Inside America’s $100 Million High School Football Stadiums

[@Hillers62]

I am from Texas...you have to understand that football is a religion in Texas...Thus the stadiums...

[@Wildcat221]

Stupid

[@greenie43]

@@Hillers62 there are also other places that football is a religion!! If you're from northeast Ohio you know exactly what I mean!! Ohio is a pretty big football state, but northeast Ohio has the most schools where the most state championships have been won!! Massillon, McKinley, st edward, Hoban, Avon there are more!!

[@stephensnyder1055]

You’d think that since this true they would win some championships 🤣

[@buttmuddbrooks]

Pathetic adults who claim to be god fearing folk, worship a football. It’s literally one of the Ten Commandments. Worshiping a false idol. What heathens.

[@TheTJAmos]

Eh

[@redmustangredmustang]

The funny thing is with Eagle Stadium was that in 2014, a safety inspection found cracks in the concrete foundation and were FORCED to close for the entire 2014 football season. It cost 10 million dollars to repair those cracks. It re-opened for the 2015 football season.

[@bennybronx381]

Yes this is correct not to mention it had a 12 degree downward slant too 😮

[@xamarinmaster1403]

Katy ISD now has a tenth high school that opened this Fall. The old Rhodes stadium mentioned in the video still exists and is right next to Legacy stadium. Both stadiums are used simultaneously on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights to get each week's high school football games played. Because there are 10 high schools in Katy ISD, practically the entire regular season of football is made up of every Katy ISD high school playing every other Katy ISD high school.

[@EPG400]

If you look at the schedules, each team has 2 non-district games a season, that’s it. It’s going to get lower if Freeman ever gets promoted to 6A

[@jadar9356]

@@EPG400need a 7A like Mississippi

[@fredricklee]

These stadiums put many college stadiums (and probably programs) to shame. It does not surprise me that Texas was the lead dog in football stadiums, both in size and costs. Church, football, and pickups rule the state (okay an old saying, but still). With football programs big money attractions, it will be in no time, that high school sports comes out of the proverbial closet to show its true business colors. However, I would have some issues with Tom Benson being in the group since it is part of the NFL 😉

[@solodolo528]

exactly tom benson is not a hs stadium and its largest attendance is only by the nfl

[@davidlafleche1142]

Foxboro Stadium was built for only $7 million.

[@lilcourtny08]

​@@davidlafleche1142in 1970 though.

[@sp1nks248]

It creates legends

[@greenie43]

It's not owned by the NFL it's owned by the Canton city school district and McKinley high School is right beside the stadium!!!!!

[@stischer47]

LOL, the Alamo Stadium, built in 1940 and used for San Antonio ISD high school football games, housed 18,000 from the beginning. Affectionally known as "The Rockpile" (it was built on the site of an abandoned quarry), it has stayed remarkably the same (no press box, no fancy seats, etc.), more like an ancient arena. In 1963 Lee played Brackenridge for the city high school title in front of an official 18445 fans (but there were many more). The game was televised and broadcast over radio.

[@michaelcanney7218]

What's the point?

[@MichaelTijerina972]

I'm from McKinney Texas and played on the 04 football team and we played at the old stadium now to see my nephew play at this new stadium is crazy

[@michaelcanney7218]

Is it really?

[@billyblanton8042]

Ford Center at The Star is a 12,000-seat stadium located in Frisco, Texas. Its main use is as the Dallas Cowboys' practice facility. It is also used for Whataburger's Friday Night Stars, an event every Friday showcasing Frisco Independent School District high school varsity football.

[@frankautrey5002]

All honesty, the last stadium, which does host high school teams, was renovated for the NFL and Hall of Fame. Not for what the schools produced. If that was the case then Ford Stadium at the Star in Frisco would actually be the most expensive high school stadium. 1.5 Billion dollars.

[@robt510]

Ha! You beat me to it! I live in Plano. The Star is about 6 miles away from my house. It’s amazing! The Star has even held the CMAs twice!!!

