IGX

http://deadspin.com/5933007/this-is-wha ... looks-like
$60,000,000 18,000 seat stadium funded by a bond that passed with 63% of the vote.

$10 a ticket for general admission tickets.

Respect.

Texas must be REALLY boring.

High school football in Texas is ridiculously popular.

I'm not a big fan of excess but I like that the bond passed with 63% of the votes. Democracy at work.

We have a high school not far from me and they have a nicer stadium than the local D1 college.

I see this over and over again. On the one hand, I'm like WTF? On the other hand, if people want it and it wasn't tax dollars, whatever. Let freedom ring. Ultimately though, most of the kids that roll through that school will never get the use of those facilities, they are reserved for the "elite" (lol) football player. The other kids won't be playing frisbee or jogging laps here after school, it will be a resort for the privileged high school athlete and nothing more. Children should not be worshiped like this, if only because it totally distorts their expectations for the real world.

It's just another church where monkeys come to worship and perform rituals. This one involves watching rednecks, wetbacks, and niggers chasing a little brown ball all over the dirt.

Without a track and two rings just another temple to a sport that kind of sucks. If Texas wasn't one of the biggest receivers of federal tax bux, I'd say let er rip but the reality is we're all propping up the future failed state of Northern Mexico.

Other kids may not get to use it but I wouldn't be surprised if they don't have excellent facilities of their own. I'm not in Texas but all of our facilities are excellent. And we have baseball, softball, football, basketball, track, swimming, wrestling, soccer and a myriad of other sports and activities for kids to take part on. The only sport that shares a field is the soccer team and they use the football field. Golf of course goes to the local course.

And I wouldn't discount what other groups use the facility. Football season is only 14 weeks and although they may sell a lot of tickets they can make a lot more money to support the stadium if they allow other sports and activities to use it.

There is a lot of money in the DFW area.

Fat Cat wrote:I see this over and over again. On the one hand, I'm like WTF? On the other hand, if people want it and it wasn't tax dollars, whatever. Let freedom ring. Ultimately though, most of the kids that roll through that school will never get the use of those facilities, they are reserved for the "elite" (lol) football player. The other kids won't be playing frisbee or jogging laps here after school, it will be a resort for the privileged high school athlete and nothing more. Children should not be worshiped like this, if only because it totally distorts their expectations for the real world.

Regarding the tax issue, it's doubtful that this is a revenue bond as the stadium likely wouldn't be able to fund itself through ticket sales and concessions. How do you suppose they'll meet their cash flow obligations without using tax dollars?

It's tax money but it's a local tax the property owners of Allen voted in favor of.

Ed Zachary wrote:It's tax money but it's a local tax the property owners of Allen voted in favor of.

just under two thirds apparently. if this was a public transportation the balance of the republitards on here would be decrying the notion of putting bad fiscal decisions to a public vote.

my inclination is to not care. if late night sci fi and Katrina have taught us anything, stadiums make excellent internment camps

Fuzzy Dunlop wrote:

Fat Cat wrote:I see this over and over again. On the one hand, I'm like WTF? On the other hand, if people want it and it wasn't tax dollars, whatever. Let freedom ring. Ultimately though, most of the kids that roll through that school will never get the use of those facilities, they are reserved for the "elite" (lol) football player. The other kids won't be playing frisbee or jogging laps here after school, it will be a resort for the privileged high school athlete and nothing more. Children should not be worshiped like this, if only because it totally distorts their expectations for the real world.

Regarding the tax issue, it's doubtful that this is a revenue bond as the stadium likely wouldn't be able to fund itself through ticket sales and concessions. How do you suppose they'll meet their cash flow obligations without using tax dollars?

I'm have a very unsophisticated understanding of finance ("save money, don't borrow, etc...") so I might be wrong. I was under the impression that the bonds would fund construction of the facility plus investments intended to pay off the bonds over time. If I am wrong, I'm here to learn.

This is the same state that was laying off firefighters. DERP.

Fat Cat wrote:This is the same state that was laying off firefighters. DERP.

Yeah that is pretty fucking stupid but all in the name of cutting the state budget.

