Buford High School cut the ribbon on its new $62 million football field and stadium this week. Dexter Wood Field at Phillip Beard Stadium rivals many college facilities. It’s named after longtime Buford Board of Education Chairman Phillip Beard and former head coach Dexter Wood, who won three state titles.
The new stadium features a 3,500-square-foot, double-sided video scoreboard; 15 covered luxury suites; and a two-story field house with a full locker room.
With seating for 10,000 fans — including 1,100 premium seats — it is among the largest high school football stadiums in the Southeast.
A venue for other events
The City of Buford owns the stadium. “So, it’s totally funded by the city. They are very involved in all decisions that are made operationally with this,” said Buford’s Director of Athletic Facilities Tony Wolfe.
Wolfe said being a city with only one high school gives Buford an advantage in building this type of facility.
“Most schools are county schools, and there’s multiple high schools in the county, so they can’t pour all their money into one school, kind of like we can here in Buford,” he told GPB News.
According to Wolfe, the city plans to use the facility for concerts and other public events and, at some point, “I could see us expanding and using this facility for some other athletic events.” This first year, though, he said, “we just want to try to do varsity football really well here.”
Wolfe added, “Who knows where we’ll go, but we’re trying to start slow and then progress as we go.”
Inaugural game
Widely regarded as one of the nation’s top high school football programs, Buford will debut the stadium in a nationally televised matchup against another Georgia powerhouse, Milton High School. ESPN will televise the game at 7 p.m. on August 14.