[@kevingray8616]

I'm in Katy, TX, so yeah I know about our own Academy Sports + Outdoors Student Activities Complex. Academy is based in Katy and bought naming rights some years ago. The complex includes Rhodes Stadium (where I played soccer a few times when in high school decades ago) and Legacy Stadium. I did not know about the Berry Center which is just up the road and east from me even though I've been across the street from it a number of times at Taco Casa. (like an old school Taco Bell back when Taco Bell was good, but with larger portion sizes; I make a special trip there on occasion) I didn't realize there was a stadium there at all because it's not obvious from the main road. (and I'm usually just too busy going to Taco Casa) Wow, they've done a TON of renovations to the stadium in Canton, OH. That thing is HUGE now. I visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame years ago. There was a field there, but nothing to marvel at. There is now! My daughter is an NFL cheerleader (among other things) and recently performed at that stadium for the Hall of Fame Game.

[@joshuasmith6439]

St. Ed's very rarely plays home games at Tom Benson unless their opponents come from out of state and again that is rare. They normally use Lakewood Stadium for their home games which is closer to their campus in Lakewood. I will say this though Tom Benson has other uses, it is (along with Paul Brown Tiger Stadium in Massillon) used for the state finals for OHSAA, and every year that they play there Massillon and Canton-McKinley will absolutely sell that stadium out for their rivalry game.

[@justabreeze460]

I’m just glad GlenOak got a shoutout even though they are an absolute embarrassment now lol.

[@gaminguniverseyt2244]

i play for cinco ranch and playing at legacy stadium makes me feel like im in college everytime we have a game there

[@AM-tu1rc]

I used to play marching band at the Berry Center in Cypress. It's important to note that while the cost of the Berry Center is very high, it's not really fair to attribute it all to the football field. A lot of that money is for the main complex which is for general CFISD use, not for football.

[@Sam2sham]

Saw the Harlem Globe trotters in the basketball arena.

[@AL13N22]

I feel it for all the seniors that graduated the year before

[@greenie43]

Grew up 20 mins south of canton. I remeber driving by the stadium in aww as a kid and even attending games there!! Saw a few Massillon vs McKinley games and HOF games!!!! It also holds the football state championships now!!

[@rockerfarm6445]

Damn, I knew there were huge HS football stadiums in Texas, but you're telling me that two of the 5 biggest are 6 miles apart?!? Hear me out, if they have to rebuild in the futur how about a double header stadium? 2 fields in one stadium and a huge stadium around it lol

[@kevinmerino7432]

And only a couple of miles away in prosper and melissa are also really nice stadiums similar to the ones in McKinney and allen

[@jimpatrick8021]

Yep, you can watch 3-4 games from one stadium out here in the hills by Lake Travis on Fridays. Now I don't even want to mention that Lake Travis HS has a 9000 sqt foot plus weigh room that was bigger than most/all of pro and college programs back in 2005, add an indoor field. Check out all of the HS's outside of Dallas with there setups in these one time very small towns. Enjoy!

[@theS4V0Y]

we had a play off game in each. First round was a home game for Allen, then they played in McKinney’s stadium the next week as a neutral site. LOL

[@Wildcat221]

Where do these schools get 80 million dollars to do this? They could literally send all their seniors to colleges and pay for all their tuition… but instead they build a HS football stadium which has nothing to do with your life after HS… seems like a massive waste to me.

[@greenie43]

@@Wildcat221 because the return on sales for football is greater than the return on sales for diplomas!!! Meaning graduating students that graduate will very rarely give funds back to their high school!!! So why don't you ask the millionaire students who have graduated this question?! I mean they've made millions but can't give back to the place that got them there!!!!! Why don't they donate to school supplies, or even money? Ask Bill Gates the last time he donated to his high school!!!!!!!! Seems like that's where I would start before I went riding someone's coat tails!!!!!!!

[@miked853]

@@greenie43 that has to be the wildest response I have heard in a long time. Think things through and take a deep breath. 5 maybe 6 home football games isn't boosting the economy. Having an educated population helps way more than a football stadium ever would. Any of the profits from the games will go right back to the stadium whether its maintenance or paying staff to keep it up. For the record Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has invested $590 million to support 1,600 schools nationwide.

[@greenie43]

@@Wildcat221 you obviously have a hard time reading!! Hooked on phonics, it will take you where you need to go!! The response you gave us someone hiding from the truth!! Don't you have some kind of protest to go too!! You seem like that kind!!! Don't forget to donate to the institution that got you where you are!!!!!!!!

