EVERYTHING’S BIGGER IN TEXAS!
The McKinney Independent School District will have the brightest Friday night lights in Texas when its nearly $63 million high school football stadium opens in 2017. In May, voters approved the district’s $220 million bond proposal, which included $50.3 million for the construction of the 12,000-seat facility and attached events center in the suburb north of Dallas.
The existing 7,000-seat Ron Poe Stadium was built in 1962 to serve about five schools, including one high school. Now, three McKinney high schools, totaling about 7,700 students, share the stadium. With fewer than 400 parking spots and some games drawing standing-room-only audiences, the stadium has outgrown the crowds. Plus, McKinney, population 160,000, is growing. Superintendent Rick McDaniel predicts that the number of high schools could double in the coming decades.
Some in the district opposed the bond, arguing the price tag of the stadium is excessive. Others compared the project to the 18,000-seat, $60 million high school stadium that opened in Allen, Texas, in 2012. A similar multimillion dollar project is also underway in Katy, Texas.
“It’s something our community will look at with great pride when they come down Highway 121,” McDaniel said to The Dallas Morning News.