Everything's bigger in Texas

[93henfan]

If everything is bigger in Texas, it staggers the mind what the perception of Iowa is down there.

C'mon Andy. Everyone knows what's implied. Everything is bigger in Texas (except everything in Iowa).

[andy7171]

If everything is bigger in Texas, it staggers the mind what the perception of Iowa is down there.

C'mon Andy. Everyone knows what's implied. Everything is bigger in Texas (except everything in Iowa).

That's my point. If you are in Texas, Iowa is 10times more awesomely dangerous!

[Grizo406]

Whatever happened to Permian High School in Odessa? Are they still a viable program?

Their football program use to be the one to beat in Texas high school football, but I don't hear that much about them anymore.

it would be really cool if you had Google Grizo but since you don't I'll help ya out.

http://www.mojoland.net/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Believe it or not, I know about Google, and how to use it. What I was looking for was a response like Franks Tanks provided, thank you very much!

The Permian Panthers are not the team of old. They havent won a title in nearly 20 years, and dont dominate like they used too.

They are however still the hottest ticket in town.

Thank you, FT! Just what I was looking for!

[sfajack05]

I know high school football is big down here but that is a little ridiculous. No high school needs a stadium like that. Hell SFA doesn't have a stadium like that. We couldn't even get 20 million to build a new baseball/softball complex.

How do you know that it is ridiculous for them? I mean if they can fill it and maximize revenue and on top of that have an asset to their community then why shouldn't they do it? It would appear that they may have more knowledge on this subject than any of us do.

I have no doubt that they will fill it. I covered one of their playoff games when they came to SFA to play and they pretty much filled in the entire stadium by themselves. About half of the visitors side was filled with their fans and the hills were covered with their fans.

I have no problem with them building a new stadium but to me the price tag is ridiculous. Personally to me no high school team needs a 56 million dollar stadium that is going to be used what 6 times a year by their football team. That's just my opinion. Obviously the school district and the tax payers have no problem footing the bill for it so all the power to them.

[Ursus A. Horribilis]

How do you know that it is ridiculous for them? I mean if they can fill it and maximize revenue and on top of that have an asset to their community then why shouldn't they do it? It would appear that they may have more knowledge on this subject than any of us do.

I have no doubt that they will fill it. I covered one of their playoff games when they came to SFA to play and they pretty much filled in the entire stadium by themselves. About half of the visitors side was filled with their fans and the hills were covered with their fans.

I have no problem with them building a new stadium but to me the price tag is ridiculous. Personally to me no high school team needs a 56 million dollar stadium that is going to be used what 6 times a year by their football team. That's just my opinion. Obviously the school district and the tax payers have no problem footing the bill for it so all the power to them.

Got it. They see it as a good investment for some reason so maybe they got some money makin' schemes cooked up.

[Craneac Cowboy]

i have been to allen high. i was 16 playing in a babe ruth regional tournament in allen and we took batting practice at allen high. i remember pulling up to the school thinking it was a college and seeing the 3 turf football fields next to each other and another stadium thinking that was the football field... no it wasnt it was just another practice field. they have tonsssss of room. this school is HUGE and campus space isnt an issue.

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

I will preface this by saying that you will find NO bigger sports fan (especially football) than me.

However, being an educator in Texas, this makes me sick. The economy is forcing districts (including the one in which I am fortunate enough to work) to PINK SLIP good teachers (i.e. get rid of them) to save money...meanwhile, we have this BS going on.

I understand the argument that tax payers voted for this etc etc...but to me, that makes this even worse. Their kids' ACADEMIC TEACHERS are being released because of money, but as long as they have this crazy ass stadium WHO CARES!? We'd rather have a stadium than a great english/math/science teacher? No wonder Texas education is lacking.

Here's the math. $50,000/teacher (for math purposes). $60 million for the stadium.

$60 million/$50,000 = 1200 teacher jobs. And I doubt the district has anywhere close to that many teachers TOTAL.

I would be beyond furious if I were one of the teachers that were cut.

