Six Word Saturday

 

$60M for High School Football?

According to ESPN.com a high school in Allen, Texas recently dropped $60 million dollars on a for a new football stadium.  A plebiscite was held and 64% of the community voted in favor of of bond package to pay for the stadium.  A bond package is a loan that the city takes out to pay for a facility.  While I am not privy to the specifics of the deal, here is my speculation based on typical deals of this sort work out...

Assuming 3% interest paid over a 30 year amortization

Monthly Principal & Interest = $252,962.40
Total cost over the length of the loan = $91,066,471.30
Total Interest Paid = $31,066,471.30

Given the current teacher salaries for the district one could fund approximately 94 additional teachers for the price of the mortgage alone. One could purchase approximately 60,000 text books. They could also give 200 students a year a $15,000 scholarship.

The stadium will hold 20,000 fans with a ticket price of $8 for adults and $4 for students.  For the fun of it, let's assume a 50-50 split.  That would equal revenue of $120,000 per game.  The team plays about games about eight (8) a year leading to ticket revenue of just under $1,000,000.  That will pay for about four months of the mortgage let alone the operation costs, the maintenance costs and the costs of fielding a football team to begin with.  Sure there will be profits from parking, advertising and concessions as well as other events will be held at the stadium but can not make up the rest of the costs associated with the stadium.  The numbers say the probability is low.

Apparently, the community of Allen is very affluent.  If the community can afford it why are they choosing to pay over $30 million in interest over the loans life? The real cost of the stadium using this payment method is most likely over $90 million. Did the voters realize this? I hope so because the kids using the football stadiums kids will be paying for it. The residents voted to saddle their kids with debt on it.