Kansas football: Why stadium renovations can’t wait for conference realignment

If there’s one item that’s been on the wish list of Kansas football fans for years – besides seeing a consistently competitive team on the field – it’s a full-scale upgrade to Memorial Stadium.

The century-old stadium, now named David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, first opened in 1921 under the direction of Kansas basketball legend Phog Allen as a memorial to the KU students who fought and died in World War I. Allen coached the football team in 1920 and helped design the horseshoe structure that is still in place today.

It is the seventh oldest college stadium in the country and has seen multiple renovations throughout its lifespan – one of which is taking place this offseason.

The Touchdown Club is getting a major facelift with new seating options, cabanas, and all-inclusive food and beverage service. The new changes are scheduled to be made in time for the start of the 2022 season.

While incremental upgrades like this over the years have improved the stadium’s aesthetics, they pale in comparison to the real work that needs to be done.

And although conference realignment talks have started up again following the announcement that USC and UCLA will be joining the Big Ten Conference in 2024, Kansas cannot afford to wait any longer to get stadium renovation plans rolling, regardless of which conference they end up landing in.

The stadium matters

For better or worse, a college stadium is often synonymous with its program.

It’s the first thing fans see when attending in person, it’s often the first thing shown on television broadcasts before a game starts, and it’s typically the primary stop when recruits are on campus for a visit.

Take Allen Fieldhouse for example. Announcers, players, coaches, and fans can’t gush enough about Allen Fieldhouse. It’s a source of pride for our basketball program, just like “The Big House” is for Michigan, Cameron Indoor Stadium is for Duke, and so on.

The same cannot be said for Memorial Stadium.

Despite the history behind the stadium and the series of upgrades that have been made throughout the years, it has not been modernized enough to keep pace with KU’s Big 12 peers – or that of most Power Five schools.

It’s a hinderance to Kansas coaches’ ability to sell the program to fans and recruits.

Nowadays, fans have unlimited entertainment options and viewing experiences they can get from their very own homes. If your school can’t offer a great experience by watching a game in person – and the product on the field isn’t good – then fans are very unlikely to make the trip.

Football drives the money in college athletics. Even for a school like Kansas, it’s crucial that fans show up and support the program. A strong fan attendance may just also be the difference maker in a tight game.

For recruits, a lackluster stadium is just another reason for them to pick a different school. Kids care about appearances, uniforms, and want to be proud of the stadium they play in.

Even if it’s not the ultimate deciding factor, a nicer, newer stadium can make a really strong first impression on future recruits – both high school and transfer prospects. The better players we land, the better our team will be, and the better our chances are at winning games.

And this team can ill-afford to not start winning games after how far this program has been set back these past 12 years.

It’s for these reasons that Kansas can’t wait until they know which conference they’re going to ultimately end up in – whether that’s the Big 12, the Big Ten, or somewhere else – before beginning stadium renovations.

This team needs to start winning games now, and a fully renovated stadium can play a part in helping them do that.

Announcement coming this fall?

If there’s one thing we know Kansas Athletics Director Travis Goff is good at based on his tenures at Tulane and Northwestern – it’s fundraising.

At Tulane, he helped raise $70 million for the school’s first on-campus football stadium in school history. At Northwestern, he helped raise more $400 million for new athletics facilities – including a state-of-the-art indoor football practice facility.

Based on recent comments from Goff, it appears he may be close to announcing his next big fundraising achievement.

In an open letter to fans back in April, Goff reflected on his first year as athletics director and provided a preview of where Kansas Athletics is headed in year two. That preview mentions a strategic plan that will be announced this fall.

"“We are working on a strategic plan that will launch in the fall; one of real impact, clear metrics and transparency. Another tangible indicator is investment in the student-athlete and fan experience, which is in part achieved through facilities and infrastructure. There’s tremendous potential to make a strategic statement and investment in key facilities that will have a broad-based impact on Athletics, the university, the community and the state.”"

According to an article from the Lawrence Journal-World last month, the Kansas Board of Regents included a two-phase, $350 million renovation to Memorial Stadium as part of its capital improvement requests for fiscal year 2024 and its five-year plans.

Any renovations that take place are going to take multiple years to complete and set up, so it makes sense that Goff would be announcing plans this fall, with groundwork starting perhaps in 2024.

In that same article, Goff echoed his statement in his letter to fans, saying they are considering how the new stadium can create a “broader campus benefit” and be an “economic driver” for Lawrence, the state, and the region.

Based on his comments in the letter and in the interview, it sounds as if the new stadium could be a multi-use facility for more than just football. Perhaps it could be used for more university events, concerts, or other activities. Having that designation as being more than just a football stadium could be a way for the athletics department to raise the necessary funds as well.

Either way, Goff is clearly thinking big with this next stadium development – and that’s how it should be. He recognizes the need for an improved “fan experience” and how important it is to finally get these renovations done and get them done right.

“This has to be what the next 25, 35, 50 years of the stadium needs to be at the University of Kansas.”