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What Made You Smile/Laugh Today?

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Sir_Winston54 said:
Okay, so it's Texas, and they do everything bigger, but...

936487.jpg


This is a HIGH SCHOOL football stadium that will open in Allen, Texas, in 2012. 14,000 seats, 2 decks, video scoreboard. Oh, yeah. Almost $60 million dollars. $59,600,000.00.

:: BLINK ::

The story
Click to expand...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU4fUrcOXLI

800 kids in their band!
 
Sir_Winston54 said:
Okay, so it's Texas, and they do everything bigger, but...

936487.jpg


This is a HIGH SCHOOL football stadium that will open in Allen, Texas, in 2012. 14,000 seats, 2 decks, video scoreboard. Oh, yeah. Almost $60 million dollars. $59,600,000.00.

:: BLINK ::

The story
Click to expand...

You say that like it's unusual or something...
 
Netzach said:
I didn't even have 800 kids in my school.

Title 9 hahahahahaaa!
Click to expand...

My graduating class 20 years ago (just south of Allen, which used to be just... country) was estimated to be around 1,200 students if I remember correctly. At that point there were only 2 high schools that size in town; now there are three.
 
Sir_Winston54 said:
Okay, so it's Texas, and they do everything bigger, but...

936487.jpg


This is a HIGH SCHOOL football stadium that will open in Allen, Texas, in 2012. 14,000 seats, 2 decks, video scoreboard. Oh, yeah. Almost $60 million dollars. $59,600,000.00.

:: BLINK ::

The story
Click to expand...
I'm sure the Texas teabaggers will be out protesting this wasteful government spending any minute now.

That is, just as soon as they're done bitchin' about the really frivolous stuff. You know, like unemployment benefits and healthcare.
 
JMohegan said:
I'm sure the Texas teabaggers will be out protesting this wasteful government spending any minute now.

That is, just as soon as they're done bitchin' about the really frivolous stuff. You know, like unemployment benefits and healthcare.
Click to expand...

Oh don't worry about unemployment. IF we HURRY and sign the stimulus bill it won't go above 8 percent. But we have to hurry. No time to waste to read the fucking thing.

Democraps are in for an asskicking come November. That's all I can say.
 
WriterDom said:
Oh don't worry about unemployment. IF we HURRY and sign the stimulus bill it won't go above 8 percent. But we have to hurry. No time to waste to read the fucking thing.

Democraps are in for an asskicking come November. That's all I can say.
Click to expand...
I am sincerely interested to know if you support government spending of $60 million to build one high school football stadium.
 
JMohegan said:
I am sincerely interested to know if you support government spending of $60 million to build one high school football stadium.
Click to expand...
Apparently you didn't read the entire article very carefully, JM.

But before you start throwing out stereotypes that Texans care more about touchdowns than textbooks, understand this:

  • The stadium was part of a larger $120 million bond package passed in May 2009 that included nearly as much money for a state-of-the-art auditorium for performing arts;
  • The town approved a bond package of $219 million in November 2008 that called for the building of two new elementary schools, the purchase of 45 school buses and improvements to many of the other elementary and middle schools in the district;
  • The money for the project could only be used on capital expenses not general education;
  • And, this is Texas, after all. Last year, the Allen football team played a game before more than 50,000 fans at the new Texas Stadium.
The facility will replace Allen's existing stadium, built in the late 70s when the suburb - located 25 miles north of Dallas - was much smaller. In the past few decades, the area has seen amazing growth.

The high school, built in 2000, has more than 600,000 square feet and serves 3,900 kids - and that's just between 10th and 12th grades. It is one of the largest in the state and the only one in the district.

A new stadium has been planned since the school was built, but since the area kept growing, capital money went to additional schools first. "We finally maxed out on growth," said Tim Carroll, the public information director for the district. "This is something that we have wanted to get done for a while, but we had to build schools first."

Carroll points out the money being used for the stadium and the performing arts center could not be used for anything else. "In Texas, funding is completely separate between capital projects and general (education) fund," he said. "If we don't build the stadium, none of that money could go to teachers or classrooms."​

The bond issue was voted on by the local citizens, and passed by an almost 2:1 margin. If that's the way they want to spend their tax money, why not?

ETA: And the football team is 67-12 over the past six seasons, playing ~13 games a year (including playoffs for the state championship), while the Dallas Cowboys have won only 53 games in that same time period, playing 16 *regular season* games a year.
 
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That's up to them and they do love their football. What the future value of 18000 tickets being sold for seven home games over the next 30 years? If they are smart they'll leave room for expansion and do what colleges have been doing the last 80 years and just add seating.
 
Sir_Winston54 said:
Apparently you didn't read the entire article very carefully, JM.
Click to expand...
I did read the article. It didn't mention WD's opinion, though, so I had to ask him.

