You want stadium schadenfreude, you got your stadium schadenfreude: Eagle Stadium in Allen, Texas, the two-year-old $60 million high school football facility that was shut down last month after giant cracks were found in it, may now need to be partially demolished and rebuilt in order to keep the damage from worsening:
Fixing structural problems at Allen Eagle stadium may require demolishing major components — possibly in areas that include the athletic field, a preliminary forensics report says.
The report found that cracks at the stadium may be caused by poor concrete work and improper structural design of reinforcing steel.
“The cracking has decreased the service life of the structure and potentially decreased its structural capacity,” the report from Nelson Forensics said.
The Dallas Morning News report is maddeningly unspecific about just what would have to be torn down, but “areas that include the athletic field” doesn’t sound good. An alternative would be filling the cracks with epoxy, which the News says “would be faster and less expensive but would diminish the stadium’s aesthetics and require periodic repairs and reapplications.”
Nobody’s talking yet about what this would all cost or who would pay for it, though I’d anticipate major finger-pointing and massive lawsuits if it turns out significant repairs are necessary. Until then, enjoy your “most expensive high school stadium ever may need to be partly torn down after two years” headline.