I dont see your argument, with the stadium the students, parents and community get something in return (and it is their money) so its a win win.

Teachers for the most part are extremely over paid for what we get out of them and the short work year they have. Not saying there are not good teachers because there are but they are the exception not the rule. Also state and federal governments waste so much taxpayer money its sickening, at least the people got to vote on what their money was spent on.

[SA_Bobcat]

I will preface this by saying that you will find NO bigger sports fan (especially football) than me.

However, being an educator in Texas, this makes me sick. The economy is forcing districts (including the one in which I am fortunate enough to work) to PINK SLIP good teachers (i.e. get rid of them) to save money...meanwhile, we have this BS going on.

I understand the argument that tax payers voted for this etc etc...but to me, that makes this even worse. Their kids' ACADEMIC TEACHERS are being released because of money, but as long as they have this crazy ass stadium WHO CARES!? We'd rather have a stadium than a great english/math/science teacher? No wonder Texas education is lacking.

Here's the math. $50,000/teacher (for math purposes). $60 million for the stadium.

$60 million/$50,000 = 1200 teacher jobs. And I doubt the district has anywhere close to that many teachers TOTAL.

I would be beyond furious if I were one of the teachers that were cut.

I dont see your argument, with the stadium the students, parents and community get something in return (and it is their money) so its a win win.

Teachers for the most part are extremely over paid for what we get out of them and the short work year they have. Not saying there are not good teachers because there are but they are the exception not the rule. Also state and federal governments waste so much taxpayer money its sickening, at least the people got to vote on what their money was spent on.

Are you serious? Ok, maybe the education in Montana is not that great (I honestly don't know--I haven't checked the stats), but I can speak for Texas teachers and absolutely disagree with your assertion that we are overpaid. Based on your comments, it is obvious that you aren't a teacher, you have little-to-no understanding about the job demands of being a teacher, the importance of teachers in our society, and that you (unfortunately) had a poor educational experience. I work in a co-curricular performance-based area (i.e. MS and HS band) and I will tell you from experience, teaching is DEFINITELY a year round job. No short work year here...I work about 70 hrs/week in the fall, 60 hrs/week in the spring, and yes...over 40 hrs/week in the summer. Things may be different in Montana, but I do know that Texas teachers are required to fulfill certain obligations (it differs from district to district) over the summer (when most people wrongly assume teachers have a long vacation, LMAO). I deserve every penny (if not more) that my district decides to give me.

Good teachers lost their job due to the economy. I don't know what steps this specific school district employed to try to keep these teachers (i.e. a tax raise within their community, cutting budgets across the district, eliminating the extra spending) but it's interesting to see where this specific community's priorities are. You're right--it's their money, good for them. From the pink-slipped teacher's standpoint, I would not be very happy right now with this decision.

[Ursus A. Horribilis]

I dont see your argument, with the stadium the students, parents and community get something in return (and it is their money) so its a win win.

Teachers for the most part are extremely over paid for what we get out of them and the short work year they have. Not saying there are not good teachers because there are but they are the exception not the rule. Also state and federal governments waste so much taxpayer money its sickening, at least the people got to vote on what their money was spent on.

Are you serious? Ok, maybe the education in Montana is not that great (I honestly don't know--I haven't checked the stats), but I can speak for Texas teachers and absolutely disagree with your assertion that we are overpaid. Based on your comments, it is obvious that you aren't a teacher, you have little-to-no understanding about the job demands of being a teacher, the importance of teachers in our society, and that you (unfortunately) had a poor educational experience. I work in a co-curricular performance-based area (i.e. MS and HS band) and I will tell you from experience, teaching is DEFINITELY a year round job. No short work year here...I work about 70 hrs/week in the fall, 60 hrs/week in the spring, and yes...over 40 hrs/week in the summer. Things may be different in Montana, but I do know that Texas teachers are required to fulfill certain obligations (it differs from district to district) over the summer (when most people wrongly assume teachers have a long vacation, LMAO). I deserve every penny (if not more) that my district decides to give me.

