The first phase of renovations to David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium has long had a concrete timeline and scope, at least since Kansas Athletics unveiled last Aug. 15 its plans for extensive rebuilding of the north and west portions of the stadium.
That project, which constitutes about 70% of a new stadium by athletic director Travis Goff’s estimation, is set for completion by August 2025, in time for the KU football team to return to playing home games in Lawrence.
The second phase, which would in some way revamp the stadium’s east stands and potentially its south end, has been far more enigmatic.
Goff said in April that the timeline for such a project was “unknown as it stands” and that KU didn’t yet have the funding to undertake it.
On Thursday, though, Goff suggested that as KU approaches its fundraising goal of $250 million for phase one, it’s also having some “really important, active conversations that we’re hopeful can be catalysts to then moving us with momentum into planning for phase two.”
He noted that KU is coming off a year of abundant fundraising that garnered $150 million, and said that it is a “handful of weeks” from announcing a developer for the Gateway Project.
“We’re entering into this phase where we need to have another big fundraising year,” he said, “… and the notion is that by then fully funding the 70%, the new build, the $450 million, we’re creating momentum, in partnership with a developer, to tackle the east side.”
When KU first formally announced its renovation project in August, Goff had suggested that fan turnout would help inform the final capacity of the stadium, i.e. that good attendance at upcoming games would encourage KU to design the east and south to accommodate more fans as part of phase two.
Under its original plan, KU would have played football games for a significantly limited number of fans in the under-construction David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium during the 2024 season, but it jettisoned that plan in order to allow the construction to continue on an expedient timeline, instead choosing to play at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas, and GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri.
If and when the second phase gets underway, Goff said the objective is to ensure the Jayhawks remain in their new stadium instead of having to make a return trip to Kansas City.
“We could have played this fall in that stadium with just the east and with some adjacent seating,” he said, “so if that’s the case, then I would feel very strongly that a 70% completed new build with construction on a segment of (it) can be operational for a season. That would be the goal, and of course once we have more clarity around that we’ll be excited to inform our supporters around that.”
He did acknowledge there could be a possibility of reduced capacity at the stadium for games played during phase two, depending on how KU chooses to approach that construction — which, again, remains far in the future.
“We’ve seen, anecdotally, projects that have done the heavy lift in the offseason and then maybe they’ve gotten elements operational, or kind of bare-bones components operational, of the new piece, so that’s something maybe that could be conceivable,” he said, “or you could see a scenario where part of the new construction on phase 2 is up and running and part isn’t.”
In that latter scenario, there could be capacity impacts, “but the details of that are still out in front of us,” Goff said.
University of Kansas/HNTB
