March 13, 2014 by Waste Watch

What does $60 million of wasted tax dollars look like? Drive on over to Allen Eagle stadium for an up-close look. The football mega-complex in Allen ISD that makes most college athletic departments blush has been closed due to safety concerns less than two years since it officially opened to the public. Now, experts say the stadium may need to be partially torn down in order to alleviate the problem.

18 months after taxpayers in Allen ISD opened one of the most expensive high school football stadiums in the country, “extensive cracking” along the concrete concourse of the stadium forced officials to close the stadium out of safety concerns, putting Allen High School’s graduation and home football games in jeopardy.

Now, the Dallas Morning News reports one of the worst-case scenarios may be needed to address the structure issues: a partial teardown of the stadium.

That’s right, an 18-month old $60 million stadium may need to have major components of its structure demolished, and Allen taxpayers will be on the hook for it all.

Pogue Construction, the builders of the stadium, is also in the process of building a $32.5 million service center in the district, as well as other projects across the state.

While this may be an isolated incident, such an explicit case of wasted tax dollars will hopefully give pause to the next push for an over-extravagant and overly expensive taxpayer-funded bond project.

Waste Watch

From the state, all the way down to your local school and special service districts, waste of taxpayer money is all too common. WasteWatch gives examples of these abuses of tax dollars so that taxpayers across the state can see that no one is safe from inefficient government. If it’s going on in the state, a county, school or local government, chances are it's happening in your neighborhood, too!

Herman Vogel · Top Commenter · Texas State University

Ok, isn't the contractor/engineering firm responsible,,,if he is NOT hauled into court we need to look at the person that decided on THAT particular Contractor. Something Stinks here.

Reply · · 3 · March 14 at 9:58am

Mark Calvin · Top Commenter · Mesquite High School

Taxing home owners to pay for football stadiums and crap is just dumb. You people who want expensive school buildings and NFL stadiums should have to pay for it yourselves.

Reply · · May 16 at 11:33pm

Mark Calvin · Top Commenter · Mesquite High School

Why did they spend even $1,000,000 on a stadium? Fork that. They should have built some good old fashioned bleachers and gotten the kids to mow the lawn and run the striper machine.

Reply · · 1 · March 16 at 9:12pm

Amber Wince · Top Commenter

It was a 120 million dollar bond package voted on and approved by the community. Home owners and citizens approved the tax hike to pay for it. This community is very affluent. The other 60 million went to multiple programs based around art and education. The school includes a five star café/restaurant that they use for multiple programs (culinary arts classes), and a full size performing arts theatre.(used by the countries largest orchestra members) The stadium isn’t just for football either. It has a world class weight room used by all teams (my girls are in volley ball and softball and use it), has places for golf, tennis and wrestling under the stadium. The school refuses to turn away any student that goes out for sports, everyone makes the team. The marching band is the largest in the COUNTRY (over 800 band members)! The school boasts a graduation rate over 98% and 90% of the graduates go on to college. This school is state of the art, in every aspect. The football team happens to be one of the best in the country, winning three state titles since 07, including the two most recent, and being ranked #2 in the country. Simply put, this is a wealthy city, in a wealthy county, and the parents agreed to pay for their children to have the best, on the field, and off. The school is performing excellently in all aspects, including education and art. This is not a school wasting money, or putting athletics above education.

Reply · · May 16 at 9:28pm

Amber Wince · Top Commenter

"Tim Carroll, who is the director of public relations for Allen I.S.D., said that it was simply a matter of supply and demand.

He said the new stadium is Allen's fifth since it began playing football in the 1930s. The previous stadium, which had a capacity of 7,000, was built in 1976 when the school district had about 5,000 students. By 1995, when the district had 9,000 students, the stadium was "woefully inadequate."

Today, Allen has 19,800 students in the district. "So we got significantly larger, and all of our facilities got larger, but the stadium did not," Carroll said. The solution was to put temporary seating in the corners of the end zone and surrounding the field.

Carroll said that resulted in 7,000 temporary seats, leased at $250,000 per year, in addition to 7,000 permanent seats and standing room only at every ga... See More

Reply · · 1 · May 16 at 9:32pm

Dennis Callan · Top Commenter · Engineer at Kinder Morgan

Why does a high school need a $60 million stadium anyway? Crazy!

