ALLEN, Texas — A $60 million Texas high school stadium that got national attention for its grandeur and price tag will be shut down indefinitely 18 months after its opening, school district officials said Thursday. Eagle Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Allen will be closed until at least June for an examination of “extensive cracking” in the concrete of the stadium’s concourse, the district said in a statement Thursday. The closure will likely affect home games at the stadium this fall, the district said.
I’ve written about Allen ISD’s $60 million shrine to Texas high school football previously…and I’ve been roasted by more than a few Texans over it. At a time of shrinking edumication budgets and more drastic cuts with each passing year, Allen ISD managed to raise $60 million dollars for a stadium that, at least from the outside, would do some NFL teams proud. I guess some folks can’t see the contradiction and backassward priorities Eagle Stadium represents.
Now it turns out that Eagle Stadium) is broken. Karma, so I’ve been told, is a real b—-h. And it turns out that some of the extensive cracks in the concrete were visible when the stadium opened in 2012.
A disclaimer is in order here. I’ve directed most of my ridicule at Allen ISD, but the $60 million stadium was part of a $120 bond issue passed by voters. So what we have is an entire community with a twisted set of priorities. The denizens of Allen ISD might claim to value edumication, but football is undeniably ensconced at the top of their list.
Schadenfreude alert in 4…3…2….
I’m with Keith Olbermann on this one. Eagle Stadium at best represents a monumentally disordered set of public priorities. At worst, it represents edumication in Texas edumication in general. At a time when teachers were being laid off and programs cut, Allen ISD’s voters authorized using 60 MILLION TAXPAYER DOLLARS to build a stadium that puts the facilities of several NCAA Division I schools to shame. If Allen ISD’s schools had every resource they need to effective educate children, perhaps then we might talk about building a pie-in-the-sky football palace. In characteristic Texas fashion, Allen ISD is a football team with a school district subordinate to it rather than a football team that’s an extension of a school district. And doesn’t the “S” in ISD stand for school?
Built in 2012 as part of a $120 million bond issue, Eagle Stadium seats 18,000 people and sports a 38-foot-wide video board. Eagle Stadium’s opening was a moment of triumph for the community of Allen, a fast-growing Dallas suburb that has become home to a high school football powerhouse. The Eagles won the Class 5A Division I state championship last year.
District officials defended the cost — an eye-popping figure even in football-mad Texas, home to hundreds of schools playing under the “Friday Night Lights” — by calling the stadium an investment for generations of future Eagles fans and a much-needed upgrade from the district’s previous 35-year-old field.
They planned to host state playoff games and other events at Eagle Stadium. Instead, the district’s graduation ceremonies and all other events are now on hold indefinitely.
I’m not reflexively opposed to building a nice facility for a high school football team. This is Texas we’re talking about, and high school football is more than just a game. I get it. I lived there for 10 years, and I’ve seen it up close. I’d be all for building a $60 shrine to Texas’ national pastime…if priorities were in order, which clearly isn’t the case in Allen ISD. If you believe that football is separate from the educational mission of a school district, you’ve got it backwards. And you probably live in Texas.
No matter how Allen ISD’s administrators may try to spin this catastrophe, it’s representative of the reality that the priorities of voters in the district don’t lie with educating their children. Many Texans simply can’t understand that football should be a part of a school’s educational mission, NOT the tail wagging the dog.
At the time when Allen ISD’s schools have the resources needed to provide children with a top-notch education, it would be fair to ponder what to do with all the excess money fairly spilling from the district’s coffers. No matter how you justify it, and many have attempted, there’s no justifying building a $60 million state of the art football stadium when programs and teaching positions are being cut for lack of funding.
If your biggest “problem” is that your football team has to play on a 35-year-old field, I’d say your priorities are sorely in need of a reality check.
So, yes, I’m snickering on the inside- because karma really can be a beautiful thing sometime…and I enjoy a wee bit o’ Schadenfreude as much as the next person. Does that make me a bad person?
Not in this instance.
