The Absurd Stadiums of Texas High School Football 

He didn't mention that high school football game attendances can reach 50,000 for a playoff game.

I live in McKinney Texas. You showed a picture but did not include it. We are right down the road from the Allen stadium you mentioned. The stadium is huge. We do have 3 large high schools and the teams in this area all have nice stadiums and large enrollments. Some of the best football teams in the country are in this area.

You indicated you are from Canada. Nuff said.

4K spectators? Thats like 3A football stadiums in Texas.

that record attendance was the first ever game at that stadium it was unreal!!!! and they just got a huge new video board

As a fellow Canadian, I also marvel at the Texas high school football stadiums. Big or small. New and old. The traditions, rivalries and the financial commitment to athletic facilities. I’ve seen the Mojo vs Lee at Ratliff, been to Alamo in SA, San Angelo, The SAC and Shirley Field in Laredo and many more in smaller towns like La Joya in the valley all the up to Hale Center and Dumas in the panhandle.Even some big middle school stadiums like JFK Middle school in Grand Prarie.its awesome see how Texas treats Friday night's statewide✌

These stadiums are for the ISD Independant School District. Some of the high schools have thousands of students. Allen High Scool has 5,317 (2022-23).

Im born and raised in Texas and I played highschool football here and the atmosphere is amazing. Ive played at a few of these stadiums and the energy is insane! It fuels the players and things get very vicious after kick off. I miss it so much.

Lived in Midland, TX for the last 25 years, Odessa Permian vs Midland Lee is a big deal, fans from both Odessa and Midland fill the stadium, 19,500 tickets available is not enough!

You should mention Allen, McKinney, and Frisco all have state of the art stadiums and close together in north Dallas. Frisco ISD plays games at the Dallas Cowboys practice facility. It’s an indoor stadium.

This is crazy. In the UK, the idea of a school having a stadium at all is daft, let alone one that seats 10,000+. American sports are weird.

There are several others you could have mentioned, including McKinney ISD stadium, and while not exclusively for high school, the Ford Center at the Star in Frisco (indoors, approx 9k capacity), Toyota Stadium (FC Dallas, approx 20k), which are used by all 14 Frisco ISD schools.

It should be noted that Odessa Permian high school and their football team were the inspiration for Friday Night Lights. So the big stadium adds up

For my mates over seas, and not from TX. Some of these towns will shut down for high school football every Friday night. These schools make Millions of dollars from advertising, tickets, and food/drinks, even the smaller ones. No not the level of college football, but still a lot. It’s a business. Take a look at the field in Denton TX

Why are press boxes not necessary at highschool games? Some schools draw D1 Recruiters those guys dont watch football they study football. Having a seat for them in the pressbox so they can come scout your star QB or RB or whatever is exactly what you want in texas. Those stadiums might look ridiculously big but they do get packed every week at every game. You do don’t want your staff recording the game from the bleachers with all the crowd noice, you dont want important recruiters to sit with the crowd when he’s there doing his job and not there to enjoy a game. In texas we have coaches sit up in the press box and they talk to the head coach on the headsets etc. a stadium in Texas without a pressbox would be useless

High School football is serious in Texas. Friday Night Lights.

Do Southlake carroll and HEBisd Pennington field.

TV broadcasting SHOULD BE middle- and high-school level courses. Video and production. Sound recording, mixing. Mobile cameras. Mobile microphones. Mixboards. In reality, this HAS gone on with 10-12-15 year old students since VHS handhelds were available. And all of these skills will be incredibly marketable for decades to come. A lot of schools offer these, as well as broadcast booth announcers, 'color' announcers and employ analysts. Can you imagine a college kid applying for a job with 4-5-6 years' experience in sports broadcasting, video production and more?

I get that high school athletics are all but ignored outside of the US. Football is HUGE in Texas. From Pop Warner games all the way up to the NFL, football games in Texas draw large, paying crowds. It is essential to have stadiums large enough to accommodate the crowds. I think its sad student athletes aren't supported and cheered on in Canada and Europe the way they are in Texas. Its not just the football players. Marching bands, drill teams, color guards, and cheerleaders also participate during the games and help create an amazing atmosphere in the stadiums. As the saying goes, football in Texas is a religion of its own!

Allen's stadium record is 21,000. When San Angelo Central (San Angelo Stadium capacity 17,500) hosted them in a playoff game in 2016, the estimated attendance was 24,000. They could have sold 30,000 if the stadium was bigger.

You should look at San Antonio ISD stadium

Add Prosper ISD Stadium to your list! Went there for a playoff game. It was incredibly nice. Poor taxpayers lol!

Bro didn’t even mention prosper or McKinney isd stadium

the first ever football stadium i went to was fcu stadium and it did feel like i was watching a game at a higher lefel

This video blew up but it also upset a lot of people as well lol.

Press box absurd? It's absolutely a necessity. I just worked in one last night producing a live broadcast of a Texas high school game. None of them are big enough. Where do you want coaches, scouts, media, radio broadcasters, and live stream/TV broadcasters to work during a game?

No Prosper high stadium?

I played at Plano East in the late 90s and our stadium seated 15k

They build those stadiums cause they get the crowds for a lot of those games.

No grande? UTPB abandoned Ratliff for Grande.

Absurd? You are obviously not a Texan. There is nothing absurd about high school football in Texas. And you didn't mention Alamo Stadium in San Antonio that was built in 1940 by the WPA. It seats 18500 but over 21000 showed up for the 1963 city championship game between Lee and Brackenridge.

Friday Night Lights Mojo Mojo Mojo Look up the book and movie

People - don’t get mad at me. There have been over 100,000 concussions in Texas amateur sports, mainly football, over the past 5 years. These are the known concussions, by the way. And zero state champions in any sport or any level that were transgender students. Yet people are freaking out over transgender invasions. Let’s be clear - Texas will never do anything about those concussions due to football.

1:34 Bronchos? No, they’re the BRONCOS.