SCPrepTalk

Wilson set to host first on-campus football game
Scott Chancey
schancey@florencenews.com
Morning News Prep Sports Writer
Sep 11, 2019

FLORENCE, S.C. – This much is known: Wilson High School will host its first on-campus football game at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
Not at Memorial Stadium. But on the Tigers’ actual campus at 1411 E. Old Marion Highway in Florence. What is unknown? Pretty much everything outside the chalked-in lines. All Wilson can do is prepare the best it can. <snip>

Another Florence One on-campus game is Oct. 4 when South Florence hosts St. James, and this season’s final one is Oct. 18 when West Florence hosts Socastee. <snip>

“I’m not going to say how many people we can actually hold,” McQueen said. <snip> "We don’t know what that number is going to be yet, at this point.”

< Excerpts - Full article is at the headline link >

SMH. Florence District 1 continues to put the "fun" in dysfunctional. Our on-campus stadiums are the single-wide rental equivalent of a 1A football stadium, barely suitable for JV football and soccer games. But I guess we're going to chase the dogs out from under the porch, put out some folding chairs and port-a-johns and host a couple of 4A and 5A football games.

I'm not fan of Thursday night games and I'm painfully aware of Memorial Stadium's deficiencies but moving the games to even less adequate facilities is not the answer. That is, unless the goal is to embarrass the residents of FS1 that rejected the bloated referendum proposed earlier this year.

Sounds like fun ....having to tote your own chair, port-a-johns....do they have a concession stand or can ya bring a cooler??? WOW
They still do this at Hilton Head Prep School Banddad...but its small and private..y’all potentially could have a few thousand people want to see a game and this is unacceptable for such large schools.

Newcatntown wrote:Sounds like fun ....having to tote your own chair, port-a-johns....do they have a concession stand or can ya bring a cooler??? WOW
They still do this at Hilton Head Prep School Banddad...but its small and private..y’all potentially could have a few thousand people want to see a game and this is unacceptable for such large schools.

I exaggerate, but not much. All three schools have a field that is configured for JV football and soccer, seating for maybe 400 people. They have small concessions/bathroom buildings, I am sure they will have to increase capacity with porta-johns. I'm told the district is bringing temporary bleachers but I think there's going to be a lot of people standing and a lot of people not admitted.

Google Earth image of Wilson's football field is below.

no money over there? I see big, nice stadiums most places I visit

Onion Rings wrote:no money over there? I see big, nice stadiums most places I visit

Summary: Decades of neglected school maintenance and construction. Building stadiums takes a back seat to building and maintaining the schools.

About 12 years ago the district tried to get a huge referendum passed to replace old schools and were rejected, since then they have been using all available discretionary funds to build new schools, a plan known locally as pay-as-you-go. They've built 6 or 7 new elementary schools and they've broken ground on a new middle school, the problem is the other 14 schools have continued to age. With FS1's tax base, pay-as-you-go will never catch up and will make it almost impossible to build new high schools.

Earlier this year a new school board and administration again tried to get a referendum passed to build a handful of elementary schools, 2 middle schools and to do major renovations to all three high schools. Again, the "ask" was too much for voters to stomach and it was soundly defeated. Pay-as-you-go continues.

not familiar with your area .builders building homes and apartments in that area?they are here .im all for a 3k to 7 k building tax on developers. They build but we dont have a infrastructure to support the extra resident's. Im all for a tax on delopers or require them to build infrastructure to suppirt the communities they are building and making huge simes of money from. While we have to pay to support thier profit margins. They dont live where they build its time there bottom line takes a hit.

Fortfor5 wrote:not familiar with your area .builders building homes and apartments in that area?they are here .im all for a 3k to 7 k building tax on developers. They build but we dont have a infrastructure to support the extra resident's. Im all for a tax on delopers or require them to build infrastructure to suppirt the communities they are building and making huge simes of money from. While we have to pay to support thier profit margins. They dont live where they build its time there bottom line takes a hit.

absolutely! Impact fees have been in the news recently in Fort Mill and Clover

Onion Rings wrote:

Fortfor5 wrote:not familiar with your area .builders building homes and apartments in that area?they are here .im all for a 3k to 7 k building tax on developers. They build but we dont have a infrastructure to support the extra resident's. Im all for a tax on delopers or require them to build infrastructure to suppirt the communities they are building and making huge simes of money from. While we have to pay to support thier profit margins. They dont live where they build its time there bottom line takes a hit.

absolutely! Impact fees have been in the news recently in Fort Mill and Clover

Yes but not enough....development has run rampant over Lancaster( 1 syllable not 3) and York counties!! Yet ...not enough infrastructure to handle the masses that have swarmed here!
It will only get worse...mark my words.

Newcatntown wrote: Yes but not enough....development has run rampant over Lancaster( 1 syllable not 3) and York counties!! Yet ...not enough infrastructure to handle the masses that have swarmed here!
It will only get worse...mark my words.