Yeah, you were a great high school athlete…

…who played in a stadium that was about fifty times crappier than this one. This is the artist’s rendering of the $60 million stadium that the Allen Eagles will one day call their home field:

The total amount of the bond for all this is $120 million, the other half of which will pay for the performing arts center behind the end zone. This one takes the cake, I thought facilities like Carrollton (GA) High’s Grisham Field were best in breed:

With a two-story fieldhouse, a two-story press box, chair back seats on the home side and a turf field, Grisham is nice and all, but it ain’t touching that palace that Allen will play in. Half the schools in the SWAC would like a facility that nice.

Todd Graham, the current coach for the University of Tulsa, kickstarted Allen’s football renaissance back in the 90’s. In 2008, the program won its first ever Texas Class 5A title by beating Hightower in the championship game at Reliant Stadium.

Massive high school facilities are not necessarily new, heck, New Castle’s gym in Indiana seats nearly 10,000 for basketball. But this is a quantum leap in terms of size and scope for football, even for the state of Texas. Back in 2004, schools in Denton and Round Rock started the spending frenzy in that state by spending $20 million on their respective stadiums.

Could a $100 million stadium built exclusively for one high school’s football team be that far off in the future? Who knows, maybe Massillon (OH) High might be in the market for a dome soon.