What's your opinion, Winston? Do you support government spending of $60 million to build one high school football stadium?
 
WriterDom said:
That's up to them and they do love their football. What the future value of 18000 tickets being sold for seven home games over the next 30 years? If they are smart they'll leave room for expansion and do what colleges have been doing the last 80 years and just add seating.
Click to expand...
This is socialized entertainment, you know.

I'm not kidding with that statement. Literally, it is government ownership and administration of the means of entertaining the populace.

If it's such a smart business proposition, why not let private investors handle it?
 
JMohegan said:
I did read the article. It didn't mention WD's opinion, though, so I had to ask him.

What's your opinion, Winston? Do you support government spending of $60 million to build one high school football stadium?
Click to expand...
I've lived in Oklahoma and Texas, and high school football is a *major* (often THE major) community activity, especially in the areas of smaller populace (<150,000 in the area's largest city, <300,000 in the area as a whole). Even people with no kids in the system, no ties to the school other than perhaps having been a student there 20-40-50 years ago, attend every home game and most road games for their local school.

So, to answer your question directly: If the community decides, via free and open voting, to spend their tax dollars to build a stadium, hell yes. The vote noted in the article quoted a 63-37 margin in favor of the bond issue, and to me that is a sufficient majority to feel that the community wants, and has the right, to build that stadium and the performing arts center that came in with it.

To reciprocate: If the community had voted by the same substantial margin to build a performing arts center, a museum, and a world-class library through a bond issue, would you object as you apparently do to the stadium?
 
Sir_Winston54 said:
I've lived in Oklahoma and Texas, and high school football is a *major* (often THE major) community activity, especially in the areas of smaller populace (<150,000 in the area's largest city, <300,000 in the area as a whole). Even people with no kids in the system, no ties to the school other than perhaps having been a student there 20-40-50 years ago, attend every home game and most road games for their local school.

So, to answer your question directly: If the community decides, via free and open voting, to spend their tax dollars to build a stadium, hell yes. The vote noted in the article quoted a 63-37 margin in favor of the bond issue, and to me that is a sufficient majority to feel that the community wants, and has the right, to build that stadium and the performing arts center that came in with it.

To reciprocate: If the community had voted by the same substantial margin to build a performing arts center, a museum, and a world-class library through a bond issue, would you object as you apparently do to the stadium?
Click to expand...
If the community votes to spend government money on a museum or stadium or anything else, then I'd say they've got a right to do so. But you've apparently misunderstood my question, so I'll rephrase.

Winston, would you vote in favor of the government spending $60 million to build one high school football stadium?
 
JMohegan said:
If the community votes to spend government money on a museum or stadium or anything else, then I'd say they've got a right to do so. But you've apparently misunderstood my question, so I'll rephrase.

Winston, would you vote in favor of the government spending $60 million to build one high school football stadium?
Click to expand...
Not if it were against the will of the populace who had to pay the taxes to pay for it, no.
 
graceanne said:
Not to take away from the interesting politics conversation, but

K'S HOME! :nana:
Click to expand...

Yayayayay! :D

I'll go ahead and offer my "yay" now, for fear that it might not be seen later, since Gracie will probably be chained to the bed indefinitely. :devil:
 
Sir_Winston54 said:
Not if it were against the will of the populace who had to pay the taxes to pay for it, no.
Click to expand...
Is that how you always vote? Check out the polls, and then cast your vote with the majority?

By the way, I was curious so I checked out Allen. According to wiki, the city in your story is a predominantly white, wealthy suburb of Dallas. Located in Collins County, "a Republican stronghold in Presidential and congressional elections." How surprising! ;)


ETA - Great news, Graceanne. Have fun!
 
Sir_Winston54 said:
Not if it were against the will of the populace who had to pay the taxes to pay for it, no.
Click to expand...

Funny, it has nothing to do with it when it comes to sports.

We shot down the new stadium twice on voter referendum and still got it.

Twice.

Of course we'll let a section of overpass collapse because - I don't know why, frankly. I guess the pro sports guys give better BJ's than the highway repair bid guys.
 
JMohegan said:
Is that how you always vote? Check out the polls, and then cast your vote with the majority?

By the way, I was curious so I checked out Allen. According to wiki, the city in your story is a predominantly white, wealthy suburb of Dallas. Located in Collins County, "a Republican stronghold in Presidential and congressional elections." How surprising! ;)


ETA - Great news, Graceanne. Have fun!
Click to expand...

Actually it IS surprising. The whitest and wealthiest of our burbs has one of the most physically disintegrating middle schools a friend of mine ever taught in. It was like the "not enough pencils" horror stories you hear about ghetto schools - because the wealthiest and whitest here don't want to pay taxes for anything. Oh, they didn't want to pay taxes for anything long before the Nazi Communist presidency of Obama, the Libertarian nutbag trend is old hat.

