This $62 million question: Do high schools really need professional-style stadiums? |Sports

wAround the latest sports temple in the United States, TV camera pans display sponge-shaped stands, elegant bricks outside, VIP suites and large video boards, viewers may believe they are watching professional venues.

However, the crew at Phillip Beard Stadium is Buford Wolves, not a team of professors, not even a university. They are high school students. In the high world of high school football, Buford’s $62 million arena isn’t the largest or most expensive taxpayer-funded student stadium in the United States. But this is probably the most luxurious.

The Wolves hosted the Milton Eagles in the first regular season game at the stadium on Thursday, which will be played nationwide on ESPN. From 2001 to 2021, Georgia Championships 13 times Entry for a university scholarship and, Ultimately, the NFLBuford is a football powerhouse – the new stadium is the loud saying that schools are eager to keep this way.

If it feels half of Buford in a big game… they might be. The Atlanta area has about 19,000 residents. Respected High School (reconstructed in 2019 $85 million) There are about 1,900 students. In 2010, another educational institution in the Atlanta area of Kennesaw State University built a smart 10,200-capable multi-purpose stadium $16.5 million. However, over the past 15 years, construction costs have Soaringfan expectations have evolved, streaming and social media have changed the way we now allow sports and college athletes to earn large sums through monetized personal brands. The trend is obvious: updated, more luxurious, more expensive.

The Phillip Beard Stadium has typical undiscovered benches that are familiar to those who have seen Friday night lights. But it’s the same boast Over 1,500 premium seats, 15 suites, 3,600 square feet of double-sided video boards and 10,500 square feet of event space with trophy walls. Bryan Kerlin, manager of Buford, told Atlanta Magazine Constitution The stadium is paid by city general funds whose funds “hare no impact on teachers’ salaries, classroom resources or any educational funding.” Still, the money may have been transferred to other parts of the city.

In addition, high-end facilities for students and corporate clients and space for affluent alumni to integrate Spartans is becoming increasingly common. This may make sense for schools aiming to maximize revenue and reduce some construction and operational costs, said Victor Matheson, an economics professor at Holy Cross College in Massachusetts. “Economic term is price difference,” he said. It has long been common in professional sports because the team adopted a strategy of a highly acclaimed airline with fare courses and options: charging hugely different fees for the same product based on changes in customer experience.

With the noise generated by the masses in cheap seats, the company box can provide thousands of dollars in revenue per event, the huge video screen attracts advertisers, and perhaps former students won and dine with the comfort of the air conditioner and appreciated the perfect vision of the action, will be inspired to donate to the Alma Layer.

The high-end new arena is also a kind of era in which it seems that almost every sports game, no matter how obscure, will attract fans to leave the sofa. “Everyone knows their biggest competitors are able to watch on TV,” Matheson said. Climate-controlled facilities mitigate extreme weather, and with huge video boards, TVs about Concourses, countless food and beverage options, and glittering graphics displayed by LED ribbons, fans can go to the stadium, experience the atmosphere on site, and stare at the screen.

Northwestern University Report Front desk sports. The estimated cost is $862 million, which will be the most expensive university stadium ever, but with only 35,000 seats, it has 12,000 fewer people than the replaced locations. Design-based theory is that modern fans want a more intimate, more luxurious experience, as tastes change and climate change – even relatively new places are outdated.

In 2020, the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball resigned from the open-air 48,000-capacity baseball field that opened in 1994 for a 40,000-capacity building with retractable roofs. This season, a minor league baseball team, the Salt Lake Bees, moved from Smith’s Field (also opened in 1994) to a new home, hiking fares and halving their seating capacity in the process. Of course, focusing on the price of high-end customers, those fans who can’t afford to spend a night in the game.

“In general, premium seating accounts for one-sixth of the new stadium, and it accounts for only 3% of Smith stadium capacity,” the Salt Lake Tribune Report. “The seats closest to the action cannot be sold on every computer; instead, these are outdoor suites that must be kept all.” Sports’ growing focus on senior customers reflects the shift in the U.S. economy as a whole: This year is a moody analysis study The U.S. economy is now deeply dependent on the wealthiest households, and the top 10% of income accounts for 50% of consumer spending, a sharp rise compared to recent decades.

Logically, better facilities should breed better players and achieve greater attendance, civic pride, which increases the appeal of fast-growing suburbs where large high school stadiums are often found and promotes the prospect of dreaming of reaching the NFL kids. Major and college rankings to high school tricky streaming effects are not only fashionable facilities. It can also be seen in potential economic incentives.

Since 2021, college players have been allowed to make money based on their name, image and similarity (NIL). In June this year, a former high school player File a class action lawsuit In California, restrictions on the state’s ability to profit from their zero rights constitute a limit on the state’s ability to high school student-athletes. It can pave the way for high school stars across the United States to earn income and transfer the road to other schools due to sports reasons. “The company sees a lot of unexplored economic value in high school track and field,” said Yaman Salahi, attorney representing the player on the lawsuit. Statement to the front desk movement“We want to make sure value is shared fairly with the athletes who created it.”

Just like the junior football stars of professional clubs in other countries, one day and one day with 17-year-old American footballers are wealthy and famous and have a status that matches the grand state of their homeland. “The difference here is that local public schools are developing this development,” Matheson notes.

Currently, a stadium as rare as Buford outside of Texas, is the center of the high school football infrastructure arms race. In 2017, the independent school district in the suburbs of Katy in Houston Open A $70 million 12,000-capacity stadium is adjacent to its existing and still operating 9,800-seat venue.

More than a quarter of them, according to the Texasbob.com website 1,267 The Texas high school football stadium can accommodate more than 5,000 people and has at least 16,500 people in eight seats. The combined capacity of 4.4 million is greater than the population of 24 states. About a quarter of video scoreboards and 27 high school stadiums have opened in Texas since 2020. $56 million multi-purpose venue In the Houston area, Laporte will host its inaugural event this month.

Texas has more NFL players than any other state A study Through the lineup of data analytics companies, with Houston’s leading cities. Texas, on the other hand, ranks 34th Educational level U.S. News and World Reports are well below national average Teacher pays and each student’s expenses and according to A studythis year, Texas teachers are expected to spend an average of $1,550 on classroom supplies. Many will argue that there is better money to spend than school sports.