 million.
''In a couple of years, someone's going to do something that's bigger and bigger,'' said Robert McSpadden, who runs the high school football site TexasBob.com.
Officials in Allen reject the premise that they're focusing on sports over academics. The bonds approved three years ago also funded a new performing arts center, and Carroll said extra revenue from stadium operations will go into the district general fund. Allen's student test scores are also largely stellar.
But for now, Eagle Stadium is gaining wide notoriety. The No. 8-ranked Eagles' Friday game against Southlake Carroll, which won a state championship last year and is ranked No. 1 in The Associated Press' Class 5A preseason poll this season, sold out in just over a day. More than 2,000 people are expected to watch from standing-room areas.
Bishop's son Zack, a linebacker, said he and his teammates already noticed differences: a more spacious weight room, a softer playing field.
''It's going to be really incredible to step out in front of a full house and a sold-out game,'' he said.
Chris Wallace, whose oldest son is a senior quarterback, said she had to reassure him when they visited smaller colleges over the summer with older facilities.
''In his mind, this is it,'' she said. ''He can't even believe it's here already.''
And there's always room for growth.
Fred Montes, one of the architects of what he called ''an incredible project,'' said the district's master plan left open the possibility for more construction, if needed.
''The end zone that has seats currently can be expanded,'' he said. ''And on the visitors' side, you can always put a deck.''

I hope to live as a spirit to see my childeren's childeren's childeren see the day when they build a pee wee football field for half a billion.

donkeybucks said:

I hope to live as a spirit to see my childeren's childeren's childeren see the day when they build a pee wee football field for half a billion.

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In Texas of course....(forgot to add that)

What's worse, a football stadium in Texas that is going to be paid for, or whole cities going bankrupt in California?

festeringZit said:

What's worse, a football stadium in Texas that is going to be paid for, or whole cities going bankrupt in California?

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Spot On!

That stadium looks like it took a lot more than 60Ms to build if NFL stadiums take 800-1B to build. Wonder how they got it built so cheaply. Either way, it is Texas football so they will probably make their $ back and then some if they monetize it right.

When Ralph dies and at 94 that could be any day and The Bills move we will have the greatest High School Stadium right down the road from me.....