[@anthonydiaz4358]

@@miked853so let’s get this right to start w the first half of the statement, if there are football games Thursday Friday and Saturday, Thursday nights Friday nights then a sat morning and night game considering that there are two stadiums which he mentioned right next to each other let’s do the math that’s 4 games at each stadium, meaning 8 teams play which obviously includes four of their district, and if u watch the video there are 9 teams in just their disctrict so genuinely to the 120 players playing to their about 150 parents plus fans maybe alumni’s or siblings I’d say it generates well over the economy, plus to add onto that mindless bill gates claim he has made over 125 billion u act like their 500 mil hurt them over the years

[@anthonydiaz4358]

⁠@@miked853I think maybe just maybe you need to think things through and take a deep breath maybe listen to the video or do research before seeming so ignorant over your own thoughts, maybe you should try to add to our educated population!

[@WillE454]

Check out Propser ISD’s stadium in Prosper, Tx. Collin County, Texas has a lot of nice stadiums like Allen, Prosper, Frisco, McKinney, Celina, Melissa.

[@HoodAdventures]

So only the Dallas area has nice stadiums 🙄

[@oladeebiazazi4538]

Katy got a new one too right?

[@WillE454]

@@HoodAdventures I live in the Dallas area so these are the only stadiums I’ve seen in person. There’s nice stadiums in the rest of the country but I’ve never been to them.

[@dwightanderson8331]

Cy-Fair reminds me of Tulsa Union with both having gymnasiums on one end of the stadium. Union recently renovated its stadium and both ends are enclosed now.

[@tomerwin1472]

The writing, editing, music, sound effects, and delivery are all top notch. Great video.

[@leafext]

dude this video is so high quality i thought your channel had more than 100k subscribers

[@VorlonAngel]

As a native Texan I would be remiss if I didn't suggest you take a look at some of Texas' high school football programs that have multi million dollar INDOOR practice facilities. You can start with one of the smaller schools like Carthage and go up from there. Just a suggestion. 😳

[@billyblanton8042]

If ya using Canton as a high school field Frisco Texas uses ford center which is also the practice facility for the Dallas Cowboys. At the cost of 1.5 Billion.

[@shellystalvey911]

This.

[@prodbycxrey1540]

dont forget toyota stadium as well

[@justabreeze460]

The stadium in Canton is actually on school grounds, which is probably why it’s included. It’s right next to the high school.

[@greenie43]

@@billyblanton8042 again the clueless chime in!! TBS is owned by Canton city school district!!! It's leased to the NFL for the hall of fame!!!!!! Research, I got all this info while I was typing this reply!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That Google button on your phone is really f#@$ing amazing!!!!

[@greenie43]

@@billyblanton8042 it's owned by the school district and leased to the NFL!!

[@79noel]

Texas Baby, we do everything big!

[@allegrobrio968]

Except when it comes to education: According to Education Week, "Texas ranks 43rd in the nation in education quality.... It earned a grade of C- and performed below most states in school finance and students' chance for success categories." But hey, who cares as long as Texas HS football programs get the resources they so desperately need!

[@jadar9356]

Until it comes time to beating sec teams…….

[@anthonyk423]

Canton, Ohio stadium is not really a high school stadium it’s more like a venue that happens to let high schools play there to generate income. So really all the big high school stadiums are in Texas. It’s like adding Frisco ISD high school stadium when it’s really just the cowboys indoor practice facility.

[@carloscortes7266]

Texas football man. Reminds me of Indiana Basketball before the factories left. (Wigwam, Chrysler fieldhouse).

[@caseywatson4508]

Legacy Stadium is fantastic. They also use it for several marching band and drum corps events. It is one of the best performance venues.

[@jackdaddyslim3895]

Also The Star's indoor Practice field is technically the home field for the highschools in Frisco ISD.

[@jackdaddyslim3895]

It's in the same vain as Tom Benson HOF stadium. Neither should truly count

[@SplashFN..]

how did yall even get that tbh ive played at mckinney, allen, prosper but not the star lmao

[@justabreeze460]

@@jackdaddyslim3895are they located on school property right next door to the high schools like Tom Benson?

