Allen High School's Graduation BBQ (Dallas, Plano: rentals, high schools, tornado)

[UnfairPark]

Why not rent an indoor place for few hours instead of risking a community heat stroke?

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.fox4n...ool-graduation

[ChristieP]

There is a serious shortage of indoor places large enough to hold graduations, especially for a school as huge as Allen. Garland ISD built their own event center a few years ago and paid for itself with the lack of expense on a few years’ offsite rentals.

Personally, I don’t understand why they hold an outdoor graduation in the evening. 8 AM on a Saturday would be a lot cooler!

[Beardown91737]

These stadiums are justified on being able to host multiple events, like band battles, soccer, and graduations. When it is a sweltering graduation, the district may also be able generate justification for enclosing the stadium, which is surely the next round of necessity for HS football facilities.

[cordata]

You could generate even more revenue by flooding the stadium occaisionally for mock naval battles.

[UnfairPark]

Plano rents indoor venue every year. Its just one day of year and doing it outdoors in June doesnt make sense. They used to do it in Dallas Convention center, now doing it in Frisco's Ford Stadium.

I guess Allen ISD didn't want to rent to prove need for getting more debt bonds for another huge building which is silly for once once a year occasion. One of my Arab collegue's family was fasting, it was brutal for them to tolerate it without water but it wasnt easy for others either even with water, specially grandparents and younger siblings of graduates.

[keribeth818]

Where would you suggest they do it? Find a venue that can hold 11,000 AND is available on a weekend night in June. Why should they give their money to Dallas when they can keep everything in town? They had it outdoors last year, too, and it got rain delayed, twice. I guess that wasn't enough to keep them from changing the location.

The taxpayers voted and approved a bond to build a stadium and new freshman center. The residents of Allen have shown they want state of the art facilities and schools and they have plenty of tax base to pay for it. Not unexpected for a population who's median income is 25% higher than Plano's. Just sayin'.

[biafra4life]

Originally Posted by keribeth818

Where would you suggest they do it? Find a venue that can hold 11,000 AND is available on a weekend night in June. Why should they give their money to Dallas when they can keep everything in town? They had it outdoors last year, too, and it got rain delayed, twice. I guess that wasn't enough to keep them from changing the location.

The taxpayers voted and approved a bond to build a stadium and new freshman center. The residents of Allen have shown they want state of the art facilities and schools and they have plenty of tax base to pay for it. Not unexpected for a population who's median income is 25% higher than Plano's. Just sayin'.

Sorry but that's absolute madness. Having this outdoors in JUNE??? Allen ISD must have money burning a hole in their pockets because I see the future in which some grandparent has heatstroke sitting in 100 degree temps for hours. Stupidity of the highest order. But hey, I'm sure you as a resident of that city will gladly pony up the funds when the time comes. So to each his/her own.

[UnfairPark]

Originally Posted by keribeth818

Where would you suggest they do it? Find a venue that can hold 11,000 AND is available on a weekend night in June. Why should they give their money to Dallas when they can keep everything in town? They had it outdoors last year, too, and it got rain delayed, twice. I guess that wasn't enough to keep them from changing the location.

The taxpayers voted and approved a bond to build a stadium and new freshman center. The residents of Allen have shown they want state of the art facilities and schools and they have plenty of tax base to pay for it. Not unexpected for a population who's median income is 25% higher than Plano's. Just sayin'.

Use common sense before scheduling it, look for temperature/rain/hail/blizzard/earthquake/tornado predictions and find a clear day morning or evening. If that's difficult then use your 25% higher income to rent a venue. One day few hour rental isn't going to kill anyone but heatstroke or tornado might. I can bet this was done to convince residents to agree for some bigger debt item.

[ChristieP]

Back when I graduated from HS, Mesquite ISD rented Reunion Arena for an entire day. All 4 MISD high schools' graduates were run across the stage during the course of the day. The ceremonies were short, and to the point so that one group could be finished and get out before the next group started showing up. It worked well!

The problem is there are not many venues in DFW with enough capacity to hold graduations for these huge high schools like Allen. (A few that are large enough: American Airlines Center, Dallas County Convention Center Arena, AT&T Stadium, etc.) If the facility is too small, the graduates' family members' attendance would be limited, and that always causes a lot of heartache for the graduates with large families.

[BayTexan]

Good point. But better to have less family members attend than to lose family members to heatstroke!

Originally Posted by ChristieP

Back when I graduated from HS, Mesquite ISD rented Reunion Arena for an entire day. All 4 MISD high schools' graduates were run across the stage during the course of the day. The ceremonies were short, and to the point so that one group could be finished and get out before the next group started showing up. It worked well!

The problem is there are not many venues in DFW with enough capacity to hold graduations for these huge high schools like Allen. (A few that are large enough: American Airlines Center, Dallas County Convention Center Arena, AT&T Stadium, etc.) If the facility is too small, the graduates' family members' attendance would be limited, and that always causes a lot of heartache for the graduates with large families.