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Katy Citizen Watchdog$ |
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We’re Taxpayers. It’s Our Money. |
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The Watchdog Stadium Report |
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Katy ISD employees attending: Peter McElwain Scott Walker Kathy Mathis Bubba Fife Rusty Dowling
PBK employees attending:
Dan Bojo (President of PBK), Trey Schneider, President of Civil Division and Rick Bland, Principal of PBK for 8 years.
Others attending: L. J. Moller Greg Henry Roosevelt Alexander Willie Williams Hill Adams Becky Latta about three others that I did not know
INTRODUCTION: Rusty started the meeting off by telling us that several games would be televised this year (5 or 6). The Katy/Cy Bay Florida game will be on ESPN on 10/4. The point of this comment was to express the need for a bigger press box. He mentioned that media coverage would be at every game. Rusty's three priorities are 1)seating, 2) field house facilities, 3) press box. McElwain and Dowling both mentioned that they wanted something tasteful and functional, not opulent.
BOND: I asked Peter when the bond would go to vote. He said that at this point, he expects to have a November 2009 bond. However, that could change depending on timing of needs. Both high schools (#7 and #8) are expected to begin the planning stage in Spring 2010 and will be completed by August 2012. The stadium will be built at the same time as high school #7 and will be completed in time for the 2012 football season.
PARKING AND ACREAGE: Roosevelt Alexander made a brief comment about his concern on enough parking. Typically, they build parking spaces on a 1 to 3 ratio or 1 to 5 ratio (one parking space for every three or five seats in the stadium). 33 acres are needed for a 5,000 seat stadium and 75 - 85 acres are needed for a 16,000 seat stadium. By building the high school and the stadium on the same land they save on parking and thus save about 10 acres so they only need 65 - 75 acres for the stadium. The high school needs 95 acres to build the high school. And they have 160 acres on the site.
At this point, I believe that a track will not be part of the stadium. By not putting a track in, they can move the seats closer to the field and they will have more parking.
PRESS BOX: We saw pictures of 3 story press boxes and 2 story press boxes. Press boxes are going for $500 per sq ft. Estimate quoted by Dan Bojo was $2.5MM for a press box.
COST: Dan estimated that a 10,000 seat stadium cost would come out to $3,500 per seat or $35MM. A 16,000 seat stadium would cost $60MM or $3,500 per seat for the first 10,000 seats and $4,500 for the next 6,000 seats. These costs are based on concrete seats on concrete pillars. If you built aluminum seats on aluminum supports, it would save about $300 - $400 per seat.
Rusty stated that one of the main reasons that he wanted the 16,000 seats was because of playoff games. I told Rusty that the extra 6,000 seats would cost $27MM. If we had 10 playoff games per year at the new stadium (which won't happen) and we filled all 6,000 seats for every game (which won't happen) and we charged $10.00 per seat for the nosebleed (which I think is high), that adds up to $600,000 extra revenue per year. It would take 45 years to pay those 6,000 seats for that. His comment back to me was "so you figured that up that fast, did you?"
I mentioned that I thought $20MM was the max that I would be willing to spend. They said that they could build a 9,000 seat stadium (all aluminum) for that price. Rick Bland said that every five years the price doubles. If PBK built an identical stadium to Rhodes today (10,000 seats), it would cost $35MM
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Kevin Tatum, Katy Citizen Watchdog$ |
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Date: 08/20/2008 |
