This GA high school just finished an eye-watering $62M football stadium. Here’s why it cost so much

You think your high school takes football seriously? This Gwinnett County high school is about to play their first game in a stadium with a $62 million price tag.

Yes, you read that right. Buford High School’s new Phillip Beard Stadium now carries the crown as the priciest football stadium in state history, including many of Georgia’s colleges and universities.

Let’s put that in perspective. The University of Georgia’s Sanford Stadium, recently underwent a $68.5 million renovation, which was the biggest upgrade in any Georgia college’s football history. Sports Illustrated reported on the renovations last year, detailing what that money buys. For $68 million dollars, Sanford added luxury boxes, club spaces, and fancy extras for gameday.

What is in the new GA stadium?

Buford High is a public school in North Central Georgia and is home to had a total enrollment of 1,923 students for the 2023-2024 school year, according to the National Center Education Statistics.

BHS claims their state of the art campus is meant to “enhance the three pillars of its vision: Academics, Athletics, and the Arts,” and Director of Athletic facilities, Tony Wolf told WSB-TV the football programs draws big crowds and “we had to build a bigger facility to handle the size school we are now.”

This facility will feature:

• 10,000 seats
• A two-story field house with cutting-edge locker rooms
• Deluxe event spaces
• 15 luxury suites 
• 3,500 square-foot jumbotron 

How does this stadium compare to others?

Buford’s Phillip Beard Stadium is an extreme outlier in terms of cost, far exceeding typical high school stadium investments in Georgia. In fact, no other high school stadium has cost over $10 million.

As for colleges, their facilities are more expensive, but Buford exceeds most Georgia universities by a lot.

This is what some other Georgia universities paid for their stadiums:

• Sanford Stadium at UGA: $68 million
• Center Parc Stadium at Georgia State University: $52 million
• Fifth Third Bank Stadium at Kennesaw State University: $16.5 million
• Bobby Dodd Stadium at Georgia Tech: most recent renovation: $75 million

Here are the price tags for some top SEC schools’ stadiums:

• Bryant-Denny Stadium at University of Alabama: $107 million
• Jordan-Hare Stadium at Auburn University: $65 to $70 million
• Tiger Stadium at Louisiana State University: $110 million
• Neyland Stadium at University of Tennessee: $337 million

Whether you agree or disagree with spending that kind of money, Buford has a consistent track record for their football players moving on to play in college and even in the NFL.

BHS’ football program recently sent players to Georgia, University of Nebraska, have players committed to Texas A&M and has four other prospects who are ranked in the top 50 of Georgia recruits for the class of 2026, according to 247Sports.

Several former Buford players went on to play in the NFL for the Bears, Dolphins, Bills, Lions, Raiders, Texans, Patriots and Buccaneers.

What do you think about spending this much money on a high school football stadium? Email me at srose@ledger-enquirer.com or find me on social media.

This story was originally published August 5, 2025 at 5:30 AM.