Texas Size

Just in case others may think we get our priorities out of whack here on PN from time-to-time, we just have to look to the high school football palace in Allen, Texas for some perspective. 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…. and it’s not even the largest high school football stadium in Texas. But, it’s certainly the grandest with its spacious weight room for the players and practice areas for Allen High School's wrestling and golf teams.

I’ve lived in Texas, so this comes as no surprise, but as school districts across the country struggle to retain teachers, replace outdated textbooks and keep class sizes from ballooning, it just seems a little out of whack…..even in Texas.

What?


No canopy?

What?

No fur-lined seats?

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.

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 in suburban Houston has a facility with a stadium, an arena and theater…it opened in 2006 and cost about $84 million

Geezaldinho wrote:What?


No canopy?

We should get one of those for Merlo...


While the costs of this stadium are enormous, there are high school football stadiums in the Northwest and other parts of the US that are quite large too.

RipCityPilot wrote:

Geezaldinho wrote:What?


No canopy?

We should get one of those for Merlo...

Like this?

I cannot see your picture, Geez. So, I am not sure.

That'll do Geez. That'll do.

RipCityPilot wrote:While the costs of this stadium are enormous, there are high school football stadiums in the Northwest and other parts of the US that are quite large too.

Interesting. I had no idea. Where in the NW are these comparable size and comparable cost high school facilities?

To DD: the costs are not comparable. There are no other stadiums like this Allen, TX one. But, there are large ones like the Stadium Bowl in Tacoma at (go figure) Stadium High School. There is Memorial Stadium in Seattle. And, as I understand it from a friend, there is a large one in Medford for the high school there. If you want unique, look no further then West Salem's black turf (Link).

To Geez: I can see it now, and that would do nicely. Although, my first thought was this:

It shares with this one that you don't even need a string line or level to put one of these up.

Geezaldinho wrote:It shares with this one that you don't even need a string line or level to put one of these up.

It's "artistic." In other words, the perfect design to pass in Portland.

RipCityPilot wrote:To DD: the costs are not comparable. There are no other stadiums like this Allen, TX one. But, there are large ones like the Stadium Bowl in Tacoma at (go figure) Stadium High School. There is Memorial Stadium in Seattle. And, as I understand it from a friend, there is a large one in Medford for the high school there. If you want unique, look no further then West Salem's black turf (Link).

Those are big stadiums:
Memorial in Seattle - 12,000 football/17,000 soccer
Stadium Bowl in Tacoma - Approx 15,000
Medford, Oregon - 10,000

The interesting thing about the Stadium Bowl (which opened in 1910) is it apparently once held as many as 23,000 to 40,000 before drainage and construction problems took their toll.

Cost wise, the Allen, Texas stadium at $60 million is about as expensive as I could find (so far). For a comparison, the Kingdome which opened in 1976 cost $67 million...that's about $274 million in 2012 dollars.

My little research also found that in Texas there are 16 high schools with field capacities over 16,000 and 61 more have capacities between 10,000 and 16,000. There are more than 4.1 million high school football stadium seats at 1172 high schools Texas .... that's a lot of folks out on a Friday night.

If by drainage and construction problems took their toll you mean there was a mud slide that took out the grass field and 1/3 of the stands down toward the Bay... Then yes! Stadium Bowl also hosted 3 presidents and whole bunch of other speakers/musicians. It is also a site where coaches enjoy torturing their players by making them run up and down the steps before and after practice... Oh and this happened:

Wonderful. See, soccer girls do have "groupies"......as if we didn't already know that!

Sadly, I don't think the parody scene from Not Another Teen Movie (awesome flick) was shot there.