Do all states spend ludicrous amounts of money on high school sports stadiums?

[Guest]

I was watching a local news broadcast that was talking about the most expensive high school sports stadiums in Texas, one of which is the almost 42 million dollar monstrosity in Alvin ISD where I live, and it got me thinking...do other states worship at the altar of high school athletics like Texas? Any ridiculously expensive venues in your neck of the woods? Or maybe @CitizenVectroncan give some insight into Canadian high school athletics.

 

Here is an article from last year on the opening of Freedom Field in Alvin ISD

 

https://abc13.com/sports/step-inside-alvin-isds-$415-million-football-stadium/4306682/

[CayceG]

Nope. This is a Texas thing. And to an extent a little more of the South too. 

 

The rest of the south, though, kinda does that with college stadiums. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

I believe that Texas is "special" in that regard

 

There's that entire "Friday Night Lights" image that needs to be lived up to!

[Guest]

It gives me an eye twitch. I live right on the boundary of Alvin ISD and Pearland ISD, so I’m actually only 3 minutes away from the Pearland ISD monstrosity known as “The Rig” which they just finished a 15 million dollar renovation to get to 10,000 seats, including 7 million just for the new locker room facility.

 

It is a real arms race now to have the most glitz and glamour. 

[silentbob]

Canada doesn’t do shit all for stadiums/playing fields. Some are nice looking but they are the kind of seating where you go to smoke or make out with a girlfriend under the bleachers. Not a mini professional field that seats a few thousand

[Slug]

From what I've been able to tell it's mostly a southern phenomenon.  I only have Virginia and New Jersey as a personal frame of reference, but we don't spend nearly the same amount of money on the sports stadiums alone that the more southern states do.  I think it's a matter of the community impact.  In many areas, and I've seen this in Texas, the high school sports scene is a community event.  People who do not go or do not have kids at their local school still support and root for the school as if it was "their" team.  There's a pride in the local team that doesn't seem to really get ingrained in other communities.  The spending can be justified because the games actually raise funds for the program, the school, and other sports.  Whereas up here unless it's a championship game or something nobody cares.  Nobody who isn't a student or a parent of a student involved with the team is going to go to any high school sports game or be able to tell you anything about them.  Hell, nobody here could tell you the result of a game without looking it up, while I'd wager your high schools probably get relatively extensive local paper and TV news coverage.  It's just something that southern, and particularly Texan, communities care more about.

 

For a frame of reference last year my town approved a nearly $36M bond for school improvements.  And while a good chunk of that money went toward converting the high school football field from grass to turf, installing new stadium lights, and the creation of a facility for our wrestlers, it also paid for all day public pre-school, establishment of a new high school magnet program, some security improvements, and demo costs for an old elementary school that needed to be taken down.  And it barely passed.  If someone tried to propose $40M+ for just a football stadium they'd be laughed right out of their seat on the township committee.

[Pikachu]

Pretty sure it's just Texas

[Keyser_Soze]

My school didn't even have a football team.

[TwinIon]

I don't know of many High Schools with real stadiums in CA. Even the big ones usually are just big metal grandstands or concrete steps built into the side of a hill.

[PaladinSolo]

Our stadium is pretty nice but I can't imagine they spent millions on it, they just redid the field and track around it this summer, has big stadium lighting and has quite a few seats, but there's no like separate locker facilities or anything that's just in the elementary school adjacent to it. 

 

I mean it's never full, but I've also haven't been here for a football game they play lacrosse and soccer on the field as well for both girls and boys. 

 

LaCrosse is definitely the rising sport here for sure as well. 

 

 

Its not a full stadium, but compared to the school i went to where the field had pot holes and the bleachers were made out of wood and the opposing teams side just had a bench, and the track was cinders.

[CitizenVectron]

@sblfilms Canada doesn't typically have high school stadiums. If we do, we are talking metal bleachers beside a grass field behind the school that seats maybe a few hundred people. High school sports are not really that popular here (from my experience) compared to the US.

[marioandsonic]

My local high school from where I grew up doesn't even have a football team, and is a pretty rural, low-populated district.  Nonetheless, they built a new sport facility about a decade ago that people at the time were not happy with, and it cost 4 million.

[Chris-]

What always caught me off guard is how some Texas HS football coaches are full-time...Like, not even a teacher/coach combo, a full-time coach. 

[Guest]

Fridays during football season do belong to the high school teams. When Alvin HS has a home game, we close the Alvin theater early cause nobody will be there. It is bonkers. People used to camp out the night before tickets went on sale to get their season tickets to games until they switched to all online ticketing.

 

Season tickets to high school football 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

My step brother in the SC suburbs has a stupid nice football field. My high school in Ohio (probably the #3-4 state for high school football in the country) didn't even have a team until a few years ago after I graduated. My wife's high school/school district in Ohio, a wealthy suburban school that has produced quite a few NFL players and numerous players in college (primarily Ohio State) had the big metal bleachers with a nice concession stand, but that's about it as far as I can recall. Her school here in VA is about the same as the one in Ohio.