It's Michelle Bachman land. So if the residents of Allen actually understand that the physical plant of their schools could stand to be overblown, good for them.

I'd still love to see how their girls sports compare in appropriations, but they probably don't suck.
 
JMohegan said:
Is that how you always vote? Check out the polls, and then cast your vote with the majority?

By the way, I was curious so I checked out Allen. According to wiki, the city in your story is a predominantly white, wealthy suburb of Dallas. Located in Collins County, "a Republican stronghold in Presidential and congressional elections." How surprising! ;)


ETA - Great news, Graceanne. Have fun!
Click to expand...

Did you for one minute think it was an inner city black school in Dallas? Should every school in Texas get a 18,000 seat stadium or should that be based on attendance? How about two inner city schools two miles apart who might have 5000 people at a football game total? Should they both get 18,000 seat stadiums? And perhaps have 13,000 unwilling white people bused in to watch games every Friday from the suburbs?

As far as the girls go, well they benefit from a healthy football program. God knows they aren't self supporting. Neither are many of the obscure boy's sports.

And, no, don't turn it private. Then you might have prayers before the game over the loudspeaker like they used to. And all the ticket takers and concession workers would want a wage for their efforts.

It's socialism at its best. A mini coliseum of life and death to learn life's lessons while providing incentive for kids to stay in school. A huge cash cow that will continue to lay golden eggs every Friday night for the next 30 years or so. Maybe one day when the European conversion of America is complete, soccer will finally catch on and that will be more 18,000 crowds drinking and eating mass quantities of crap safe in the knowledge that their coming gastric bypass will be paid by ObamaCare.

That's my hope for Allen anyway.
 
Netzach said:
Actually it IS surprising. The whitest and wealthiest of our burbs has one of the most physically disintegrating middle schools a friend of mine ever taught in. It was like the "not enough pencils" horror stories you hear about ghetto schools - because the wealthiest and whitest here don't want to pay taxes for anything. Oh, they didn't want to pay taxes for anything long before the Nazi Communist presidency of Obama, the Libertarian nutbag trend is old hat.

It's Michelle Bachman land. So if the residents of Allen actually understand that the physical plant of their schools could stand to be overblown, good for them.

I'd still love to see how their girls sports compare in appropriations, but they probably don't suck.
Click to expand...
Do the Bachmanite families send their kids to private schools? At least they're ideologically consistent.

As for Allen, what I'd love to see are the high school's computer and science facilities.

My personal opinion on government spending, and control of the means of whatever, is that the government should step in when private investors can not do the job efficiently or effectively, and when the best interests of the general public would be at odds with the best interests of the investors themselves. A lavish stadium falls into neither of those categories, in my view, so I would have voted NO on that referendum.
 
WriterDom said:
Did you for one minute think it was an inner city black school in Dallas? Should every school in Texas get a 18,000 seat stadium or should that be based on attendance? How about two inner city schools two miles apart who might have 5000 people at a football game total? Should they both get 18,000 seat stadiums? And perhaps have 13,000 unwilling white people bused in to watch games every Friday from the suburbs?
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To answer your questions in turn -

1 - No. (And why I did not find the demographics surprising.)

2 - Attendance should determine the size of all school facilities.

3 - Sharing a stadium may make sense, from an economies of scale perspective. (Your question seems to infer that inner city folks are either fewer in number, or significantly less interested in football. Do you believe either of those to be the case?)

4 - See answers to 2 & 3, above.

5 - Uh, no.

WriterDom said:
As far as the girls go, well they benefit from a healthy football program. God knows they aren't self supporting. Neither are many of the obscure boy's sports.

And, no, don't turn it private. Then you might have prayers before the game over the loudspeaker like they used to. And all the ticket takers and concession workers would want a wage for their efforts.

It's socialism at its best. A mini coliseum of life and death to learn life's lessons while providing incentive for kids to stay in school. A huge cash cow that will continue to lay golden eggs every Friday night for the next 30 years or so. Maybe one day when the European conversion of America is complete, soccer will finally catch on and that will be more 18,000 crowds drinking and eating mass quantities of crap safe in the knowledge that their coming gastric bypass will be paid by ObamaCare.

That's my hope for Allen anyway.
Click to expand...
Thank you for giving a direct and honest answer to my question.

We have a different view on the appropriate role of government spending, but that's hardly news! I appreciate you expanding on your perspective.

As an aside on the subject of learning "life's lessons," I do not believe that community obsession & coliseumesque focus on high school athletics is healthy. Not for the athletes, and not for everyone else. But that's a totally different discussion.
 
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