$139 million for a high school stadium? In football hotbeds, it's the norm.

[Celerity]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2025/08/22/expensive-high-school-football-stadiums

https://archive.ph/sMhn9



The Wolves of Georgia’s Buford High School play in a football stadium that would be the envy of many college teams. It offers key supporters 15 luxury suites with catering services and TV monitors. Reporters work from its two press boxes. There are four locker rooms: two for the home team, two for visitors.

The facility — the most expensive high school stadium in a state that’s passionate about football — was funded by the city of Buford, some 40 miles outside Atlanta, and completed in July. Its cost? Roughly $62 million. “Everybody wants to be part of the stadium, from sponsors to ticket takers to spectators,” said Ryan Liccardo, a Buford High coach. “We sold bricks to inscribe names and families, and people took to that like a moth to a flame.”

High school football has long been an integral part of many communities’ identity, with the Friday night lights of gridiron games a point of pride. But some towns in the South and Midwest have taken their support to the next level, constructing mega stadiums with swank accoutrements for the teams, fans and, perhaps especially, prominent and deep-pocketed backers.

“The popularity of high school football drives the size of stadiums,” said Roger Noll, professor emeritus of economics at Stanford University. And while smaller cities and rural areas may not be affluent, they are densely enough populated to “generate crowds in the thousands.”

snip


Built at a cost of $139 million — which, adjusted for inflation, would be nearly $182 million today: Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium at McKinley Senior High School in Canton, Ohio. (Courtesy of Canton City School District)

[SWBTATTReg]

1. I certainly agree. I grew up in Joplin MO, Nebraska, OK, KS, all big football supporters. The ...

amount of money they spent on stadium complexes, high schools, etc. was mind-boggling.

[Ping Tung]

2. They'll make it up by firing all the teachers that don't teach business, mechanics, or agriculture.

And, whatever books are left after the burning. And, then they can compress the curriculum into 2 departments. Sports and "How to make a lotta money".

[GaYellowDawg]

3. These are the same fuckers who won't pay for school lunches.

What a fucked up world. I really like football, but that shit is way beyond ridiculous.

[BigMin28]

4. Here in north Texas

Allen ISD built a high school football stadium that cost 160 million dollars. It wasn't usable for a couple of years due to cracks in the concrete used. Spent more on an engineering firm to figure out a fix. Then shortly after, not to be outdone, McKinney ISD, just up the road from Allen, built a stadium for the high school that cost 170 million. That is the value Texas places on education. Consider the highest paid employee in Texas university system is UT football coach. 2.2 million a year.

[lees1975]

6. That explains why Texas ranks near the bottom in educational achievement.

My wife taught special ed in Texas, in a basement classroom next to the boiler room, with the pipes running along the ceiling. In upstairs classrooms, they had strung chicken wire across the ceilings, because of leaks which caused plaster chunks to fall down and hit kits in the head. They did not have the budget to purchase everything their kids needed. But by golly, that district had a multi-million dollar football field complex. Built in a town where the school district had a total population of about 12,000, the stadium held 6,500. They got big crowds, but not that big, maybe half on a really good night during a great season. And keep in mind, these stadiums are used for less than half of a school year, and technically, just 5 or 6 nights out of 365. That's a bigger waste of money than a megachurch auditorium.

[Ilsa]

8. I think Texas tries to run out families with

kids with disabilities.

Afterall, what's the point in educating if they can't play football?

[flvegan]

5. They should call it Brawndo Stadium. n/t

[MuseRider]

13. Ahhhhhh, that is a good one.

Thanks, that is perfect. (It's got electrolytes and stuff. *or something like that, it has been a while since I watched that)

[FuzzyRabbit]

7. How about a domed high school stadium at a fraction of the cost?

It cost only $11 million, paid by the electric company. This makes a lot more sense than those monstrous stadiums.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_Valley_Ensphere

[Xavier Breath]

10. That's a cool-looking stadium, and on the inside as well.

Sounds like they get a lot of use out if too with all the sports/events it hosts.

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. Seats 5,500 for a high school of 445 students.

No, that does not make sense.

[Xavier Breath]

9. Benson stadium sits next to the Pro Football HOF in Canton and is used for the NFL induction ceremony and games.

And, no, that does not justify the exorbitant high school stadiums being built elsewhere nor the lack of proper fiscal priorities, but it is some necessary context about why it exists as it does.

[ok_cpu]

11. Thank you

The main point of the article notwithstanding, including Benson is disingenuous. It was built to host the HOF game, concert, and other festivities.

[Oeditpus Rex]

12. Read 'Friday Night Lights' to understand

the effect of this grotesque emphasis on foobaw on the towns, schools, parents and players where these cathedrals are built.

Don't watch the tee vee series. Don't watch the movie. Read the book.

[Xavier Breath]

14. I haven't partaken in any of its forms, and I stopped caring about high school football after I left high school.

But, when I listen to local sports talk in the autumn, apart from the NFL/college talk I tune in for, there's a lot of talk about high school ball. Invariably, the FNL tv show is quoted, mentioned, or in some way alluded to, and in nearly reverential terms. Kyle Chandler's character is very much a god to them. So it's interesting to learn that the book isn't the same rosy portrayal.

[Oeditpus Rex]

15. The book was generally hated by white residents of Odessa

It portrayed them as racists, entirely dependent on the oil market, with cirtually nothing in their lives but classism and the Church of Permian High Football.

A WaPo sportswriter took a two-year leave of absence and moved to Odessa to write it via immersion. He wasn't under cover or anything, but the residents apparently expected that rosy portrayal. They didn't get it.

The final chapter is the real kick in the balls, but it has little to do with Odessa. It's the story of two superstars at Carter High in Dallas and how ridiculously extreme the worship of Texas high school football can get (I think Carter was the school that beat Permian in the state 5AAA [or whatever] semifinals that year.)

[ProfessorGAC]

17. Here In Our Town...

...there was a referendum on the ballot for a sales surtax for a football stadium. It was resoundingly beaten. (Almost 3 to 1 said no.)
I never say no to tax increases for the school, but I said no to this.

[EllieBC]

18. We spend millions on ice rinks up here.

Most people are fine with it. Many communities need 2-4 sheets of ice to handle all of their hockey and figure skating stuff.