Video: The Allen Texas Football ExperienceAn evening at a stadium where the atmosphere is more like college than high school.Step aside Allen. There's a new big-money high school football stadium in Texas about to begin construction.
According
to several reports, the city council of McKinney has approved a
proposal to build a $50 million stadium that would house three schools
in its district:
McKinney, Boyd and
McKinney North.
This
comes four years after Allen unveiled its $60 million Eagle Stadium,
which closed for 16 months due to cracking in the concrete. It reopened
for the school’s 2015 graduation and for the football team’s first game
in August.
It's not exactly surprising that this would come out
of Texas. What we want to know is if something like this could ever be
built in California.
MaxPreps visited Allen's facility for the Eagles' season opener and was awed, as you can see in the video above.
The
new stadium in McKinney will sit on a 64-acre site and makes up a big
chunk of the $220-million bond package, which also includes an event
center. It would replace Ron Poe Stadium, where the three schools
currently play.
It's hard to imagine this ever getting approved
in California, where the cost of land is exorbitant. Most of the bigger
stadiums in the Golden State are located in the Central Section. Could
it ever happen in other large metro areas like Sacramento, the Bay Area,
Los Angeles or San Diego?
Buchanan Educational Center Athletics Complex on the campus of Buchanan High School in Clovis (Calif.) is the closest facility that compares to Texas prep stadiums.
Photo courtesy of Church & Flynn
