7.5 million for renovations for a high school stadium?
 

I lived there for 7 years but never figured they would pull it off...


VALDOSTA, Ga. — The Friday night lights shine a little brighter here. Literally. High above the new Sprinturf playing surface and armchair seating for its season ticketholders — and beyond the new locker rooms, press box and football museum that also came with the $7.5-million renovation of Cleveland Field at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium — Valdosta High School installed the same high-performance lights used a couple of hundred miles to the south at Daytona International Speedway.

Valdosta High School recently spent $7.5 million on renovations to its stadium.
By Oscar Sosa for USA TODAY

They spotlight a high school football program that, even among the nation's elite, stands out. Valdosta has won a national-record 816 games in 92 years, giving the south Georgia city of 45,000 its identity as "Winnersville, USA."

So cherished are season tickets that they're handed down in wills and parceled out in divorce settlements, and so hopeful are fathers of siring future Wildcats that they've toted newborn sons from the hospital in cat-pawed Valdosta helmets.

Feeding this football juggernaut is a more than $300,000 budget that dwarfs those for nearly all of the nation's top high school programs, as determined by 22 years of USA TODAY rankings. If Valdosta plays deep into the playoffs, its spending balloons past $400,000.

The Wildcats' 1,500-member booster organization, the Touchdown Club, kicks in another $85,000-$90,000 a year, says former president and longtime board member David Waller. The club outfits coach Rick Darlington in a four-wheel drive pickup and underwrote a recent $100,000 overhaul of the weight room.

Total annual investment: close to a half-million dollars.

"There's really nothing about this place that's common," says Darlington, hired from Apopka, Fla., after a national search and six games into in his second season at Valdosta. "I've heard us called the Yankees of high school football."

Indeed, "Valdosta has kind of set the bar," says Charles Turner, president of the Georgia Athletic Directors Association and recently retired as AD at Athens' Cedar Shoals High. "Hey, they've been nationally ranked and had great teams for years. Everybody else, I think, is trying to catch up to them."

Expensive as it may be.

Valdosta takes the "Winnersville" nickname, adopted in the early 1970s, to heart. Its teams have won 23 state championships and six mythical national titles since 1940, and the Wildcats are a composite No. 2 in final USA TODAY rankings since 1982 (they finished No. 1 in 1984 and '86). In Darlington's first season, they rose from a 1-3 start to Georgia's Class AAAAA championship game, falling there to Camden County.


To put the school's financial commitment to football in perspective, consider what neighboring Valdosta State spends on a college program that made last year's NCAA Division II playoffs and is ranked 10th in the nation this season.

The Blazers' total is more than $900,000, athletics director Herb Reinhard says. But remove coaches' salaries, which aren't part of the high school's football budget, and scholarship and recruiting expenses and their operating outlay is a little more than $320,000. Or about 25% less than the $419,291 Valdosta High spent in 2003.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/preps...spending_x.htm

That's just crazy. High school "stadiums" here mostly consist of nicer bleechers that are only on one side of the field (thinking of Lawrence Park CI and Leaside High in Toronto).

Thats a public high school? Those are tax dollars? Oh wow.

IS there money in high school football? Like college ball?

Wow. Y'all are different in other parts of America.

-Rudey

If that's what the people of Valdosta want to do with their money, and they're happy with the results, then good for them. Lord knows they'll never have a good NCAA I-A football team, so let them have this piece of joy.

High School football is what the town is known for. The Valdosta Wildcats have more wins than any football team high school, college or pro team ever. They have a ton of State championships and several national championships. The high school hall of fame is suppose to be built there too. High School football is big in the south but it is life in Valdosta. The high school team gets greater attendance than the Valdosta State games by far. Games are always sold out even where they travel to. They pay top teams even in Florida to come play them. It was a crazy thing. I didn't go to high school there but when I lives there I was forced to choose sides. (Valdosta or crosstown rivals Lowdnes). If you went to a game sometimes you would even see college coachs there scouting. You got to resturants that had pictures on the wall and you will see pics of SEC and ACC coachs eatting at those places when they were in town. They used to claim I still don't know if they do being one of the high schools that have the most players in the NFL. Suprizingly the biggest names to come out of Valdosta are the Drew brothers in baseball. J D Drew being the most famous of the bunch.

I am not surpized they built a stadiums to rival many college stadiums.

Valdosta State does plan to move up to I- AA within ten years, at least that was the plan when I left. It would be 50 years or more for them to fo I-A if ever.

Wouldn't it be interesting to find out the stats on how much money is spent for classrooms and academics? Or how much is spent so that the players are getting an adequate education? Or how many of the players end up attending and graduating from college within 5 years?

I love sports as much as the next guy, but really, aren't the priorites just a little misplaced???:confused:

*nod*
West Des Moines- Valley spent $8M on a football stadium, something like $3 or $4 million on a soccer facility. The school district straddles parts of 3 counties and so they get $$ from the 1% sales tax in all three counties.

There's talk of another casino coming to the area. If it's built in Polk/Dallas/Madison counties... WDM schools get an un-needed $35M

YES, but I feel like this is indicative of some parts of the country. In some areas of the South, more emphasis seems to be placed placed on athletics--just look at how low the Southern states are ranked in studies of educational spending, HS graduation rates, etc. Even in my home district, which tops the state in educational spending, test scores for promotion as well as college admission, and graduation rates, the emphasis put on football is ridiculous. :rolleyes:

So, as much as this disappoints and disgusts me, I'm not really surprised.

And, it's just another reason why little Munchkins will not be raised in the South (unless they go to boarding school).

Whoa, that's a ton of money! We'll be down there next week to watch Blazercheer cheer in her last game and escort her across the field for Senior Day. I can't wait to see what they've done to the stadium because it sure was plain 2 years ago.

She's on the cover of the football program!

Sounds like a couple of the programs in NE Oklahoma. I know of one HS that has a 20K seat stadium. Usually, it sells out.

My old district (Plano, TX) just got a new stadium. I haven't been in it, but it's by my mom's and I've driven by several times. It's pretty massive! I don't know any of the particulars with it, but I'm sure some of the other Planoites could fill you in!

We certainly love our High School Football in Plano!

aj

The two football stadiums in the Cherry Creek School District where our kids went are pretty impressive. Much nicer, for instance, than the University of Northern Colorado who have been national champs in their division several times in the past ten years.

Have you noticed thats its usually the poorest states in the Union that have these high school football fantasies?