How Texas High School Football Became A Billion Dollar Business
JOE POMPLIANOAUG 28, 2023
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Today At A Glance:
High school football in Texas has taken on a world of its own. We’re seeing $50 million-plus stadiums built, restaurants experiencing an economic boom in the Fall, and thousands of people attending games every Friday night. So today’s newsletter examines how Texas became the country’s biggest football hotbed and how the economics of the sport incentivize the construction of multi-million-dollar stadiums.This newsletter is also available via podcast on Apple or Spotify. Enjoy!
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Friends,
Melissa High School, outside Dallas, Texas, recently opened its new football facility.
The facility includes a 100-yard indoor football field with a state-of-the-art weight room, meeting rooms, and locker room. The stadium has 10,000 seats, several luxury boxes, and a scoreboard that would make many Division I schools jealous.
The project cost $35 million, and it caught the attention of millions on Twitter.
But the craziest part is that Melissa High School only has 1,500 students, and this $35 million stadium isn’t even one of Texas's Top 10 most expensive high school facilities.
That’s because Texas places a premium on high school. Friday night games bring communities together — and, in turn, have turned the sport into a huge business.
Many of you have probably read the book (or seen the movie) Friday Night Lights.
It’s the story of the economically depressed town of Odessa, Texas, and its heroic high school football team, The Permian High Panthers. The basic premise is that football is life — the students, parents, and community live for Friday nights.
The book was written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Buzz Bissinger, selling over two million copies and inspiring a film and TV franchise that made nine figures.
The Friday Night Lights franchise has been so successful, in my opinion, because the storyline is accurate. Not in the literal sense — Hollywood shifted around some of the details to make it more dramatic. But the Friday Night Lights storyline is true because Texas really does care that much about high school football.
For example, Texas has more high school football players (169,132) than the two other high school football hotbeds in California (84,626) and Florida (37,898) combined.
The sport became so popular because it has historically been the primary source of entertainment in Texas communities, especially during times of war in the United States.
And that high level of interest eventually enabled economic incentives to take over.
Texas high school football fans spend an estimated $443 million on tickets each season. Individual teams can earn upwards of $50,000 per season from corporate advertisements in their gameday programs. And Dairy Queen restaurants in Texas say they typically see a 30% to 70% spike in sales on Friday nights during football season.
But that only scratches the surface, as Texas high school football is its own economy.
Take the stadiums, for instance. Texas has 1,267 high school football stadiums that collectively seat 4.4 million people. There are 75 stadiums that seat 10,000 to 16,000, and 8 stadiums that seat over 16,500 — not including the 20,500-seat Toyota Stadium, which Frisco high schools share with FC Dallas of Major League Soccer.
Texas High School Football Stadiums By The Numbers
- Total number of stadiums: 1,267
- Total statewide capacity: 4,434,943
- Average seating capacity: 3,500
- Total number of stadiums with 16,500 seats or more: 8
- Total number of stadiums with 10,001 to 16,000: 75
The trend then continued with Southlake, a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb, spending $15.3 million on the then-new Dragon Stadium in 2001. That stadium has 11,000 seats, and the construction cost comes out to $25 million once adjusting for inflation today.
And the ten most expensive high school football stadiums in Texas today cost between $39 million and $80 million to build.
Most Expensive High School Football Stadiums In Texas
- Cy-Fair FCU Stadium at Berry Center (Cy-Fair ISD)
- Cost: $80 million
- Seats: 11,000
- Legacy Stadium (Katy ISD)
- Cost: $70.3 million
- Seats: 12,000
- McKinney Stadium (McKinney ISD)
- Cost: $70 million
- Seats: 12,000
- Eagle Stadium (Allen ISD)
- Cost: $60 million
- Seats: 18,000
- Woodforest Bank Stadium (Conroe ISD)
- Cost: $49 million
- Seats: 10,000
- Children’s Health Stadium (Prosper ISD)
- Cost: $48 million
- Seats: 12,000
- Memorial Stadium (Beaumont ISD)
- Cost: $47.3 million
- Seats: 10,600
- District Stadium (Tomball ISD)
- Cost: $42.6 million
- Seats: 10,000
- Freedom Field (Alvin ISD)
- Cost: $41.4 million
- Seats: 10,280
- Challenger-Columbia Stadium (Clear Creek ISD)
- Cost: $39 million
- Seats: 10,000
And similar to high-level college or NFL teams, these crowds allow Texas high school football programs to sign stadium naming rights deals that can reach $300,000 yearly.
Texas High School Stadium Naming Rights Deals
- Prosper ISD: 10 years, $2.5 million ($250,000 per year) with Children’s Health
- Lubbock ISD: 10 years, $3 million ($300,000 per year) with PlainsCapital Bank
- Katy ISD: 10 years, $2.5 million ($250,000 per year) with Academy Sports + Outdoors
- Conroe ISD: 10 years, $1 million ($100,000 per year) with Woodforest National Bank
(Image: Eagle Stadium in Allen, Texas)
Many people hear this and instinctively ask about education or teacher salaries.
And that’s a fair point, as the best high school football coaches in Texas historically have earned 2-3x more in salary — $150,000 for coaches vs. $60,000 for teachers —and the math says kids have less than a 0.1% chance of making it to the NFL.
States With The Most NFL Players (2022)
- Texas: 199
- Florida: 185
- California: 166
- Georgia: 151
- Ohio: 74
That’s because Texas high school football stadium projects are voted on through a referendum. Or, in simple terms, local communities vote yes on referendums for stadiums to get built, and then the bond packages are later repaid by their tax money.
But the catch is that these referendums are typically all-or-nothing deals. So if a parent wants to improve the school’s classrooms, bus system, or anything else, they also have to agree (in most cases) to fund the construction of a new football stadium.
Many of these stadiums are used for other sports and hold spectator events. And more importantly, many stadiums also serve multiple schools, like Legacy Stadium in Katy, Texas, which cost $70 million but gets used by eight different schools.
Still, more than 60 bonds have been issued by Texas school districts over the last two decades to partially build a new football stadium or renovate existing athletic facilities.
And even though the economic impact of high school, college, and NFL stadiums has traditionally been questionable at best, the popularity of high school football in Texas enables these deals to continue getting done.
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