Allen ISD closes $60 million stadium

meangreener · March 1, 2014

My HSO from a sports fan, allen resident (without kids in the district) and Apogee lover.

Tthe bond that included the stadium also included other things like funding for the arts so I voted for it even though the part about the stadium seemed ridiculous to me. If it had just been for the stadium i would have never voted for it.

After seeing it and being there for a game and knowing it cost 60m compared to Apogee's 80m, the allen stadium is much more of a huge waste of money. I'd say it's about 50% as good as Apogee.

I have no idea how we got what we did for the money we spent on Apogee. That stadium feels like $100mil+.

Harry · March 1, 2014

There talk that they built an underground practice facility which may be contributing to the foundation issues.

SilverEagle · March 1, 2014

I think you have a good point about preparation, but would apply it to the building site in general, not just the concrete. It's also likely that the soil conditions in the Allen area are more demanding in the need for that than where Apogee is located, as they are located in the "Blackland Prairie region of Texas, which extends into the southeastern corner of Denton County, but not in the City of Denton; certainly not in the part of town where the UNT Main Campus is located. Ever notice all those oak trees around the UNT campus? Those are on the Cross Timbers, which is much better suited to construction. The Blackland Prairie (so named from the soil color, of course), is well known for it's expansive clay soils, and their contribution to foundation problems in this area.

Pretty much every article on the internet about these problems is advertising foundation repair services, as is the one I'm linking to, but at least it cites some work from my old home, the Geography Department at UNT. It does mention that residential foundations are the most vulnerable, since homebuilders are wanting to keep construction costs low, and state regulations are more stringent for commercial than residential construction, but it does call out school buildings, and the problems caused by cost conscious school districts skimping on construction budgets. Here's the link (and I'm not recommeding their services, as I don't know anything about them):

That area runs from the east/central side of Keller down through Smithfield and NRH. There were some nice homes built in the Smithfield area in the 80's that had some major foundation problems. I assume that since then the builders in that area planned and fortified their foundations to compensate for the unstable soils.

From watching the initial digging for the foundation, it looked to me like Apogee was built on the same rock pile that my home in North Fort Worth was built on.

GrandGreen · March 1, 2014

So because Wilmer-Hutchins is bankrupt then Allen shouldn't build a stadium that they voted to build and the taxpayers of Allen decided overwhelmingly that they wanted to pay for out of their own pockets?? Yeah that makes sense. Allen ISD has superior football and superior academics to most any other public school district in the nation. Now if their academics sucked and they still built that stadium then I would cry foul but until then they can do whatever the hell they want.

Yes, and hundreds of kids never see the field or court because winning is more important. I like the Frisco model much better, a lot of smaller high schools and a lot more players get to participate. In my opinion, they are much more successful than Allen or the Plano schools that depend on huge numbers to get an athletic advantage.