With its football programs on fire this fall, the Katy Independent School District has gone to the ballot box with the hope that voters will approve funds to build a new $69.5 million stadium as part of a $99 million bond referendum.
The proposed 14,000-seat arena stands directly next to the aging and crowded Rhodes Stadium, currently home to the district's seven varsity football teams. The new mega-stadium wouldn't replace Rhodes, but supplement a jam-packed extracurricular schedule and provide room for simultaneous sporting events.
"It spends too much money to build too much, grossly in excess of what the need is."
The bond also includes the construction of a $4.5 million STEM project lab and a $25 million agricultural studies center, which together cost a fraction of the second stadium. The difference in price has many area residents concerned about the district's approach to serving an ever-growing student population.
"It spends too much money to build too much, grossly in excess of what the need is," Katy-dweller and political blogger George Scott tells KHOU Ch. 11, adding that the district could solve its lack of stadium space for far less. (Click here to read his proposal.)
Katy ISD officials claim the project can be completed without raising taxes. "It is a large number," says John Eberlan, who was on the stadium design committee. "The debt can be handled by the revenue that's coming into the district."
Designed by PBK Sports — the firm also tapped to replace HISD's unique mid-century Delmar Fieldhouse — the proposed Katy stadium will feature an activity center, multi-purpose rooms, a field house, training areas and a warming kitchen in addition to administrative offices.
If approved, the facility would open by August 2015.
Katy ISD is asking voters to approve a new $69.5 million stadium.