Fat Cat wrote:

Fuzzy Dunlop wrote:

Fat Cat wrote:I see this over and over again. On the one hand, I'm like WTF? On the other hand, if people want it and it wasn't tax dollars, whatever. Let freedom ring. Ultimately though, most of the kids that roll through that school will never get the use of those facilities, they are reserved for the "elite" (lol) football player. The other kids won't be playing frisbee or jogging laps here after school, it will be a resort for the privileged high school athlete and nothing more. Children should not be worshiped like this, if only because it totally distorts their expectations for the real world.

Regarding the tax issue, it's doubtful that this is a revenue bond as the stadium likely wouldn't be able to fund itself through ticket sales and concessions. How do you suppose they'll meet their cash flow obligations without using tax dollars?

I'm have a very unsophisticated understanding of finance ("save money, don't borrow, etc...") so I might be wrong. I was under the impression that the bonds would fund construction of the facility plus investments intended to pay off the bonds over time. If I am wrong, I'm here to learn.

The town issued the bonds, basically borrowing money to build the stadium. They will have to pay it all back, with interest. People purchase bonds, i.e. lend money to governments, because the bonds are backed by the power of that government to tax it's citizens in order to meet it's payment obligations.

The United States government will occasionally partake in similar behavior.

Understood, but I thought that if you needed $100M to fund a public works project, you might sell bonds for $175M, using the remaining $75M to invest in ways which would, over time, allow you to pay back the principal plus interest. Am I wrong?

Ahhh, youth athletics...

Ed Zachary wrote:
There is a lot of money in the DFW area.

Truth. I was born in Dallas (St Paul, motherfuckers) and lived in Coppell before moving to the left coast when I was still a lad.

edit: I hear it's quite affluent now, and it was pretty nice back then.

Fat Cat wrote:Understood, but I thought that if you needed $100M to fund a public works project, you might sell bonds for $175M, using the remaining $75M to invest in ways which would, over time, allow you to pay back the principal plus interest. Am I wrong?

That would be super risky, you'd need a rate of return much higher on your 75M investment in order to meet the bond obligations from borrowing 175. Think about it this way- If they could turn 75 into 175 why not just borrow a fuck ton and invest all of it?

From an investment standpoint this only makes sense for the town under the reasoning that the super nice football stadium will increase their tax base. In a sense, the stadium is their "investment" in that it will hopefully draw more tax dollars. However, the town isn't a business and doesn't really need to be concerned with whether or not its investments prosper because it can collect more taxes by simply raising tax rates.

Thanks for explaining Fuzzy.

If I'm looking at it right, with:
8 home games
$7 net income from each ticket sold
15000 tickets sold per game (not unreasonable in Texas)

They will pull in about $1m per year in revenue for the stadium (this doesn't include playoff and other special games; or possible parking revenue)

Assuming the revenue goes to paying for the facility, that reduces the debt cost by about 1/3.

Fuck high school football, but at least this is going for something a huge chunk of the community will make use of. In that way, it's similar to a museum or park or other public good.

Whereas my home town spent a lot more money to build Jerry Jones a new stadium and decent seats start at $200.

No prob. Turd- the revenue would also need to cover operating expenses.

That said, I don't actually know what's going on with this particular place. They may be planning on covering the bond obligations completely with revenue from the stadium. I just don't see it being profitable enough to earn a rate of return higher than their funding costs. I

either way- that's a sweet HS stadium but I agree that it kind of sucks that it's a football only facility. Doesn't appear that it will function as much else besides maybe a soccer field.

What the fuck... that's a HIGH SCHOOL stadium? That's nicer than half of the college football "stadiums" around here.

What's the Gay Studies sitch at Allen? This looks like another Penn State in the making.

There is a distinct difference between a city governmental entity and a school district. This stadium was part of a 119 million dollar bond project that included the stadium, a fine arts center and a service center (i.e. maintenance, supply etc.) for the school district, a district that is the third largest in the state with over 5,000 kids in the high school alone. In Texas there are many taxing entities that comprise the total property tax liability (both real estate and personal property). For example I pay city, county, school district (the largest portion of your assessment), community college, and hospital district taxes. We do not have a state income tax but we have a state and local sales tax. In the case of this stadium there was a school district wide vote (and the school district can actually spill over into other cities) to ask for the ability to raise the school district tax rate to accommodate the new stadium and the voters were told what that hike would be. Although I'm not familiar with the details the school district most likely used general obligation bonds to fund the new construction with the increased tax assessment being the required vehicle used to service the debt and retire the bonds.