 

The only one that really stood out was the high school stadium in Portsmouth, OH. It was built around the time of the great depression for the Portsmouth Spartans, who eventually moved to Detroit to become the Lions. Iirc it is a solid concrete exterior/bowl with metal bleachers inside. Pretty cool.

[foosh]

Maybe not the entire state but Seattle spends a lot of money on its high school athletics program. When I went to high school, they spent billions updating all the high school outdoor fields. Our coaches were also full time coaches. As long as you were one of the top athletes that colleges look for, you get a lot of help with class work.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

I didn’t think it was just Texas, figured Oklahoma had their share of large high school stadiums. 

 

NOPE. At least not compared to Texas. While Oklahoma has a huge talent pool, I guess their school districts don’t have the same money.  

 

 

[TheGreatGamble]

Thing is, in Texas those stadiums make pro-sports type of money, so it makes it worthwhile to build pro sports stadiums. Not to mention the rich donors who donate huge sums just for football.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

It’s also worth noting that high schools in Texas have seen NCAA kinds of scandals around recruiting practices too. Schools getting in trouble for falsifying where a student lives so they go to their school, and even paying the student/family to move to play for the team. 

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, TheGreatGamble said:

Thing is, in Texas those stadiums make pro-sports type of money, so it makes it worthwhile to build pro sports stadiums. Not to mention the rich donors who donate huge sums just for football.

Public high school stadiums here are paid for with property taxes. We have bond elections every 2-3 years to fund new capital projects. It is always a huge debate around town when a new bond comes up. Fun fun. College stadiums are often subsidized with donor money, both private and corporate as well as things like naming rights.

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

It’s also worth noting that high schools in Texas have seen NCAA kinds of scandals around recruiting practices too. Schools getting in trouble for falsifying where a student lives so they go to their school, and even paying the student/family to move to play for the team. 

In Pearland ISD, the city has two schools, one of the predominately white side of town and one on the predominately black side of town. When the new HS opened on the blacker side of town, the coaches on the white side of town essentially gerrymandered the lines dividing the two schools zones to keep several neighborhoods and apartment complexes where many of the black students lived.

This is serious business  

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

3 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

In Pearland ISD, the city has two schools, one of the predominately white side of town and one on the predominately black side of town. When the new HS opened on the blacker side of town, the coaches on the white side of town essentially gerrymandered the lines dividing the two schools zones to keep several neighborhoods and apartment complexes where many of the black students lived.

This is serious business  

If some counties had to choose to gerrymander to ensure an are stayed Republican or if the high school got to keep their star players, it would be an impossible choice for some. For others it would be a no brainer. They must ensure the the football team’s ability to compete. 

[Comet]

It's funny how the Allen High school stadium was more expensive than many many many college stadiums.... and they fucked it up and had major foundation issues within 5 years and had to redo a lot of it. Fucking football and this state. 

[TheLeon]

I remember kids from other schools (this is North Central Indiana) coming to my high school's football field and commenting on how nice it was. But their fields were just super shitty. 

[Keyser_Soze]

8 hours ago, TwinIon said:

I don't know of many High Schools with real stadiums in CA. Even the big ones usually are just big metal grandstands or concrete steps built into the side of a hill.

 

Ever driven past San Marcos High School? @TwinIon

[Anathema-]

No high school football stadiums here but several nice fields. 

[TwinIon]

17 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

Ever driven past San Marcos High School? @TwinIon

I'm sure I have. The new one looks pretty nice. The "stadium" is basically what I was thinking of. Grandstands on one side, some concrete steps on the other.

 

It certainly doesn't compare to Freedom Field.

[Commodore D]

There are ten to fifteen high schools in Ohio with seating greater than 10000. They are pretty nice stadiums, some are shared by multiple teams, more so during playoff time.

 

Mostly you’ll find really nice fields. The one in my city, Russell H Rupp Field was renovated about five or so years ago for $3+M, payed for by a fund raiser. 

 

@b_m_b_m_b_m have been to SMS a couple times to watch Notre Dame High School games. Definitely cool, has a great old timey feel. I won’t be surprised if they gets demolished though, especially if SSU builds their own stadium.

[SaysWho?]

Everything's bigger in Texas is probably too low-hanging of fruit, but fuck you, I'm saying it anyway.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

14 minutes ago, SaysWho? said:

Everything's bigger in Texas is probably too low-hanging of fruit, but fuck you, I'm saying it anyway.

Bless your heart. 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

3 hours ago, Commodore D said:

There are ten to fifteen high schools in Ohio with seating greater than 10000. They are pretty nice stadiums, some are shared by multiple teams, more so during playoff time.

 

Mostly you’ll find really nice fields. The one in my city, Russell H Rupp Field was renovated about five or so years ago for $3+M, payed for by a fund raiser. 

 

@b_m_b_m_b_m have been to SMS a couple times to watch Notre Dame High School games. Definitely cool, has a great old timey feel. I won’t be surprised if they gets demolished though, especially if SSU builds their own stadium.

Nice! I hope they try to preserve some of it, as one of the few things about Portsmouth that remains that is interesting (others being the flood wall and some of the downtown historical areas)

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

 

[Guest]