Reply · · 1 · March 16 at 4:36pm

Mark Calvin · Top Commenter · Mesquite High School

Because failball is a religion in USA.

Reply · · 1 · March 16 at 9:14pm

Amber Wince · Top Commenter

It was a 120 million dollar bond package voted on and approved by the community. Home owners and citizens approved the tax hike to pay for it. This community is very affluent. The other 60 million went to multiple programs based around art and education. The school includes a five star café/restaurant that they use for multiple programs (culinary arts classes), and a full size performing arts theatre.(used by the countries largest orchestra members) The stadium isn’t just for football either. It has a world class weight room used by all teams (my girls are in volley ball and softball and use it), has places for golf, tennis and wrestling under the stadium. The school refuses to turn away any student that goes out for sports, everyone makes the team. The marching band is the largest in the COUNTRY (over 800 band members)! The school boasts a graduation rate over 98% and 90% of the graduates go on to college. This school is state of the art, in every aspect. The football team happens to be one of the best in the country, winning three state titles since 07, including the two most recent, and being ranked #2 in the country. Simply put, this is a wealthy city, in a wealthy county, and the parents agreed to pay for their children to have the best, on the field, and off. The school is performing excellently in all aspects, including education and art. This is not a school wasting money, or putting athletics above education.

Reply · · May 16 at 9:24pm

Amber Wince · Top Commenter

The stadium produced a substantial increase in revenue over the old stadium. That revenue goes to the Allen School District general fund, where it is used to pay for teachers and equipment.

In 2011, the gate receipts at the old Allen High School stadium totaled $344,365. In 2012, the gate from the new Allen I.S.D. stadium was $640,358.

The stadium revenue in the new stadium in 2012 was $611,408. The old stadium did not produce any stadium revenue.

So the new stadium produced $1,251,766 for the general fund, as opposed to $344,365 the year before. That's an increase of $907,401.

The stadium has 10 "founding sponsors" who each pay $35,000 per year on a three-year contract. That means the stadium will bring in an extra $1.05 million for the general fund.

Using $$ only allowed for structural and turning it into funds for Teachers and equipment seems like a good investment!

Reply · · May 16 at 9:26pm

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Bob Cook · Self-Employed Fine Artist at Retired

I'm glad to see you pointing out the obvious elephant in the room!

Reply · · 1 · March 14 at 9:02am

Paul Dean Daniggelis · Top Commenter · Uinversity Texas @ El Paso

THis is bad enough. What is worse is when the taxpayer consents to pay taxes to build "professional" sports palaces. We are building a AAA ballaprk in El Paso that the taxpayer consented to support. They torn down City Hall and a museum in order to squeeze a ballpark into downtown El Paso. Plus, they abandoned a ball park in another part of town.

Reply · · March 16 at 1:42pm

Dennis Callan · Top Commenter · Engineer at Kinder Morgan

That is government run amok! In Toledo, OH the voters turned the stadium down yet the ruling Democrats went and built it anyway.

Reply · · March 16 at 4:30pm

Amber Wince · Top Commenter

Allen also has a 98.1% graduation rate compared to Texas 79.8% and teacher starting pay is $48k compared to Texas average $27k. On top of that, most the campuses are rated exemplary (highest rated) and the others are "recognized". Seems to me the school system is working quite well. I know it's hard to accept that some districts actually know what they are doing while others suffer so bad, but they are out there.

Most of the $60 Million was money in a CIP, that if not used was going to go to waste. CIP means Capital Improvement Program. This money could only be used for physical things, but not used to pay teachers or as pay in general. This money had to be used for a structural product. This money did not come out of anyone's pockets. It was there for the school to use, but had to be structural.

The money spent had the Teacher's and education in mind and the revenue made by the stadium (while in service) put substantial amounts towards Teacher's and education.

Reply · · May 16 at 9:36pm

Jerry Rankin · Pastor at Kingdom Point Church

Keep watching and reporting! Education like this is power!

Reply · · March 14 at 9:04am