Cost of Cobb County stadium rebuild balloons to over $16 million

UPDATE: In a statement released to Atlanta News First, a Cobb County Spokesperson clarified the county’s spending, saying in part:

The Board approved about $16.1 million total to the McEachern Stadium project since March, including demolition, stormwater work, and the new grandstand construction.

In addition, the McEachern Endowment Fund is contributing about $7.5 million toward the grandstand replacement project. That funding is not an additional cost on top of the project but rather reduces what the school district has to pay for that portion of the work.

So in simple terms:

• Total project cost: $16.1 million
• Endowment contribution: $7.5 million (offset, not added on)
• District share: $8.6 million (approx.)

The higher $24 million figure results from combining totals in a way that treats the endowment contribution as new spending rather than a funding offset.

COBB COUNTY, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — The cost of renovating the largest high school football stadium in Cobb County has soared to more than $16 million after the project became a complete rebuild.

“The more that we got into this project, the more evident it became that there were problems,” said Chris Ragsdale, superintendent of Cobb County School District.

The issues with Walter H. Cantrell Stadium at McEachern High School aren’t a secret. Cobb Schools has been transparent about the growing costs throughout the more-than-year-long process.

What was originally supposed to be a refurbishment of the four-decade-old structure became a demolition project after an engineering inspection in March 2025 determined the home grandstands needed to be rebuilt due to problems with the structural concrete.

“We immediately had to render the stands unusable,” Ragsdale said.

The demolition cost was around $8 million. Now, rebuilding the stands will cost about $8.2 million. An additional $7.5 million will come from McEachern High School’s trust, bringing the total to more than $16 million.

That money will be put toward new aluminum bleachers and the shuffling of restroom and concession structures, eschewing the more traditional concrete stands.

“This is a different build than what we are accustomed to seeing for the last fifty years,” said Marc Smith, chief technology and operations officer for Cobb Schools.

Cantrell Stadium will still be the largest high school stadium in the county when completed, holding around 6,800 people. Smith said it will be ready for football in another year, with a substantial completion date of August 2027.