A new football showplace
Posted on August 27th, 2009 – 1:06 PMBy John Millea
You’re going to read more about this (hint, hint … our preseason prep football section comes out next week), but the new football stadium at Farmington High School is something special. It’s a top-loading facility with 3,000 seats, large plazas behind behind both sides, a grass berm behind one end zone and a three-story glass wall towering behind the other end zone.
I was chatting with Sean McMenomy, the new coach at DeLaSalle — which has a new stadium for the first time in history — and he said of the Farmington stadium, “I’ve been telling people, ‘You guys have to drive down and see this place, it is amazing.’ It’s the kind of thing you see on college campuses, not high schools.”
John Millea is on Twitter at www.twitter.com/stribjohn
24 Responses to "A new football showplace"
WOW!
WOO HOO Farmtown on the MAP!
I got no issue with new football stadiums… But who says the public school system doesn’t have enough money? Everytime I see another legislator or superintendent complaining about budget cuts, I’ll just tell ‘em to drive to Farmington and take a look and where the money is going….
Hmmm. Fantastic new stadium, new high school building, burgeoning enrollment. Might Farmington become a player in the ‘What will become of the Lake Conference’ saga?
go tigers!!!!!!!!
great….a big new fancy stadium, a big new school, fancy computers and the whole 9 yards!!!! only problems are the school cap is the same as the old one maybe a few more students can pack in there, they run out all the good teachers and get the new ones because they can pay them less, and the edumacation sucks! money cant fix everything and im glad my tax dollars went to a fancy new building!!
This clearly means that Farmington is now the elite in football. Now the Strib writers and fans can leave Eden Prairie, Wayzata, Minnetonka, and Cretin alone? Because they now have the best facility, they must have the best program?? Good luck Farmington on the new season, no preasure right?
I had the opportunity to tour the new school a few weeks, and the entire campus is impressive. In particular, I would agree with John that the football stadium is special, and certainly the finest venue in the south metro. It’s unfortunate that the anti education crowd has already begun to pollute the comment section of this blog entry.
Darn nice stadium. The old stadium is a darn nice stadium too. If it helps bring test scores up to par with surrounding districts such as Apple Valley, Rosemount, Lakeville, etc, the taxpayers got a deal. The teachers union got a giant raise about seven years ago, which they said was needed to put us on par with surrounding districts when it came to quality education. Hasn’t worked out yet. Maybe the fancy football field will do the trick. You sure can’t question one of the fanciest high school football stadiums in the state without being “anti-education”.
Looks pretty nice, but 3,000 capacity ??? At least make it 5,000. I’m going to the opening of a new stadium here in San Antonio tomorrow, that seats 10,000.
I’ve toured the new school, and it’s just as impressive as the stadium, which has to rank as one of the best venues in the state.
looks like a some of the nicer practice facilities we have here in Texas. Our main stadiu, seats 23000 and our secondary stadiu, seats 15000.
ooops, meant to type stadium, I guess its true what they say, Texans can play football, they just can’t spell ;>)
Amen Chucky! This is high SCHOOL.
You’re wrong Joe. The latest MCA test scores for the districts you mentioned show all of them to be within a percentage point or two of each other in proficiency, and all are well above state averages.
It looks great alongside the sea of foreclosed houses down there.
John,
Have you seen the new stadium at Spring Lake Park? It may rival the one at Farmington.
Hi Fridley guy; No, I have not seen Fridley’s new place. I’ve heard great things about it and I hope I get to take a look at it this fall.
Looks great with the proximity to the school and the top-loading bleachers, but 2 big thumbs down for making it a multi-sport stadium. Just because a football field fits within a track doesn’t mean you should do it. Soccer is better played on natural grass anyways. You put 3000 seats in for football, not soccer or track.
The spring lake park stadium also looks very nice. http://www.springlakeparkschools.org/news/bond_hs_photos_08242009.asp
I really think everyone wins if you have a separate grass soccer field with the track around that. The stands won’t look completely empty at soccer/track, they’ll get actual grass and the much larger football crowd will be a lot closer to the action.
Here is a question for you. How does a school district justify a $600,000 turf field that will need to be replaced after 12 years? These turf fields are being installed at metro high schools faster than a Usain Bolt 100 meter world record. I would like to see the financial pay back model that makes this make sense. Or is this just a shell game between the districts capital budget and its annual operating budget? Turf Toe
I don’t know if the $600,000 figure is accurate, but probably in the ballpark. The newer turfs last longer than 12 years, and replacement isn’t as expensive. One suburban district, which hasn’t decided to move forward on a decision, figured a payback within six to eight years in reduced labor, watering and upkeep of the separate football and soccer tracks.
And as to why you use the same field for football, track and soccer? It’s difficult to justify spending that much on a facility that is used less than 10 times a year.
As for the “shell game” turf toe asks about, it’s rhow the system works in Minnesota, which mandates that capital and operating budgets be kept separate.
phipho: How many people can they seat at the hockey arena?
Chas,
You must be a turf salesman. If the turf lasts longer than 12 years, why does it only have an standard 8 year warranty?. In these tough economic times I find it laughable that school districts are spending this kind of money on turf fields. The Tax Payers in these districts need to know what their elected school board members are up to, next they will be threatening to layoff teachers and make the elementary kids walk two miles to school to get the next levy passed.
