Here’s the renovation work that remains at Kansas Jayhawks’ football stadium
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- KU plans to complete phase 1 stadium renovations before Aug. 23 football game.
- Remaining work includes turf installation and final stadium touch-ups.
- Completion of east side and conference center scheduled for later in 2025.
The Kansas Jayhawks football team is just weeks away from its Week 0 game against Fresno State at the newly renovated David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.
KU athletic director Travis Goff is naturally growing excited about the looming Aug. 23 showdown. He recently visited the stadium after not being inside it for about two months, and he spoke about that experience on Wednesday at Big 12 Media Days.
“Here we are getting into mid-July, it’s like, ‘Hey, we’ve got to have the turf down, but we could play a game here,’” he said. “It’s really special. I can’t wait for our fans to experience it. I’m sure there’s going to be some kinks and stumbles to that opening, but I think that’s part of the fun.”
By the time KU plays Fresno State, phase one of the stadium renovations will be done. The first phase focused on rebuilding the west, southwest and north sides of the stadium. Some of the other improvements include a new conference center on the north end, elevated seating, closer premium seating and a new scoreboard.
Goff said the conference center won’t be completed by the start of the season, but rather by mid-October. Phase two will focus on the east side of the stadium.
The Jayhawks will have a reduced capacity — “a notch above 40,000,” the AD said — for this season.
“We will have the full east side to play with,” Goff said. “It’s being designed for phase one to then have a phase two of the east that gets it deeper into the 40s. Questions still remain about the precise number of that.”
As for what renovations currently remain, Goff said the biggest are adding the turf and wrapping up some other finishing touches.
The Jayhawks aim to run a couple of practices in the new stadium before playing host to Fresno State next month.
“We have identified at least a couple of dates where our team can practice, so they can experience the new lights and they can be on the new turf,” Goff said. “Obviously, break that turf in a little bit.
“Two, three weeks into August, we expect a ton of activity for it to be a pretty functional venue, for the most part.”
