Problem setting alpha to a Textfield

1

I want to dynamically pull text from a XML file and load it into a Textfield. I have added the text and applied styles to it via TextFormat. However, I can’t change the alpha to zero. I have no idea why. I even tried adding it into a sprite and setting the sprite’s alpha to zero. Can anyone help? Here is the code.

var txtName:TextField = new TextField;
var myFormat:TextFormat = new TextFormat();
var sprName:Sprite = new Sprite();
sprName.addEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, AddComplete);

BuildFormat();
BuildName();

function BuildFormat():void
{
myFormat.font = “Arial”;
myFormat.color = 0x990000;
myFormat.size = 22;
}

function BuildName():void
{
txtName.autoSize = TextFieldAutoSize.LEFT;
txtName.text = “This is a test.”;
txtName.setTextFormat(myFormat);
sprName.addChild(txtName);
addChild(sprName);
}

function AddComplete(event:Event):void
{
sprName.x = stage.stageWidth - sprName.width;
sprName.y = stage.stageHeight - sprName.height;
sprName.alpha = 0;
}