Only in Texas: A $60mil high school football stadium

When the residents of Allen, Texas decided to build a new football stadium, they did not mess around.

The school, which already has an indoor practice facility, is about to break ground on a new, state-of-the-world 18,000 seat facility. According to Rivals.com, It will also feature two decks, a video scoreboard, four concession stands and 12 restrooms. It is scheduled to open in the fall of 2012.

Last year, the Allen football team, which won the Texas 5A state title, played a game before more than 50,000 fans at the new Texas Stadium.

The high school serves 3,900 kids – and that’s just between 10th and 12th grades — is one of the largest in the state. As for the stadium, “it will be built in a horseshoe-fashioned sunken bowl with wide concourses. The field will be artificial surface. Students have their own section in one end zone – in a fashion similar to many colleges – to create a wall of sound. The band – the largest in the country with more than 600 members – will be on the other end. There will be a wall of honor for former greats from the program.”

Currently, their stadium seats only 7,000, so the school brings in an additional 7,000 temporary seats each game. Despite an addition 4,000 seats that will be in the new stadium, school officials say they will have little trouble filling the new stadium.

The cost, though, does seem pretty high when you consider Finley Stadium for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, seats 20,668 and cost $28.5 million, though it was built in 1997.

For more of the specs, check out this slideshow: