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Despite major investment, Collin County is feeling growing pains at its high school football stadium
Throughout it all almost 40 years as a football coachTodd Dodge has crisscrossed the state of Texas.
Before the legend retires to become the new head coach at Lovejoy High School, he led Southlake Carroll to four state championships and Austin Westlake to three.
Even after stints at such storied programs, Dodge said nothing compares to Collin County.
“This country must really love the game of high school football,” said Dodge, who coaches at the school in Lucas, about 30 miles northeast of Dallas. “There are a lot of people in the state of Texas who love high school football, but I don't know of a county in America that has invested more in facilities than Collin County, Texas.”
With its multimillion-dollar stadiums and state-of-the-art practice facilities, fast-growing Collin County has invested more in high school football than anywhere else in the state or country, making it an attractive destination for coaches and families. But lofty proposals for stadiums and other athletic facilities have failed in recent bond elections, a sign that the level of investment may be slowing.
“You're always going to have about 50/50 people who think you need something, think you don't,” Anna coach Seth Parr said.
in may Anna Independent School District voters rejected a new $100 million stadium – for the second time.
Anna, which predicts there will be 9,889 new homes by 2027is on track to outgrow the high school football stadium that was built to accommodate a much smaller city — if it hasn't already. Parr said he's not a fan of giant stadiums, especially if it means a lot of empty seats on game days, but there's a misconception that the stadiums will only be used during football season.
“When you think of it just as a football stadium, I'm only using it six to seven times a year, so I can see what they're thinking,” Parr said. “But when you add in career building and technical education, … it's not just six days.”
More new schools in Prosper
Anna still only has one high school, but it seems like Prosper ISD, like neighboring Frisco, has been building schools almost continuously to accommodate massive growth.
The Prosper School District, which serves more than 29,000 students across all of its campuses and has three high schools, will open a fourth high school, Prosper Richland, in the fall of 2025. Prosper ISD Annual Report for 2022 projects a total student enrollment of 36,620 students for the 2027-28 school year, meaning that rapid growth will continue.
Next year, Prosper ISD's four high schools will share Children's Health Stadium, the district's $53 million, 12,000-seat football stadium that opened in 2019.
So last November, it seemed like the right time to put a proposal to the voters for another football stadiumat a cost of 94 million dollars. The proposal failed, 54% to 46%.
Rachel Trotter, Prosper ISD chief communications officer, said the district has yet to solicit additional input from community members on building a second stadium.
“We don't have a timeline for returning a stadium to the voters,” Trotter said. “However, we will be opening our fourth high school in five years in the fall of 2025. So the stadium schedule will be more challenging to accommodate four high schools starting next year.”
Working with what you have
In 2022, voters in Plano ISD rejected a proposal that would have improved security and maintenance at the stadiums. From the 1970s onward, as Plano experienced rapid population growth, community members showed a strong commitment to investing in soccer facilities.
The district opened John Clark Stadium in 1977 when Plano Senior was the only high school. The 14,224-seat venue cost $2.75 million, which would be about $14 million today when adjusted for inflation. Kimbrough Stadium, primarily used by Plano East, opened in 2003 when Plano ISD had three high schools, the same number Prosper ISD is serving with one stadium.
Some multi-school districts make it work with just one stadium. McKinney ISD Stadium serves three district high schools. Pennington Field serves Euless Trinity and Hurst LD Bell, the two high schools in Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD.
Frisco ISD, with its 12 high schools, has access to the Ford Center at The Star, Toyota Stadium and Kuykendall Stadium. Denton ISD's four high schools use the CH Collins Athletic Complex and the Bill Carrico Athletic Complex.
Parr said he doesn't know when, but he's sure Anna, whose only high school football team just moved up to Class 5A in a University Interscholastic League realignmentwill get a new stadium to accommodate the larger crowds that go along with playing schools like Melissa and Lovejoy.
“I think we need a bigger one because we're sold out of our season tickets. Ours is more about parking,” Parr said. “When we play Gunter, even though it's a smaller school, we're close by. It's going to be packed. And when you add Melissa and Lovejoy, that's going to be the problem with our stadium.”
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