Good teachers lost their job due to the economy. I don't know what steps this specific school district employed to try to keep these teachers (i.e. a tax raise within their community, cutting budgets across the district, eliminating the extra spending) but it's interesting to see where this specific community's priorities are. You're right--it's their money, good for them. From the pink-slipped teacher's standpoint, I would not be very happy right now with this decision.

I have no idea about TX academics but I believe Col. Hogan has said in the past that he was very happy when they got of TX and moved back to the E. Coast and the education was one of the reasons.

Not saying that you don't but I don't know, nor have I ever heard of a person that didn't think they earned every penny of what they were paid.

It would be interesting to see how this particular school district stacks up academically against the one you are a part of. If they are inferior then it would seem that they should think about realigning their priorities. If they stack up favorable then maybe some of the other districts my want to use them as a model academically.

If you were a teacher in the community that got pink slipped then I'm sure you would be unhappy. Thing is it was that communities decision and they may have not specifically voted against teachers just by wanting to spend THEIR money as they decided to. If they did tacitly vote against raises and benefits for teachers by doing this then those that were pink slipped are at least partially responsible for their own demise. They may want to make themselves more valuable or at least have something to hang their hat on as a sense of pride in the community that all can see and vote for.

Nothing new in the fact that people vote with their dollars so better make sure they vote for you when the time comes.

[clenz]

FWIW, in terms of pay Montana and Texas are right next to each other in terms of national rank...neither one real high

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/ ... ank20.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[SA_Bobcat]

Interesting that our state's salaries are so similar. Hmmm...

With regard to comparing Allen ISD to my school district, there really isn't an adequate way to compare the two. Allen is a one-horse town--they only have one high school. My school district, by comparison, has seven high schools that compete in the same enrollment classification (5A, Texas' largest) as Allen. Academically, we are well above average with some of our schools performing comparably to Allen (based on academic ratings). Facility-wise, we have two 11,000 seat football-AND-track stadiums (note the Allen stadium doesn't have a track, so this was a 100% football related expense!!) that are shared between the seven schools (one game on Fridays, double headers on Saturdays). This type of athletic spending (i.e. multi-purpose, multi-school) is very financially responsible, IHMO. As far as our communities, I would say we are pretty much the same (I live/work in the 'rich' area of SA), so the property taxes and per capita wealth is probably even. All that said (and I know I'm not including alot of factors), my school district is still being forced to cut wherever they can/have to.

I'll be interested to see how successful this facility will be at Allen. Did Allen need a better stadium than the one they had? Absolutely...but why all the extra spending? It's not like there is an arms race fueled by a recruiting war for middle school athletes. (at least I hope not!) Additionally, I find it interesting to compare Allen to Frisco. Frisco is a little larger than Allen (by maybe 10-15,000 ppl) and both are growing pretty quickly. Yet Frisco has SIX high schools! SIX! This tells me alot--1) Frisco is growing more rapidly than Allen and 2) Allen may be forced to open another HS. When/If the latter becomes a necessity, will the building of this stadium be looked at as a bad thing? I don't know how much it costs to build a nice high school, but I'm sure that $60 million could have helped. Will they build the new HS a stadium of their own or simply "rebrand" the stadium to reflect the mascots/colors/traditions of both schools? Since they are growing and the latter seems to be inevitable, maybe they should have followed the mindset of similar sized towns who share their facilities with all high schools in their district. For example:

http://www.texasbob.com/stadium/stadium.php?id=1276

http://www.wacoisd.org/sports_geninformation.php#

http://www.texasbob.com/stadium/stadium.php?id=6

just a few examples i found of "shared" school district stadiums in Texas. Although they don't have ALL the bells and whistles that the one in Allen will have, I would still put them at or above the level of many of the FCS facilities at our schools. I think it's also noteworthy to add that these type of facilities are definitely money makers for the districts because the host TONS of playoff games in addition to having home games every Friday, marching band competitions, track meets, etc.

just my

[SpiderFan5]

wow
i dont think my high school has had 18,000 people TOTAL