Texas Town Spending $63M on High-School Football Stadium

How much do Texans love football? Nearly two-thirds of voters in McKinney, Texas, just voted to spend $62.8 million on a new high-school football stadium. Fox News reports it will be the most expensive high-school stadium in the country. "We're visionaries," the Dallas Morning News quotes school district superintendent Rick McDaniel as saying. The stadium, which was included in a $220 million school bond measure, will seat 12,000 people and include an events center, the New York Times reports. It will be shared by three high schools. “Down south, football is a really big deal," the chairwoman of a pro-stadium group explains.

The vote on Saturday ended months of intense debate. Proponents of the stadium argued it would boost the local economy and turn McKinney into a "destination city." Opponents said it was an "embarrassment" born out of a Friday Night Lights version of keeping up with the Joneses. “They look down and they see Allen," the leader of an anti-stadium group tells the Times. "Allen has a really nice stadium.” A high-school stadium recently built just four miles away in Allen, Texas, cost $60 million. Another high-school football stadium currently being built in Katy, Texas, will cost a projected $62 million. (More high school football stories.)