Stadium boom has rising price tags
Katy put $72M into new facility; others prepare to spend.
Bob McSpadden remembers being asked about the possibility of a domed Texas high school football stadium years ago.
He was skeptical on when and how.
“Now, we have The Star in Dallas (in Frisco),” said McSpadden, better known as Texas Bob. He has become a fixture for creating a database that documents every high school football stadium in the state, and districts have kept McSpadden busy the last decade.
Now it’s Katy’s turn. The west Houston suburb introduced the $72 million Legacy Stadium on Thursday — the most expensive high school football stadium in the country. It has everything players and spectators need or want — 12,000 seats, ribbon board and high-definition scoreboard, expanded concession stands with TVs mounted above and a field house that houses district offices, locker rooms, a firstaid room and hospitality rooms with prime seating just outside. The LED lighting on the facade will indicate which home team is playing.
Katy ISD officials say functionality was the focus versus going “over the top.” Building something the community could be proud of was of chief importance.
It is not as big as the stadium that set the standard in 2012 — Allen ISD’s $60 million Eagle Stadium seats 18,000 — but it does cost more considering infrastructure. Legacy Stadium shares space with a renovated 35-yearold Rhodes Stadium across the street. Academy Sports bought naming rights to the complex that houses the two stadiums for $2.5 million over 10 years.
Above all, Legacy Stadium pushes a culture of Texas high school football stadiums that won’t slow down any time soon.
It follows Clear Creek ISD’s Challenger Columbia Stadium at a capacity of 10,000. That opened last year with similar bells and whistles at a construction cost just north of $39 million. Alvin ISD will have a new one in 2018 at $41.5 million. While Allen sent jolts throughout the landscape in the Metroplex, McKinney ISD has made waves with its $69.9 million stadium set to open sometime in 2018. Prosper ISD just announced plans for its $48 million stadium set for 2019.
“If you were to name the top five prideful communities in the state, if it’s not up there at No. 1, it’s pretty close to No. 1,” Katy ISD Athletic Director Debbie Decker said.
That in mind, she’s sure there will be some boasting about Legacy Stadium among fans. But Decker attests it wasn’t about keeping up with the trend but rather a need much more than a want.
The 2015 report that 309,556 residents sat inside Katy ISD boundaries has translated into eight football-playing high schools with a ninth in the works.
Only having one stadium with that many schools would have meant renting out other facilities for use. There is hope Thursday night games could be limited, too, considering it’s a school night.
But on the other side of the tug-of-war is those who gawk at the price tag or believe exactly the opposite — it is a stadium arms race reminiscent to what’s seen in college football, with the sport taking precedence over academics.
If this is the golden age of Texas high school football stadiums, what will it look like in the future? McKinney ISD Athletic Director Shawn Pratt believes new stadiums will continue to be necessities, but it’s OK to want to be firstclass. He’s visited stadiums around the state, including Legacy Stadium, hoping to get pieces and ideas he can take back with him. He didn’t have to go far for one visit.
“Yes, Allen definitely jumped up there and set the bar way above what anybody else had,” Pratt said. “But you go to a football game over there and, man, it’s a great experience for the fans, for their kids, for the band, drill team, cheerleaders, football players, soccer team.
“And that’s what you want for your kids.”
There is a certain standard with stadiums now that may only get bigger and grander — LED lighting, ribbon boards, scoreboards, hospitality suites, functionality and game-day experience, among many other features.
Whatever that standard evolves into, Decker believes it will be set by the individual community.
As far as resistance in the form of Katy voters rejecting the 2013 bond, McSpadden said there always will be some of that somewhere. But the simplest aspect about stadiums should still be appreciated.
“The most amazing thing about all these new stadiums is they’re all 100 yards long,” McSpadden said.