The Lone Star State is on a pedestal by itself when it comes to spawning football prowess. Texas has and will remain a hotbed of athletic talent. Its tryst with giving this talent the platform to grow and to thrive is incessant. Naturally, football takes precedence over most things down there. As hyperbolic as this sounds, even high school football is a bit of a religion in Texas. Friday Night Lights- three words that epitomize the craze around the high school game. Well, the lights are about to get very bright for one school.
There are few things that signal commitment and intent via the brass and stakeholders in the sports realm than building a new stadium. Pouring massive resources into a risky, long-term vision that you hope pays dividends down the line. La Porte High School in Texas took this gamble and has built a brand-new home for its football team. But there’s one, almost unanimous qualm upon its unveiling. The final product doesn’t seem to reciprocate the gaudy $56 million that went into building it. Sheesh.
The La Porte Bulldogs are a program that warrants a top-end stadium. A microcosm of this is that even though they haven’t played a “home” game since 2022, owing to the construction, they haven’t skipped a beat. La Porte has won consecutive district championships, going a collective 18-7 in this state of flux. But as they prepare to move into their new abode for the season opener on August 29th, the transition isn’t as welcoming and seamless as they’d have hoped.
The On3 High School IG handle posted much-awaited pictures of the new stadium. Located right next to Sylvan Beach, the bird’s eye view is pristine. The backdrop is beautifully scenic. But zoom in on the stadium itself, and it leaves a lot to be desired. That’s not an opinion, but in fact the prevailing sentiment in the comments section of said IG post. What was supposed to be a grandiose reveal left some people scratching their heads.
An increased seating capacity, new press box, expanded track wrapping around the gridiron and state-of-the-art weight room are some of the upgrades to the La Porta Bulldogs’ new home. But on the outside, there are some rather apparent oversights that have brought about some negativity towards the structure. For instance, there are no visible video screens in the released pictures. The stands don’t have any shade from the sun, either. These issues and a lot more flooded the aforementioned IG comments section.
La Porte High School’s new stadium doesn’t move the social media sphere whatsoever
Right off the bat, one thing caught particular flak. That expanded track circling the field? It’s led to the stands being in a whole different area code! “Imagine sitting behind the endzone, 40 yards behind the goalpost lol, and the game is at the other end of the field,” read one comment. Another frustrated person said, “Looks like an amateur race car track.” The most common complaint, by a landslide, was that the stadium just doesn’t seem like value for money.
“They got ripped off. If I was a parent, I’d be pissed,” read one comment. This discrepancy in what’s visible vs what was spent and promised was reiterated by a few others. “56 million to look like the random high school I went to in Michigan? It might be a little bit bigger but my school probably spent less than 100k. And they spent 500X? Not sure I believe that” wrote one person. “Money laundering at its finest LMFAO that’s a $5 million dollar stadium max,” and “Construction company fleeced” piled onto La Porte High School. Even the one slightly positive comment was undercut. “It’s nice but it’s poorly built,” it read.
Alas, La Porte High had made its bed now and will have to lie in it. Interestingly, they cannot even hope that better results will quell the cynicism, since they’re already so successful. They’ll just hope the game-going fans of the Bulldogs warm up a little more to what they hope will be a fortress. Because if the general social media reaction was a litmus test, it sure hasn’t gone too well.
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