The Dallas Morning News analyzed the salaries and work history of head football coaches, booster club finances and the success or failure of stadium projects at nearly 150 high schools to gauge the investment North Texas communities are making in football and how that translates on the field halfway through the 2025 regular season.
All our stories:
– Football may be king in Texas, but is its grip on some North Texas communities weakening?
– The highest-earning football coaches in D-FW are at schools that excel in the classroom
– Salary tracker: See how much North Texas football coaches make and their tenure
– Why the stadium arms race in North Texas has cooled drastically
– See the newest premier high school football stadiums in North Texas
– How much do booster clubs in North Texas spend on football, and how much is enough?
– Booster club database: See what North Texas spends on high school football, other sports
Story previews:
Football may be king in Texas, but is its grip on some North Texas communities weakening?
by Myah Taylor
Growing up in West Texas, where Friday Night Lights was a way of life, Argyle coach Todd Rodgers couldn’t wait to don the purple and gold.
He knew the names of the Crane High School football players and eventually became one.
“I was conditioned that purple and gold was the thing to be,” said Rodgers, who won state titles as Argyle’s coach in 2013 and 2020. “We had good athletes in my grade and we talked about how many games we were going to win… it was very unifying.”
In Argyle, a boomtown about 40 miles northwest of Dallas, community members value high school football just like Rodgers did in his youth. Voters approved a new football stadium that is scheduled to be completed this fall, and an indoor facility on campus is under construction.
“One of our mission statements in athletics is to meet the kid where they are and grow them to their full potential,” Rodgers said. “ In my mind, that should be a goal for every school district, but it’s important for us.”
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The highest-earning football coaches in D-FW are at schools that excel in the classroom
By Greg Riddle
Highland Park is the winningest program in the history of Texas high school football. It has six state championships, and head coach Randy Allen has won four of them.
It stands to reason that Allen, who took the school to last year’s Class 5A Division I state title game and hopes to return again this season, would be one of the highest-paid football coaches in the Dallas area.
And like others in his position across the state, he’s paid significantly more than teachers in his school district.
Allen, who has been Highland Park’s head football coach since 1999, made $157,103.94 last school year when combining his salary with two stipends, according to information obtained by The Dallas Morning News through an open records request.
That’s about $90,000 more than the $67,777 average salary of a Highland Park teacher in grades 9-12, which is above the state average of $64,813, according to the Texas Education Agency.
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Salary tracker: See how much North Texas football coaches make and their tenure
By Greg Riddle, Myah Taylor and Ronald Harrod Jr.
No state invests more time and resources in high school football — and arguably high school sports — than Texas.
The state’s dedication to its flagship sport has made coaching Texas high school football a lucrative career. A coach’s experience, how many hats they wear and their district’s financial situation can affect their earnings.
But most coaches in North Texas – young and rising or tenured with a championship pedigree – make six figures, highlighting an institutional commitment to football.
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Why the stadium arms race in North Texas has cooled drastically
By Greg Riddle
Prosper ISD tried to take the lead in the state’s stadium arms race in 2023, asking voters to approve a $2.8 billion bond package that included a record-setting $94 million for a new football stadium.
The fast-growing community in the northern Dallas suburbs made its pitch only four years after opening the $53 million Children’s Health Stadium. The case was made for a second stadium to accommodate the three high schools Prosper has opened in the past five years, with another on the way, but voters weren’t buying it.
Last year, Anna ISD made a bid for the most expensive high school football stadium in Texas. Voters rejected the $100 million proposal — for the second time.
“Bond voters are saying enough is enough,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, professor of political science at the University of Houston.
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See the newest premier high school football stadiums in North Texas
By Greg Riddle
In North Texas, recent years have marked a departure from the halcyon days of the stadium arms race, which Allen kicked off with its $59.6 million Eagle Stadium in 2012, before other schools followed in building palaces that rival college facilities.
The Dallas area had 28 new high school stadiums open from 2000 to 2019 but only four from 2020 to 2024, according to information The Dallas Morning News requested from school districts to gauge the investment North Texas communities are making in football and how that translates on the field halfway through the 2025 regular season.
D-FW’s newest stadium, Glaspie Field in Arlington, opened last week. But Texas voters have since grown more reluctant to approve school bond packages of any kind, not just athletics, even as districts that have built new stadiums have reaped the benefits on the field. Voters in Prosper and Anna ISDs have shut down proposals to build what would have been the most expensive football facilities in the state.
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How much do booster clubs in North Texas spend on football, and how much is enough?
By Ronald Harrod Jr.
Game days at South Oak Cliff feel like community celebrations filled with music, pride and pageantry. For booster club president Lakecia Williams, though, they’re a whirlwind of preparation.
On Wednesdays and Thursdays, Williams meets other South Oak Cliff parents at Sam’s Club to pick up turkey meat, sandwich bread, sports drinks and snacks — whatever the club can afford.
Then they pack everything into her 2013 Ford Mustang, which she calls Ruby, and other parents’ vehicles.
“I have stuff in the trunk, back seat, front seat, the console in the middle,” said Williams, whose son joined the team in 2022. “It just has everything in it. I think I can fit at least three or four cases of water in my front seat, all the way to the roof.”
Across Texas, booster clubs fill the gaps between what athletic department budgets can provide and what resources teams can add, from team meals and athletic trainers to high-end weight rooms and inflatable tunnels.
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Booster club database: See what North Texas spends on high school football, other sports
By Ronald Harrod Jr. and Jamie Hancock
In Texas, where high school football commands a cultural throne, the investments are visible everywhere: in the sprawling stadiums, the professional-grade uniforms and the highly paid coaches. But often operating in the background is an unseen engine of success: the booster club.
The parent-run nonprofits, organized to support athletic teams, have become indispensable, particularly in the competitive landscape of the Dallas area. They fill the budgetary gaps that school districts cannot, funding everything from new weight-room equipment and facility maintenance to nutritional programs for athletes.
An analysis by The Dallas Morning News found 135 area clubs, including 70 specifically dedicated to supporting a school’s football team. Of the clubs, 95 are registered nonprofits with federal tax records on file.
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Find more high school sports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.