Reply With QuoteDenton's new CH Collins Athletic Complex
So who designed this gem? The highway department? I say so because it'll fill to capacity in about two years. What crap. And notice how it's all sssspppppreeeeaaaaadddd ooooouuuutttttt just like Frisco?
MCJ
Denton's new CH Collins Athletic Complex
More up-to-date Frisco ISD/Dallas Burn Stadium
Finally, a decent pic of Highlander in Highland Park
I know its not exactly a football stadium, but Duncanville's Panther Field was named one of the 5 best high school baseball parks in the nation by Baseball America, so it's worth seeing. Also in the third picture you can see Panther Stadium in the distance.
Grand Prairie's Gopher Bowl(under renovation)
new press box
new concession areas
new fieldturf
new landscaping and fencework
where'd the edit button go?
Updated Gopher Bowl
Duncanville is building an elevator to the press box of Panther Stadium. This corrects one of the very few deficiencies on this great stadium, especially considering it's 15 years old. Combined with the new Sandra Meadows Arena and Panther Baseball Field, Duncanville boasts arguably the best set of athletic facilities in the state, maybe the nation.
Man oh man, Duncanville! It always rains when they have their marching competition there.Originally Posted by rcb05
Lobo Stadium - Longview courtest of LongviewLoboFootball.com
The Pressbox is actually part of the school building.
Last edited by rantanamo; 05 August 2004 at 07:54 PM.
Turf is still in the process of being done here. We are in big time debt because of the new turf now
Hopefully some of the playoffs and advertising can offset that for you as well as time and sthe money saved by not needing grass maintenance. Its just different economically from a place like Garland with 7 schools that have to have turf. But again, it'll work itself out for you guys.
I'm sorry...i'm putting my neck out here...but I don't understand these stadiums at all! Some of these schools don't even have current teaching materials for the classrooms and they're spending big bucks on these stadiums...I think they need to get their priorities straight.
Well, the questions would be :
a.) which of these districts is having trouble with having current teaching materials? Probably none of these. I've heard them complain about Robin Hood plenty.
b.) do the athletic facilities actually hinder education funding? No, they bring in advertising dollars, and revenues from playoff games. I'm showing the best of best, not every school's stadium. When you see a jumbotron, they are pretty much free as they are paid for by advertising. Some stadia sell naming rights. Having artificial turf saves money that would be used on groundskeeping. These are crazy in a less football crazy state, but not here. I would ask, why are we seeing these fancy, designer school buildings that bring in no revenue. At least the stadiums have revenue generating ability.
I just remember when I went to MacArthur and Irving (summer school) there was a lot of things that were needed for the school and the building that i feel take priority over a football field.
Even with the renovation of ISS, Irving's facilities pale in comparison to some of the wealthy districts.
Always the case, but...
ALL MUST WORSHIP THE ALMIGHTY FOOTBALL!!!
Oh, welcome to the forum, Lobo.
Last edited by freewaytincan; 06 August 2004 at 07:37 PM.
Sounds like you're finally coming around, Urban.
Dallas uber alles
Very true Urban. It is a must.
All you have to do now to convert is purchase the NFL and College Gameday packages.
“We shape our Cities, thereafter they shape us.”
I don't care if people like football or not. A lot of us do.
But I don't.
Then that's great I guess.
Damn straight.
Up here in Mckinney they decided to astroturfed all the football fields for somthing like 3mil and then MISD got into ton of debt. Classes were cut out and teachers were laid off. But the football program didnt have to cut a dime out of there funding.
"And we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed."-"Farewell to Penn Station," New York Times Editorial, October 30, 1963
Turf does not cost $3 million. FieldTurf runs about $150,000-$500,000 for installation and turf depending on the size of the field. I'd like to see an article on classes and teachers being cut specifically because of installing the much cheaper than carpet turf, infill turf. It was proven back in the 70s that over 5-15 years artificial surfaces are much more cost effective than grass due to lack of need for maintenance and maintenance staff. The new infill turfs are predicted to be more durable and even more cost effective along with a cheaper price tag.
