Texas high school with $60M football stadium one-upped by rival's $70M facility

This rendering shows McKinney Independent School District's proposed high school football stadium, slated to debut in fall 2017 at a cost of about $70 million. This rendering shows McKinney Independent School District's proposed high school football stadium, slated to debut in fall 2017 at a cost of about $70 million. Photo: McKinney Independent School District Photo: McKinney Independent School District Image 1 of / 42 Caption Close Texas high school with $60M football stadium one-upped by rival's $70M facility 1 / 42 Back to Gallery

The battle of Texas high school football facilities has hit its peak.

The Eagles of Allen High School's 18,000-seat, $60 million stadium has been one-upped — at least in cost — by its competitor, McKinney Independent School District.

McKinney ISD announced it will construct a $70 million football stadium.

A student at McKinney North, one of three high schools in the district, says that it's definitely a matter of rivalry. (Story continues below.)

"I have pride knowing my district is going to have the most expensive stadium in the country," McKinney North junior Adam Blanchet told the Chicago Tribune.

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McKinney is an affluent Dallas suburb where the median home price is $279,600, substantially higher than Dallas' median of $191,500.

Many in the area agree with Blanchet's sentiment on the upcoming stadium, with opponents of the stadium calling it nothing short of a display of wealth.

Earlier this year McKinney's tea party organization Grassroots McKinney rallied against the construction of the proposed facility. One of the organization's leaders, Mike Giles, in May said that the stadium was little more than a "showpiece."

Still, it passed the vote with 62 percent of support and was implemented as part of a five-year, $220-million bond package.

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The Tribune reports that school taxes for McKinney property owners decreased this year by 5 cents to $1.63 per $100 of assessed value after the district dropped some old debt, and that the new stadium's original cost estimate of $63 million rose due to the increased price of concrete and additional road work.

Still, the additional costs won't deter the stadium's construction.

"What we told the voters we'd build, we need to build that," McKinney board trustee Amy Dankel told The Dallas Morning News.

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The stadium will have a 55-foot-wide, high-definition screen and an artificial-grass field. It's being built by Dallas-based Manhattan Construction, the same firm that built Houston's NRG Stadium and Dallas' AT&T Stadium.

It's slated to debut in Fall 2017.

Besides provoking the ire of some critics, it's also drawn national attention, with Jimmy Fallon poking fun at Texas' love of high school football.

Another wealthy Dallas suburb, Frisco, will have its high school football players practice in the Dallas Cowboys' new $1.5 billion headquarters, dubbed The Star. Frisco's high school teams will train at the 12,000-seat facility when the Cowboys aren't in it.

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In other high school sports developments, the Houston area's Katy Independent School District's new football stadium will be revealed in the fall of 2017. It will have 12,000 seats, 4,000 parking spaces and will cost an estimated $62.5 million to complete.

That's $4.5 million more than voters approved in the 2014 election.