High school’s brand new $62m football stadium opens buts fans have major criticisms

Buford High School kicked off their 2025 season with a win at its new $62 million stadium.

The high school in Georgia beat the seventh-ranked Milton Eagles 20-13, and while there was much to celebrate, some fans weren’t pleased with their lavish new home.

@BudfordFootball via Instagram

Buford’s new expensive stadium isn’t a surprise; the high school is consistently a top-25 program in the country.

The stadium was paid for by the city and had no “had no impact on teacher salaries, classroom resources, or any educational funding”, Buford City manager Bryan Kerlin told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The new football temple has 1,500 premium seats and boasts 15 VIP suites.

It also has a 3,6000 sq ft double-sided video board and a 10,500 sq ft event space with a trophy wall.

You could be forgiven for thinking it’s a professional venue.

However, as the Philip Beard Stadium welcomed its fans on Thursday, visitors pointed out several issues regarding waiting times and facilities.

“Beautiful stadium, but getting into the stadium tonight was a freaking disaster. We waited like 45 minutes to get in. Unacceptable,” said one fan online.

“But can we talk about the 10,000 capacity stadium only having around 10 concession windows in the entire stadium?” another wrote.

“Concessions ran out of water so everyone had to buy Gatorade, and the ref’s microphone didn’t work which made it hard to follow the game lol,” one fan added.

However, among the critics were fans who hailed the new stadium.

@BufordFootball via Instagram

@iceoldstew via X

“That Jumbotron is insane. Massive and crystal clear – you could watch the whole game just staring at that thing,” one fan wrote.

“Amazing views from literally everywhere. They’ve got these cool terraces where you can just stand and watch,” another wrote.

For $62 million, you would expect Buford’s new stadium to draw plenty of praise.

Football stadiums continue to be super expensive

Some would argue that for the $62 million price tag, Buford has got a good return.

Northwestern spent almost a billion dollars, and NFL teams pay anything from $2 billion to SoFi Stadium’s world-leading $5.5 billion price tag.

Christopher Lee — a managing director at architecture firm Populous — revealed why costs are rising to The Athletic.

“It’s increasingly about how much it’s going to cost and also how much revenue it can make,” he said.

“Historically, it would have been: ‘A club has £100 million ($133 million), let’s go for it’. Now it’s very much about a return on the investment. If I spend X, how can I return Y?

Buford was also selling Jumborton video ads to local businesses during ESPN commercial breaks at the game, as they looked to create a business model through their stadium.

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