The new Phillip Beard Stadium at Buford High School officially opened on Sunday with a ribbon cutting ceremony. The media got its first inside looks of the $62 million facility on Wednesday when Buford Director of Athletic Facilities and Operations Tony Wolfe guided around a dozen local media outlets, including AccessWDUN and Friday Game Night, through the mammoth complex.
In a word: “wow!”
Did I say “wow” already? I mean, just “WOW!”
It was enough to give virtually every small college, and some major universities in the nation, stadium envy.
For the fan experience, the stadium features 15 private suites, working press boxes on both sides of the field, catering options for those who utilize the suites, a scoreboard that could rival Georgia’s Sanford Stadium, and an impressive Hall of Trophies (my words) for nearly every championship Buford sports (boys and girls) have won over the decades. Wolfe said there were 100 TVs scattered throughout the complex. Even the bell that has been utilized by the school system since the 1880s made it over to the new complex from the old Tom Riden Stadium.
For those playing the games, it has locker rooms large enough to house four teams (such as hosting the Corky Kell Classic...hint, hint) and huge training rooms large enough to handle as many injuries as would be needed during a game. It also includes a full locker room for the cheerleaders. They thought of everything!
After 30 years of walking the tunnel under Tom Riden, we’ll have to wait until the Wolves first game on Aug. 14 against Milton to see just how they plan to enter the stadium on game night.
Whenever you hear about something a government agency is planning to build for $62 million, it’s easy for the skepticism to hit well before the project is done. Not in this case.
Buford got its money’s worth, and maybe then some. Friday nights at Phillip Beard Stadium will not be like any other before it, at least not in these parts and perhaps not anywhere in the Southeast not named Texas.
Former Buford coach and athletic director Dexter Wood, who along with Beard helped reshape Buford in the classroom and on the playing field in all sports back in the mid to late 1990s, probably said it best in a press release given out on Wednesday.
“Exactly thirty years ago I coached my first football game at Buford with a few hundred fans in attendance seated on the same side of the field and with about thirty players and coaches on the sidelines,” Wood recalled. “Never did I think that we would journey over the years to such a grand facility (as this).”
It will not be your grandad’s high school football experience for sure. The stadium’s capacity is over 10,000 and looks every bit that big.
But Phillip Beard Stadium, and Buford City Schools, aren’t the first in northeast Georgia to begin to upgrade facilities for the fans, coaches and players. And many more stadiums around the area, and the state, are in dire need of improvements.
The Gainesville School System completed its remodel of the iconic City Park Stadium this past season, and with the help of grants from Lynn Cottrell, area schools North Hall, Chestatee, Lumpkin County, and White County all recently went through facility upgrades as well.
Yes, stadium rebuilds and upgrades are costly, especially these days. But in the age of technology -- and with parents and players paying close attention to those programs who are making the changes -- can programs who are not capable financially still be able to continue to be competitive?
Only time will tell about that. In professional sports leagues, the teams that spend the most do not always win the championship. Culture, work ethic, coaching, talent all have their say in the equation.
Any high-caliber high school player that sees something like City Park Stadium or Phillip Beard Stadium are certainly going to be asking questions about those programs who have not made improvements. And with NIL in full force and the ability of players to jump from school to school like never before, the “WOW Factor” is sure to play a part.
But no matter how impressive something like Phillip Beard Stadium is the first time you see it, the Wolves will still have to prove themselves on the field.
However, I can’t wait to see Phillip Beard Stadium in action for the first time. They open it with a bang as Buford is No. 13 nationally in the MaxPreps preseason rankings. Milton, the defending Class 5A state champion, is 22nd in the nation.
If the game is as impressive as Wednesday’s walk through, “Wow” is all I got to say.