They turfed ALL of the main fields. I'm sure that can add up to quite alot. I didnt just make up this 3million bucks. I heard the school brag about it for months on end. This isnt even the point I'm getting at, I was just agreeing with crescentboi when he said some of these schools prioritys are messed up when it comes to football.
So, I imagine this is the main stadium, and the two indoor practice facilities. What other fields?
My point is, If this turf is going to turn around and save the district money on grass maintenance (gas, water, manpower, fertilizer) then the 3 million is right on to spend whether its an out of line priority or not. Especially at the stadium if more than one team plays. This is Texas. They are going to play football. At least they are being smart about it in regards to the turf.
Yep, your right about that.
Frisco ISD/F.C. Dallas stadium changes again. This time much less posh
Concert stage?
You thought you had seen fancy before, but look at Cy-Fair's new facility u/c. Much more traditional look thatn Garland's modern styled arena(built because the district was spending too much on renting facilities for large indoor events. The types of facilities can host graduations, proms, playoff and big game basketball, tennis, large district-wide programs, etc I bet we see more of them..
in contrast to Garland's
Stadium and arena side by side
nice
Gopher-Warrior Bowl update. Now almost finished(excellent job, are you watching GISD? Its about that time for HBJ)
Friday night football is big business
It's estimated that fans will spend at least $275 million
04:39 PM CDT on Friday, September 3, 2004
By GARY JACOBSON / The Dallas Morning News
When those Friday night lights come on in Texas, and an estimated 1.2 million fans a week are drawn to them, the economic impact is felt in small towns and large cities, from the Piney Woods to the Trans-Pecos, from the Valley to the Panhandle.
Nowhere is the impact more visible than in the stadiums built by school districts. Just in the Dallas area, at least $100 million will be spent on new varsity stadiums to be completed in 2005 and 2006. That's on top of nearly $79 million last year and this year.
"Other parts of the country think their high school football is big. It ain't," says Johnny Bledsoe, president of Waco-based Sturdisteel Co., which builds stadiums throughout the country.
High school football is big business not only for builders but also for restaurants, equipment makers, some segments of the travel industry, and the schools.
Chris Hamilton / Special to DMN
Flower Mound booster club member Amy Guthrie sells a program before a game. Fans spend at least $275 million a season on game tickets, programs, concessions, booster club merchandise, travel, meals and lodging, The Dallas Morning News estimates,with the assistance of economist Ray Perryman.
"That's conservative," says Perryman, a fan who lives just a few minutes from Odessa's Ratliff Stadium.
The total doesn't include advertising revenue from game-day programs, which can exceed $50,000 a year at larger schools, or stadium scoreboards. The Denton ISD is getting $47,600 a year from scoreboard advertisers at its new $20.1 million stadium, says athletic director Ken Purcell.
Perryman plugged the fan-spending total into his computerized economic model for the state, which shows how the impact multiplies as money flows through. It translates into almost $900 million in total spending each year and the equivalent of 8,800 full-time jobs, Perryman says.
He cautions that except for the playoffs, when fans travel farther and are more likely to stay overnight, much of the money would be spent anyway. It doesn't necessarily mean an increase in overall economic activity.
But don't tell that to Sheri Garza. In Forney, she keeps her Madres' Cocina restaurant open before and after games and serves about 160 customers she otherwise wouldn't. Average check: about $25 for three or four people. "Football has a very big impact for us," she says.
Also Online
Video: It's Denton vs. Denton at new stadium
For two parents following a team, "it's easy to spend $1,000 during a season," says Laurie Barkham, president of the Forney Chamber of Commerce. One son played for the Jackrabbits last year and graduated. Another plays this season on the junior varsity. "You can't put a price on watching my kids," she says.
Feeding in
For many of the state's 620 Dairy Queen restaurants, predominantly located in smaller towns, Friday night business can increase from 30 to 70 percent on game nights, says Gene Brumbelow, president of the Texas Dairy Queen Operators Council.
Some DQs decorate in team colors, send discount cards to coaches, serve team buses and deliver meals to visiting-team locker rooms after games. "We're hand in glove with high school football," says Brumbelow, who owns seven stores, mainly in East Texas. Thursdays are big, too, he says, because of sub-varsity games.
