I like football as much as the next guy and I know the sport has darn near religious devotion in Texas — but has the world gone mad?:
Construction for Allen’s new 18,000-seat high school football stadium is expected to begin this September. And by the looks of it, it’s going to be a state-of-the-art facility that will be the envy of Class 5A programs from the Dallas-Fort Worth area and beyond.
In May 2009, voters approved a $119.4 million bond proposal for a new auditorium at Allen High School, new multipurpose stadium and a new service center for maintenance, student nutrition and transportation. Tim Carroll, director of public information services for Allen ISD, said the estimated cost of the stadium is $59.6 million.
There’s no more immediate problems facing this community more deserving of this kind of cash? I know it was the voters themselves that approved this, but what a waste.
UPDATE: A courteous spokesman for the Dallas school district in question has called to clarify that the bond issue includes a lot of things that aren’t directly relevant to the stadium and emphasizes that the $60 million figure is a more accurate reflection of the stadium’s cost. Fair enough, but I’ll leave it up to readers to decide whether or not that’s still an awful lot of money to spend a high school football stadium.