[@jamesfields2916]

Buford(Ga) High School has a 70 million dollar stadium under construction right down the street from me. Its quite a site.

[@HatedDuxky]

I played at the berry center.. it’ll always be known as the berry center not the fcu stadium

[@TheirOwnWords]

Agreed!

[@TheirOwnWords]

I played at Pridgeon stadium….way back in the day.

[@nickw-ut6tu]

@@HatedDuxky I played there and at Pridgeon as well in band

[@TheirOwnWords]

The FCU Stadium in Cypress is one of the two stadiums the CFISD uses for their games. The other Stadium is older but same seating size. Friday Night Lights ain’t no joke!

[@QNag]

I live directly in between the Allen & McKinney stadiums. My son played in the McKinney stadium. Both are great!

[@ninjaundermyskin]

This is incredible. My high school team didn't have a stadium. They played on a field at the city community center. There were no locker rooms. At halftime the teams huddled around the area behind each endzone. In the morning, old ladies would walk the track surrounding the field

[@maddenGoD759]

Shut up pussy

[@trwent]

In Texas, they build a football stadium, and then, IF there is any money left, they build the high school.

[@triggertimetraining6963]

I was just at the Cy Fair Stadium this past Friday night. That place is real nice.

[@MrGarrell]

Sports are in a different funding than education (they fund themselves). Most of the stadiums host multiple schools. People outside Texas don’t realize how big and close the cities are to each other.

[@nickgallegos430]

Missed the SAC in El Paso TX. Have a double football field. It’s about on par with McKinney… at least the second football field and new one at complex is.

[@hbninjadawg]

Nice video bro, gotta love that Texas high school culture. Welcome to Texas 🤠

[@oladeebiazazi4538]

Eh it’s overrated tbh

[@dustinwat]

If you are going to add the Hall of Fame stadium, then you might as well add the Ford Center at The Star. Frisco ISD uses the stadium for their football teams.

[@justabreeze460]

They’re not on school property, that’s just a partnership

[@stopatredlights]

Love your work

[@Oosogood24]

I played at the Cy Fair FCU stadium and it was my favorite game I’ve ever played the stadium was crazy

[@commonsenselogic]

Texas ain't bull shitin'.

[@jadar9356]

You mean Dallas ain’t. And they still haven’t won sec

[@cultusdeus]

I'm from the Dallas area, yeah, we'd build something that big. Football is a minor religion after Protestantism, mostly Baptists.

[@Hookem4863]

Someone mentioned it already but to expand further, Tom Benson had a Chevrolet dealership in San Antonio when I was growing up in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. So of the four in Texas, my wife and I have been to the stadiums in Katy and Cypress. The pictures do not do it justice.

[@johntellez6505]

Didn’t think my Legacy Stadium would be on here, its literally like 5 minutes down the street from me.

[@Antdog76]

Well,well,well Stephenville yellow jackets have entered the chat under construction as we speak it will be in the top 10 rankings

[@pacocreates]

As someone who has shot photography at both Legacy and the Berry Center, I do appreciate the beautiful lighting compared to HISD stadiums where I went to school during my high school years. These stadiums are used for so many things outside of sports too, which makes it much more worth the cost. That last stadium is rediculous! But it makes sense for what it's used for and what it is a part of. I would almost disqualify it from this list. I'd like to know who had the most expensive stadium on the school campus that's NOT used by other schools.

[@captmrgn7040]

If it's profitable - then go for it.

[@MSTR-DTH23]

Couldn't help but laugh every time the stadium was in Texas. I was shocked when the last one was showed 😂

[@spazz7957]

I forget people in like Florida and stuff dont get these stadiums. I go to legacy all the time; going there today...

[@jadar9356]

That’s bc it’s UNNECESSARY lmao……

[@firebird6522]

My high school alma mater just opened $60 million stadium that serves 5 schools, but that includes the demolition cost of the old stadium and cost overruns due to COVID shortages and rising material prices. Like Allen, our stadium has a three-level press box and a massive scoreboard. The nice thing was that the district just happened to be saving money and used that surplus to pay cash for the stadium. No bonds were sold and no taxes were raised.

[@VorlonAngel]

Name of school?😁

[@Tetio]

wonder who makes the first dome high school stadium

[@SIpriano-z4x]

Even Tom Benson stadium in Ohio has a Texas connection, San Antonio businessman

[@Sam2sham]

Yea, we spread our insanity wherever we go.

[@melvinnash7798]

Money well spent. High school sports unites communities and give cities they are located in their identity. These facilities are not just used to display football, a large percentage of students participate in cheerleading, band activities, soccer and assorted community events. If communities are going to be successful they need to be able to unite and share common interest. Sports in this county is important to liberty and freedom of speech. America is the only county in the world that can place thousands of people in one place with different views and walk away at the end of the event calling each other friends and working Monday morning in the cubicle next to an individual that cheered against your team just hours before. Large stadiums, sports and community activities of all kinds contributes to America’s cohesiveness. And that is my view.

[@jackdaddyslim3895]

Prosper ISD Children's Health Stadium in Prosper, Texas is Home to two High school teams.

[@IvanSerrano-d1d]

Socorro isd stadium is massive very clean and nice 👍🏻

[@billkaroly]

And I thought Union HS in Tulsa OK was big when I saw it 20 years ago.

[@benjaminwagner8141]

Massillon doesn't use HOF has a home field. They have their own massive stadium. Those other teams only use for special events. It's mckinley home stadium

[@justabreeze460]

He said they used the field, he didn’t say it was there home field.

[@judan8196]

Friday night lites are theee best and along traditional nights of Texas high school football games. From small town to big cities in Texas’ Friday nights is thee place to be when you’re in high school or a parent or grandparents of a high school child. Tom Benson is and an iconic in San Antonio Texas where he resided before his death, but also owns the NFL team saints. Tom benso was a big star car dealership in San Antonio Texas. Thanks for sharing this amazing videos how Texas tax dollars are going into good business.

[@InstinctVSM]

1:38 I was at that game Allen vs Lamar I was a sophomore in highschool then and went to Lamar

[@bennybronx381]

Allen high gang, but my years were trash because they were corrupt 😭2019-2023

[@InstinctVSM]

@@bennybronx381 Kyler wasn’t fair xD dude was a cheat code. Y’all had a NFL QB😭😭😭😭

[@bennybronx381]

@@InstinctVSM nah we for real did! Like What high school football player got golden cleats from Nike flown in on a helicopter in middle of a state game in 2015! 😜

[@bennybronx381]

@@InstinctVSM played Fortnite with kyler after qb camp and he’s actually a really good dude to be fair

[@bonesccl]

I see Bluecoats on the field in Canton!!

[@ethanflint9674]

Bluecoats picture mentioned on the last stadium 🗣️

[@Sir.Konopka83]

You need to check out Carmel high school. In Carmel Indiana

[@solodolo528]

idk why allen is listed at 5th largest stadium in the US when it's the largest stadium in the country home to one team and it has a record attendance of 21,766 more than any school in the country there are schools with high capacities who do not fill there stadium ever let alone go over capacity

[@Beast-yp2ei]

The stadiums don’t need to be this expensive. If the schools are paying then it’s a waste of money

[@Sam2sham]

The property owners are paying and vote for the bonds.

[@Tony-rz4ks]

everything is bigger in Texas and we love our football

[@WeLearnMore]

Since I'm from Canton, guess which is my favorite! (And I was in the first graduating class from GlenOak).

[@sivaamenel]

Frisco isd also play at the star . In the cimboys complex. It seats 12000

[@booksteer7057]

If Legacy Stadium hosts an avg. of 29 games per year, after ten years the cost works out to be $309,655 per game. If all of those games are sellouts, and they charge $10 a ticket, the stadium would be paid for after 748 games or 25.8 seasons...not counting the interest.

[@TroyGoodwin]

High school football is so big in Texas!

[@optimizor]

I can confirm eagle stadium is amazing.

[@kasheem1747]

Imagine what can be done to a single neighborhood

[@TXPnda]

Technically you forgot Choctaw stadium because it host Varsity games for schools

[@XCambodianBuddha]

While the teachers have to buy paper and other supplies out of their own pockets

[@davidlewis2668]

An excellent Vid! But you missed a couple of points. Does each of the schools pay the teachers top dollar and how about the schools' resources such as books, tablets and other supplies? These stadiums are just vanity projects when the primary focus of these schools should be quality education not on athletics. I'll never vote for a vanity stadium project bond issue until all of the students are reaching their educational goals.

