The DII championship was played at the world’s most absurd high school football stadium

The exciting Division II football national title game was played Saturday in McKinney, Texas. You might be wondering something along the lines of: “McKinney, Texas? Where in McKinney, Texas? I can’t think of any notable college or pro teams from McKinney, Texas.”

You’re making a fair point. But I’m here to inform you that McKinney is home to maybe the most profligate high school football stadium in the universe. That’s where the DII title game is happening, and it makes sense when you see the place.

McKinney ISD Stadium, which opened this year, seats 12,000. That’s not FBS-sized, but it’s bigger and much nicer-looking than a lot of stadiums at college football’s lower levels.

Only two teams in Division II — the level that just decided its national champ on this field — averaged more than 12,000 fans per game in 2017, according to NCAA numbers. Valdosta State averaged about 4,300, Ferris State about 4,100.

It has a press box, of course, and is surrounded by its own massive parking lots. It has its own STADIUM MAP, not unlike one a college or pro team might publish:

The McKinney ISD athletic director claimed in 2016 other districts in Texas have funded more expensive stadiums and gotten away with it because some costs have stayed hidden:

“Our stadium cost is $50 million,” Pratt said Tuesday. ”Some of the stadiums around us, you know them by the construction cost of just building the stadium. We have some infrastructure where we’re going to have to finish the roads, bring water and sewer in and those places may not have had as much, but they’ve had infrastructure that’s not being counted in their cost. We try to be very transparent in the bond process that the stadium will cost us $50 million, but there’s an addition $12.5 million in infrastructure.”

Essentially, he’s implying that if you want to compare the cost of McKinney ISD’s new stadium to the cost of Katy ISD’s and Allen ISD’s (a reported cost of $62.5 million and 60 million, respectively) you have to take into account all the costs of each (including land cost) in order to make a proper comparison and decide who spent the most money.

You see, the stadium only cost $50 million. The other construction expenses required to make the stadium possible ran the total bill to $62.5 million. It’s totally different!

Those were estimates. The actual number worked out to $69.9 million. Late in construction, the school district learned there were cracks in the concrete that required more work.

Katy, another Texas district, recently put up its own $70 million stadium.

Those are McKinney, McKinney North, and McKinney Boyd. North had a 6-5 record this season, and that was the best record of any of those teams.