One thing is certain about fans on game days, says Mansfield athletic director Debbie Weems: "They're not eating at home."
Mike George, head of the Odessa Chamber of Commerce, says fans from smaller communities love coming to 19,300-seat Ratliff Stadium. About 6,000 attended the six-man championship game between Strawn and Fort Davis there last December. Many visitors shop at Odessa stores and go to other attractions.
Another indirect impact is the manpower from the media.
FSN Southwest has 25 people at its studios in Las Colinas on Friday nights and takes feeds from 17 TV stations around the state to produce its High School Scoreboard Live, which airs at midnight and again at 9 a.m. Saturdays, says general manager John Heidtke.
Courtney Perry / Special to DMN
Marsha Gordon (left) instructs other concession stand volunteers at Episcopal School of Dallas. The Dallas Morning News covers about 100 games in person with either staff writers or free-lancers, says high school sports editor Dennis Hall. Including clerks and editors, about 165 people are involved at some point each Friday in producing the 14 pages of high school football coverage that appear in different editions of the Saturday paper.
Chuck Kelly, owner of Metro Sports Communications, says about three dozen teams in the Dallas-Fort Worth area have their games on the radio. Broadcasts involving top teams, such as Southlake Carroll and Highland Park, can generate total advertising sales of $100,000 during the regular season, he says. Metro Sports handles both schools and has a crew of seven at each game.
10,000-plus
Sturdisteel's Bledsoe says that in other states, even football hotbeds such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida and California, 6,000- to 7,000-seat high school football stadiums are considered large. Not so in Texas. Just in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, there are 21 stadiums that seat 10,000 or more. More will be completed in the area by 2006.
Southern Bleacher Co. of Graham is probably the largest builder of steel stadiums in the country, erecting about 200 a year, says owner Sherrill Pettus. Jobs range in size from $50,000 to $500,000, without amenities such as locker rooms, restrooms, concession stands or press boxes.
The company builds about 30 football stadiums a year in Texas, mainly for public and private high schools and middle schools.
SHW Sports, a division of SHW Group of Dallas, specializes in helping school districts plan and design concrete sports facilities, which are generally more expensive than steel and aluminum.
Senior vice president Tom Oehler said his company has handled $280 million in projects in the last 3 ˝ years, many of them involving football, most of them in Texas. Houston, he says, has seen the same stadium-building surge as Dallas.
Many school districts hope to attract playoff games, and extra revenue, with their new stadiums. Waco ISD rents its 11,500-seat stadium for $2,000 a game, plus 15 percent of the gross gate, capped at $5,300.
Upgrade costs
Upgrading existing football facilities is also big business. In 2001, Mesquite ISD essentially tore down Hanby Stadium and rebuilt it at a cost of $9.8 million, says athletic director Mickey DeLamar. Many districts have installed artificial playing surfaces, which can cost $600,000 or more, even on practice fields. Grass fields, Oehler says, cost between $110,000 and $150,000 annually to maintain.
Chris Hamilton / Special to DMN
The sale of key chains, stickers and antenna footballs helps fund the Flower Mound Marcus booster club. Last year, First Baptist Academy of Dallas spent $125,000 for a new concessions building and restrooms at its 1,200-seat stadium. "It's as nice a place to go to the restroom as you'll ever find," says athletic director Dennis McAdams.
Construction spending, economists say, is new economic activity. Using his model, Perryman says, the nearly $180 million spent on new stadiums in the Dallas area between 2003 and 2006 will increase total spending in the region by more than $500 million and create about 1,000 temporary jobs a year over the four-year period.
Some wonder whether such spending on stadiums is justified when weighed against other educational needs. Public school athletic directors are quick to point out that stadium projects were approved by voters in bond elections.
In those elections, pride is often at stake, as well as money.
Danny Mitchell knows about that. The president of First Security Bank in Aubrey, a town of about 1,800 northeast of Denton, bought a $5,000 advertising spot on one of the 25-second play clocks at the high school's new 3,100-seat stadium. The district sold a total of eight spots, six on the scoreboard and one on each play clock, for 15 years or the life of the scoreboard.
