Alvin latest to score new school stadium
The Alvin school district south of Houston has purchased 98 acres within a master-planned community to build a new 10,000-seat stadium, making it the latest district to move forward with plans for a major outdoor venue for sporting events.
The district acquired land within the Meridiana development to construct a $41.5 million stadium slated to open in the summer of 2018, a district spokesman confirmed Wednesday.
“Alvin ISD is an extremely fast-growing district, adding 1,300 students a year,” said the spokesman, Daniel Combs. “This facility will serve students across the district both now and in the future.”
Around the Houston area and the state, school districts are building large stadiums to serve burgeoning football pro-
grams in the land of “Friday Night Lights” as well as to host other public and community events. In some instances, taxpayers have resisted financing the stadiums.
Three years ago, Katy ISD voters defeated a proposed bond package following a heated debate over a 16,000-seat stadium plan. The district scaled back the stadium’s size the following year, and Katy ISD voters subsequently approved the revised bond. Crews are now putting up a 12,000-seat stadium that will cost $62.5 million, about $4.5 million more than was allotted in the bond package. It is going up alongside existing Rhodes Stadium, and together the venues will serve teams from eight high schools, including the powerhouse Katy Tigers football team.
On Tuesday, the Spring ISD board agreed to hold a fall bond referendum on a $330 million bond package that would fund, among other things, “a districtwide stadium for football, soccer, band and related activities.”
In March, a 10,000-seat stadium opened in the Clear Creek ISD.
Signs of economic growth
A few years ago, Allen ISD in the Dallas area constructed an 18,000-seat stadium at a cost of $60 million, making it then the most expensive in the state. The opening was marred by foundation cracks, which were repaired for $10 million at no cost to the district. The Katy ISD topped that cost with its new venue before McKinney ISD, also in Dallas, announced in May that voters had approved a $63 million stadium.
In the Katy area, officials say they’re seeing signs that their new stadium is attracting new businesses.
“We have already seen economic growth in that area,” wrote Lance LaCour, president and CEO of the Katy Economic Development Council, in a recent email. “High school sporting facilities in Texas have been a draw for families and businesses for decades.”
The developers of Meridiana also see economic benefits to a future stadium.
“The presence of a new, on-site competition stadium will certainly be a big selling point for our community of new homes,” said Dan Naef, president of Rise Communities.
Located south of Pearland, the Alvin ISD covers 252 square miles in northern Brazoria County and includes the communities of Alvin, Manvel, Iowa Colony, Liverpool, Amsterdam, and parts of Rosharon, Arcola, and Pearland.
Alvin ISD’s website includes forecasts that show district enrollment, which hovered above 22,000 in September, will increase steadily.
The future Central District Stadium will have a red-brick facade and include offices for the district’s athletic department, locker rooms for the home and visiting teams and an alumni center. It will also host soccer games and band concerts.
Funds for the land purchase were approved in a 2013 bond proposal, according to Alvin ISD’s website. The land sale closed June 23 and cost around $4.6 million, Combs said.
A 2015 bond proposal approved last November included $9.8 million for upgrades to the district’s current stadium including new lighting, facilities for the visiting team and an upgraded press box, according to the district’s website. The bond proposal also included $41.5 million to build the new stadium.
Landscape architect David Becker — whose three kids, including a rising junior, attended district schools — served as cochair of the citizens’ advisory committees charged with assessing the district’s needs in both 2013 and 2015.
In 2013, Becker said, the group felt purchasing the land would be a smart, proactive move because the district, which only had two high schools at the time, was clearly growing.
“It’s unbelievable, the growth in our district,” Becker said. “It’s just unbelievable.”
Fits values of community
The 2015 committee next chose to move ahead on clearing the funds to build a new stadium, Becker said. Among their reasons, they felt the current stadium was not located in a central place, lacked adequate parking and was outdated, especially with regard to its press box.
The committee, which numbered between 40 and 60 parents at any given meeting, voted overwhelmingly to include money for the new stadium in the bond proposal, Becker said.
“The general consensus was to go ahead and go for it,” said Paul Ingamells, who also co-chaired the 2015 panel and other committees.
The idea for the new stadium fit the values of Meridiana, a community envisioned to have 6,000 homes and which has emphasized the integration of education, said Naef, the development company president.
Along with typical amenities like pools and a fitness center, the development includes learning labs that involve weather, habitat and gravity experiments, plus a conservatory filled with plants.
“This concept of education being so key, and how do you enhance the schools your kids will personally attend, just stuck with me,” Naef said in an interview.
The labs were developed in conjunction with the school district, Naef said. Meridiana also donated land for an elementary school, which will open this month as the community’s first families have begun to move into their homes. Alvin ISD’s stadium will be located at the edge of the community, at Iowa Colony Boulevard and County Road 64.
Plans also call for a two-level press box and a parking space for every four seats. There will also be space to expand the stadium by 2,000 seats and to build a future indoor pool complex and fine arts center, according to a Rise Communities news release.
A timeline on the district’s website predicts construction to begin with the awarding of a contract this October, with the stadium opening in the summer of 2018.