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$72 Million for a High School Stadium? In Texas, It's Only Up from There"We're out on the field getting the Tigers ready for another successful run at a state title," chirps the voicemail for the Katy High School athletics department.
Before being asked to leave your "growl" and "pawprint," you'll learn what the school's marching band sounds like, the number of national (three) and state (eight) football championships the Tigers have won and that Gary Joseph serves as both the head of the athletic department and the head football coach—all without anyone answering the phone.
It's an understatement to say football is important to the Houston suburb, and if the impressive voicemail greeting doesn't convince you, consider the $72 million the district just spent on a new stadium. Yes, for high schoolers...
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/27294...ce=cnn.com&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_medium=referral
And this boys and girls is yet another example of what is wrong with our education system... how much are they spending on their math and science programs over the next 30 years?
Quote: @JimmyinSD said:
And this boys and girls is yet another example of what is wrong with our education system... how much are they spending on their math and science programs over the next 30 years?
It's Texas....
Quote: @Mike Olson said:
@ JimmyinSD said:
And this boys and girls is yet another example of what is wrong with our education system... how much are they spending on their math and science programs over the next 30 years?
It's Texas....
Texas is the extreme, but hardly the exception. To much money is spent on school athletics just about every where you look. Schools that can't afford new computers have new helmets, schools that have never won a math contest have their rafters filled with basketball championships. It's just frustrating that we sit and discuss ways to improve the education level in our country, but so many kids are just there for the sports...and those are the kids that need the education the most.
The Stadium does serve 8 high schools in the district, so the cost per school is (only) 9 mil.
Quote: @muydnbejydk said:
The Stadium does serve 8 high schools in the district, so the cost per school is (only) 9 mil.
Makes the cost more palatable but it's still a head scratcher to spend that much on a high school faciltiy, but it's really not much more angering than much of the way other tax dollars are spent.
Probably not the case in high school, but for college I'd like to believe those generated $$'s are trickling down some.
Down to non-revenue raising sports so many of those kids are getting scholarships who wouldn't be going to school without em.
Quote: @JimmyinSD said:
@ muydnbejydk said:
The Stadium does serve 8 high schools in the district, so the cost per school is (only) 9 mil.
Makes the cost more palatable but it's still a head scratcher to spend that much on a high school faciltiy, but it's really not much more angering than much of the way other tax dollars are spent.
Honestly Jimmy, in this state football at the high school level is probably the biggest money maker for the schools. Yes this stadium and many like it in this state are filled for home games and many of these stadiums are for several schools. Yes the HSs build these stadiums but they also make money after the season with them and also host soccer games, playoff games (both soccer and football). I also agree some of these may, at first, take away money needed for other things but the schools down here aren't going to hurt their academics just for football.
Katy is also a pretty well off school district. If I am not mistaken a school near us covered their stadium recently, but I can also tell you that that school is one of if not the richest school district in the state due to it having both oil and natural gas refineries in it's district.
Yeah they kinda over did it but we have several stadiums in this state that are some of the biggest and most expensive in the nation.
We have to keep up our reputation. Lol
High school football is king here, but if you don't make the grades, you can't play and you certainly can't get to the next level.
It's all about the almighty Fed Bank owned dollar. I've said my peace on this matter years ago, obviously not here as this site is young, but on a football site... you're not going to find too many people that want to discus the drawbacks of spending money on football. Math, science and all that other stuff doesn't bring in the revenue sports do. People should be smart and start Math and science boosters in their schools so they can start building that revenue.
One of my biggest bitch about what's become of HS sports is the towns we play due to conferences being reshuffled. My town has 10 towns within a 90+/- minute round trip of it that are similar in size.,,.. but we travel over 2 hours away... one way.. to play. We only play 4 of those 10 surrounding towns. And the town that is our "rival" is no longer in our conference so it's a non conference game that has to be agreed upon to play. It's just stupid and no reason to do it,,, but I digress.
That's not at all surprising. Football is a money maker. Look at that show Friday Night Tykes. Granted, I know it's reality tv but it shows how deeply ingrained in culture it is. And I am certainly not against football. That's boatload of money but that is a very wealthy area. It's not only Texas though. There are so many issues with the education system. Some kids are left behind and just passed through. There is no opportunity to succeed that way. Some kids see football as a way out and are trying to escape some pretty intense things. There is a great deal of waste and exploitation in education. Until that is addressed, some kids will be failed by the system.
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