It was money well spent, Mitchell said, because the bank is a long-term investor in the community. "This is where the city all comes together," he says of the athletic complex that includes the stadium.
One reason the economic clout of high school football is so large in Texas is that there are more high school football players, by a wide margin, than in any other state. About 160,000 play football in grades 9-12 for Texas' approximately 1,300 public and private schools, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. California, which has nearly a 50 percent larger population than Texas, ranks second with just under 100,000.
For Texas, that means a lot of built-in fan interest from parents and relatives of football players, as well as relatives of band and drill team members.
That large high school participation number obscures another important factor. There are probably more seventh- and eighth-grade football players in the state than high school players, athletic directors and coaches say.
Denton's Purcell says people often assume that varsity basketball is his second biggest revenue producer, behind varsity football.
"No, it's middle school football," he says.
In McKinney, where there are about 600 football players at four middle schools, compared with about 300 at two high schools, athletic director Rusty Dowling says it's common to get 1,000 fans at a seventh-grade game featuring in-town rivals.
Total attendance at all sub-varsity (seventh grade through JV) games approximates varsity attendance, many coaches and athletic administrators say.
Outfitting all those players is expensive. It can cost $350 to $400 to put each high school player in a helmet, pads, practice gear and game uniform, $200 to $250 for a middle school player.
Start-up costs for a football program at a new high school are about $200,000, says David Kuykendall, athletic director for the fast-growing Frisco ISD.
Adding it up
How much do Texas schools spend on football?
Hard to say. Team budgets often don't include travel, coaching stipends or salaries. D.W. Rutledge, executive vice president of the Texas High School Coaches Association, estimates there are between 16,000 and 18,000 football coaches in the state for grades 7-12. The overwhelming majority also teach classes and coach other sports, making it hard to allocate specific football costs.
Mei-Chun Jau / DMN
Sheri Garza says her Madres' Cocina restaurant in Forney attracts hungry football fans. The state's public schools spend about $500 million annually on athletics, including coaching stipends and salaries, according to the Texas Education Agency. That's about 2.5 percent of total program operating expenditures for the state's schools. The agency does not break out football alone.
One bargain when those Friday night lights come on at 600 or so stadiums across the state might just be the cost of the electricity to power them all at once.
John Lindstrom, chairman of the sports lighting committee of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, cautions that there are a wide variety of stadium lighting set-ups and electric rates, but then he makes a stab at the cost.
Roughly "$4,200 an hour," he says. Even at the most well-lit high school stadium, the cost is about $100 for an entire game.
E-mail gjacobson@dallasnews.com
HOW WE CAME UP WITH THE NUMBERS
In estimating total fan spending on Texas high school football, the aim was to be conservative. The starting point was an estimate from Dr. Charles Breithaupt, athletic director for the University Interscholastic League, which oversees public school play in the state.
Based on a sample week several years ago, he says, 1.2 million people attend varsity games each week in Texas.
Some fans get in free, such as band and drill team members. And bad weather is sure to trim the turnout at some point in the season. So, even though the state's roughly 1,300 public and private teams play their games over an 11-week period, The Dallas Morning News, with the assistance of economist Ray Perryman, assumed paid attendance of 1 million a week for 10 weeks. The assumption also makes the math easier.
Playoff attendance is a bit easier to estimate because the UIL gets 15 percent of playoff receipts. Last year the UIL's share was just over $1 million, meaning the total playoff gate was nearly $7 million, translating into nearly 1 million spectators at a total of 454 playoff games. That makes a total of 11 million paying fans during the entire season.
We made no adjustments for attendance at private school games because: 1) two of the largest private schools are now members of the UIL; 2) many private schools play public schools in nondistrict games; 3) many of the 175 or so private school teams play six-man football, at which attendance is generally light; 4) there are far fewer private school playoff games.
For the regular season, we estimated that each paying fan spends $10 inside the stadium for tickets, concessions, programs, T-shirts and other team merchandise. In addition, we estimated that each paying fan spends $10 on the way to and from a game on gasoline and food. That comes to $20 million a week, $200 million for the season, statewide.