[@Alex_Amoroso]

He didn’t miss a single point, the title of the video is not “ inside Americas 100 million dollar school supplies”

[@cbjueueiwyru7472]

People in the comments are saying it's like this because football is big in Texas but that's not the reason. Football is bigger is rural towns without these stadiums. The real reason is the high property taxes cause wealthier areas to get millions in tax dollars every year

[@RubioBlanco-pe8li]

For those of you asking where they’re getting all that money to build these stadiums in Texas. Well, let me enlighten you a bit, it’s called property taxes, very high property taxes at that. For example, if you own a $400k in Texas, you are going to be paying $8,000 in property taxes annually. Of those $8k, $6500 will go to the schooling system. From all those hundreds of millions a city collects from the home owners for the schooling system, they gotta spend it somewhere. That’s why Texas has the ability to build those massive stadiums. There, you’ve been informed…

[@timmccrory7630]

So number five and number for Stadium are both in Dallas

[@RobertSmith-tu7rl]

I live across the street from the HOF stadium

[@beatsbycole9399]

Shout out RON POE STADIUM 1 time!!

[@DKanon]

The cost of the McKinney stadium was actually much greater than the $70 million you cited ... closer to $100 million. That $70 million didn't include the cost of the extremely valuable land that the stadium complex was built on. The land had been purchased as part of a major aquisition of land for the city in an earlier bond election. The people that put together the bond measure knew it wouldn't get passed if the true cost became known, so they hid the fact from the voters and only included the cost of facility on top of the land that was "taken" from the city ... leading voters to believe that was the entire cost of the stadium.

[@hostileactual7655]

My kids go legacy, its amazing. I would say Temple is bigger. Dont know about cost.

[@JOHNDOE-gl2ic]

The primary reason that Texas has these pricey stadiums is a function of the way school funding works in Texas. Rich school districts pretty much are capped by law in what they can spend on educating their own students while ALL the remaining tax dollars are sent to poorer districts in Texas. Ergo, in Texas while it's illegal to spend more on educating local students, IT IS legal to build stuff like stadiums.

[@kurts6741]

All students are at the very high reading, writing, and mathematics level. 🤣

[@dusty_burkhalter]

You left The Star in Friso off the list. If you count the Hall of Fame stadium then you also have to count The Star which hosts countless high school football games at a cost of $1.5 billion.

[@billblaski9523]

You have to realize football is the #1 money maker for these schools so of course they have no problem pouring money into football

[@lukenorton6488]

Berry center is where the Texas state wrestling tourny is every year it’s so fire nicest arena I’ve ever been in the kiddy center just opended for Texas longhorns in Austin where I live and the berry center is still better

[@DavidLacy-v3s]

A lot of the cost of the stadiums is offset by seat licenses.

[@isabellamarascalceaux]

Adjusted for Inflation 🤦🏼‍♀️ . Still Allen stadium was only $60M. What you mean is if it were built today it would cost $90M.

[@Rockwall69]

The Hall of Fame Stadium shouldn't be included in this ranking since it's owned and operated by the Hall of Fame and not a local ISD like the others. Some high schools just happen to play there

[@djdiako55]

Laura high schools in Texas, bigger than D one stadiums in my state

[@davidortiz9577]

Big difference between NFL HOF money and county money. Apples to oranges.

[@tomrussell2291]

this is Insane.

[@Real1ne_]

I used to live in and yes it’s bigger in pers

[@billblaski9523]

Do this schools even fill out these stadiums tho? These 10K+ seats stadiums barely have 5K attendance

[@kingjro2]

There are definitely a lot of kids that went on to play in a smaller college stadium.

[@famemoab354]

played a playoff game at the allen stadium and the field was horrible

[@MercenaryTX]

I met Paula Deen at Allen stadium. Then Mississippi State head coach helicoptered in for scouting.

[@carryeveryday910]

God Football and Pickups

[@33alltheway14]

I think, if there isn’t a home field for the school than it’s not the schools field

[@jon-unicorn-doxxer]

but its a shared stadium by schools..and mostly schools used it

[@sdiz3509]

90 mill on a football field is insane, no?