Irving Schools Stadium

Irving, TX

Irving Schools Stadium is home to all Irving ISD High Schools, Irving High, MacArthur High, and Nimitz High. The Stadium resides near the campus of Bowie Jr. High in Irving, the location of the original Irving High School, on 6th Street about 2 miles South of Highway 183. Coming either from the east or west into Irving, take the O'Connor road exit and turn toward the south. Follow O'Connor until it dead ends into 6th Street (no, you're nowhere near Austin) and turn left or toward the East. The Stadium will be next to Bowie Jr. High on the South side of 6th Street less than a mile east of O'Connor.

Parking is much improved since the renovations of 2002. In 2001, the adjacent area to the east of the stadium was a field that sometimes took overflow. Now, it is a fairly good sized parking lot that should be able to accomodate stadium capacity, somewhere around 10,000. Traffic flow in and out of the stadium on game nights, particularly inner city rivalry games or games against competition that bring a lot of their fans, can be slow, but not unbearable. If you get there 45 minutes to an hour before kickoff, you should have few or no problems getting in and probably no problems parking.

Probably one of the best places to scout or be a press box media member - the elevator takes you right up to the press box, scouting area or VIP room. You can count on Margaret to make sure you have a pass, but always give you a smile once she knows you. Coach Barnett and the athletic office do a great job taking care of you - one of the Irving ISD traditions is Sonic in the press box - which you really can't beat. Great leather high back seats and you are low enough to really see the action. The thick paned glass is thick enough to keep out the elements but you can still soak in some of the atmosphere. Great televisions and high speed internet make this one of the best press boxes in the area.

Irving ISD probably had one of the better grass fields in the area until 2001, especially considering 3 schools played on the field, usually 2 per week. In 2002, Irving ISD installed Field Turf, and everything I've heard about the surface is positive. The field always drained relatively well, and the Field Turf hasn't hindered that. There is an adequate amount of "field" surrounding the legal football playing surface, then the reasonably soft track. No concrete is on any part of the field that players would come into contact with on a regular basis.

As a long time Irving resident and Irving High alum, I have to say I'm dissapointed in the fact that there is little atmosphere compared to other venues. Until the 2002 renovations the stadium was all aluminum on both sides. Now, the entire visitors side is all aluminum, but the home side has adopted chair backed seats that surrounds a fairly nice (for high school) press box. The old press box was barely that, but the new one has elevator service. The aluminum stands still have their problems such as not providing full cover underneath in bad weather, bouncing sound from the band and crowd noise back to the other side (sometimes a problem during the national anthem), and not being stable when people are moving around.

This isn't to say, however, that there have not been very good games played at ISS over the past few years. The various Irving Schools' rivalries always produce loud crowds, and other schools such as Arlington Lamar, Grand Prairie, Southlake Carroll, to mention a few, have visited ISS and have been treated to competitive and entertaining contests. This applies to all Irving ISD high schools.

ISS visitors side is lacking in many respects. It isn't terrible, but to me, it appears darker and, early in the season, fans are looking into the sun. That has been remedied, to some extent, with the press box conversion, but the stadium is nowhere near as acoomodating in any way as Pennington in HEB. Hopefully, the home side renovations were the base for a master plan of building a complete permanent structure on the site. Thus, for as old a stadium as ISS is (the first games there were probably played in the '50s), it has little character. ISS does host several playoff games, as it is a decent sized venue with adequate features. But unless you purchase a home side reserve ticket, the stadium isn't the best place to watch a football game. Sightlines are adequate, but the field suffers, due to the track, from being a distance away from the field.

Interestingly enough, until the renovations, both the home and visitor stands were equivilent. Now that the Irving ISD has renovated the home side, the visitor side reserved suffers a little, but unlike other area stadiums, Irving Schools Stadium does not have an unpleasant visitors side compared to the home side. There appears to be roughly an equal seating split among the sides, although renovations may have impacted that slightly. Most metroplex stadiums have visitors sides that are either as adequate as the home side, yet smaller, or completely inadequate compared to the home side. ISS isn't that way, at least not to the extent of other stadiums. This is important as all three schools play at least one game per year as the visitor (against an inner city rival).

42-50 -- Worth seeing the stadium even if two 0-10 schools are playing. Everyone should visit this stadium as soon as possible. Look for a JV game if you have to to see a game.

34-41 -- An excellent stadium. The only way that this stadium could be better is if you had a good game playing.

26-33 -- An average football stadium. If you're in the neighborhood and a team you're scouting is playing, this is the stadium for you.

20-25 -- Parents of band, football players and drill teams would enjoy the game, but only because of parental pride.

Under 20 -- Time to ask the school district for a bond election.

Right around average. Some features, like the field and home reserved seating, are above average. Other features, like concessions and parking, are average. The rest are below average. Nothing spectacular, and nothing one would consider a wasteland.