Jason Kindig / Special to DMN
Denton ISD's $20.1 million stadium opens tonight. The facility features a video scoreboard for replays. For the playoffs, with longer travel, more meals, parking charges at larger venues like Texas Stadium, and some overnight stays (which involve more meals and more shopping in host cities), we estimated that fans averaged $75 apiece in total spending, putting the playoff total at $75 million and the grand total at $275 million.
For comparison, there is a 2002 study by the Center for Economic Development and Research at the University of North Texas on the impact of a proposed professional soccer stadium in McKinney. That stadium is now being built in Frisco in partnership with the Frisco ISD, which will have permanent use of the facility on football Friday nights.
The study estimated that fans would spend an average of $27.04 at the stadium (including $17.10 for a ticket). In addition, fans from the area would spend an average of $21.25 away from the stadium on food and beverage, entertainment and shopping.
Day-trip visitors from out of the area would spend an average of $45.50 away from the stadium, and out-of-area overnight visitors would spend an average of $169.10 on lodging, food and beverage, entertainment, shopping and transportation.
Man I saw a lot of Friday Night Lights last night.
That Cypress-Fairbanks one is incredible.
FYI - visiting stands tripled in size this summer - capacity now 10,500 - also added numerous restrooms, 2 new concession stands, locker room under visiting stands, and a gift shopForney's City Bank Stadium(Yes, corporate sponsorship)
Forney also has an indoor practce facility ... 80 yard field ... they scrimmaged Richardson High in there, was neat being so close to the action
Last edited by 3afan; 12 October 2004 at 07:11 PM. Reason: typo
Jesse H Owens update
^--I kept trying to figure out what these cranes were for. Cool!
[ xvisionx.com 13 - my photo gallery + journal ] - be sure to check out my new interactive downtown dallas picture map.
for some reason, I pictured this more north, and was surprised to see the cranes as well. Great location for playoffs IMO
^ Wow, pretty impressive.
“We shape our Cities, thereafter they shape us.”
A new crop has arrived
Denton ISD Stadium (probably tops in Texas) at the C.H. Collins Athletic Complex
^ That is awesome.
“We shape our Cities, thereafter they shape us.”
Wait until you see DeSoto.
New Midlothian Stadium
Mansfield ISD Stadium
Northwest ISD Stadium (Justin)
Kenneth Hall Stadium (Missouri City)
I'd love to see it. Also, can you somehow respost the Denton Stadium pics?
[ xvisionx.com 13 - my photo gallery + journal ] - be sure to check out my new interactive downtown dallas picture map.
Doesn't jsoto work for HKS? They are doing DeSoto athletic complex. The renderings are so small on the site. Maybe he has some larger renderings. If I have the wrong firm, sorry, jsoto. I guess I need a program that will capture flash images.
From the last set I found some interesting things:
- Mansfield is about to open a new school(or just did) and is starting on a new high school.
- Midlothian scrapped their original plan, a domed stadium. That would've been cool.
- DFW still leads in great high school facilities by a wide margin(result of huge suburban population)
- DeSoto's rendering is very cool looking.
- This is clearly an arms race that will render playing playoffs in large facilities in DFW obsolete. There has been a significant decline in how many games are played at Texas Stadium.
Ask and you shall receive, if only 18 months later...
Pennington Field
Bedford
HEB-ISD
Home teams: Hurst LD Bell Blue Raiders & Euless Trinity Trojans
Built: 1987
Cost: 6 million, not including the land, which the school district already owned.
Capacity: 12K
Pennington Field is very much like Duncanville's Panther stadium, only nicer. The first of the modern mega-stadiums in Tarrant County, Pennington is the one all others are measured by.
Photos taken on December 14, 2003 during the installation of the new turf. Enjoy!
Looking west...
Looking east...
^ Whoa.
(Holy crap, Midlothian was going to build a domed stadium?)
Awww, they took my Mansfield pics down. I'll try to find some more stuff. Just haven't looked around much lately.
And yes, Midlothian wanted a dome. It's probably not that much of a stretch anymore as districts are starting to build multi-purpose arena's that are similar in size to what a football stadium would need to be. Garland's definitely could if you take the room and passageways out.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks