Sapulpa Public Schools cut the ribbon on its new 8,000-square-foot Chieftain End Zone building before the Chieftains took the field against McAlester last Friday, and the home team gave the new digs a fitting welcome with a 34-14 victory. The facility, tucked behind the south end zone of George F. Collins Stadium, is the first high school campus project completed under the district's 2023 Chieftain Stronger bond package.
A New Home Base Behind the End Zone
The building houses a home-team locker room, coaching offices, a conference room, a team meeting room, equipment storage and a sports medicine area that will serve Sapulpa High School athletes, according to The Journal Record. Digital displays and televisions inside are set up for play review and game preparation, giving coaches a dedicated space to break down film between practices and games. The structure also supports the stadium's video board and scoreboard.
Designed by Reed Architecture & Interiors and built by Nabholz, the building uses traditional red brick accented with dark gray and white brick, and it will eventually display an illuminated chieftain head in its entryway. Sapulpa varsity football head coach Tim Holt Jr. said the new building ranks among the best in the state, per the same report.
First Piece of a Much Larger Campus Overhaul
The end zone facility is only the opening chapter of a much bigger construction story in Sapulpa. Voters approved the $279.2 million “Chieftain Stronger” bond package in September 2023, the largest in district history, funding a new high school campus, a performing arts center and a slate of athletic facility renovations, according to the Sapulpa Times. Because Oklahoma's constitution requires a 60 percent supermajority for school bond elections under Article 10, Section 26, the measure barely cleared the bar, passing 1,416 to 904 — just 61 percent — after a formal recount in late September 2023.
The bond package has a millage rate cap estimated at $6.06 per month per $100,000 in property valuation, according to Sapulpa Public Schools. Beyond the end zone building, the bond also includes an addition to the Chieftain Center basketball arena and a 10,000-square-foot agricultural building, per the Journal Record.
Replacing Facilities That Date to the 1960s
Collins Stadium itself seats roughly 4,400 spectators and previously underwent renovations following a 2014 voter-approved bond, the district notes. But the headline project of the 2023 bond remains the new high school campus — a building exceeding 200,000 square feet that will replace facilities originally built in the early 1960s. Ground officially broke on that campus and its planned 1,200-seat performing arts center on January 14, 2025.
Construction on the main high school building reached a major milestone this spring when district officials held a traditional topping-out ceremony on April 3, 2026, marking the placement of the building's final structural steel beam, according to Sapulpa Public Schools. Before the end zone building's debut, the district had already delivered its first major athletic project under the bond — the Westside Baseball and Softball Complex, featuring baseball and softball fields and an indoor practice facility, which opened in April 2025.
A District Built Around a Multi-Year Master Plan
Sapulpa Public Schools' bond package funds a multi-year campus and athletic-facility overhaul. With the end zone building and Westside complex now finished, the heaviest lifting remains ahead, as crews continue work on the new high school campus and performing arts center that anchor the district's long-term vision.
