McKinney's football stadium needed to be "supersized" from 7,000 seats, the Texas town decided, so voters just went ahead and approved a $62.8 million 12,000-seat high school complex that beats anything else in a state that likes to think big.
Some say the McKinney stadium will be the most-expensive high school football stadium ever built, beating out a $62.5 million stadium under construction in Katy, and a $60 million stadium that opened in Allen in 2014,
Fox News reported.
But McKinney Independent School District athletic director Shawn Pratt said the comparison isn't fair because the McKinney project includes about $50 million for the stadium with the remainder going to infrastructure, including roads, water, and sewers on the site, the
Dallas Morning News reported. Those expenses weren't included in the other stadiums' price tags.
The stadium project was part of a $220 million bond proposition voters approved on Saturday. The bond also calls for band hall expansions; safety and security improvements; and upgrades to roofs, plumbing, electrical work, and indoor air systems.
“We’re visionaries,” Superintendent Rick McDaniel said, per the Morning News. “And we believe we have a vision for McKinney ISD that will propel us forward for a long time.”
The stadium was a divisive issue in the community, sparking political action committees for and against the bond.
Mike Giles, a leader of a group opposing the stadium called it an embarrassment and vowed an effort to get new school board members elected, the Morning News said.
The New York Times characterized the project as the latest in a "growing list of supersized high school stadiums in Texas."
Supporters of the project said it would attract regional football tournaments and other events to the growing city of 160,000, according to the Times. It will replace the 7,000-seat Ron Poe Stadium built in 1962.
Some Twitter commenters criticized the project.
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