The Kansas football team played home games at Children's Mercy Park and Arrowhead Field during the 2024 season due to the ongoing renovations at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. The project, known as the Gateway District, includes a complete overhaul of the stadium’s seating, surrounding area, and a state-of-the-art locker room and weight room facility.
KU is expected to return to "The Booth" in 2025 once Phase I is completed, and the school will then turn to begin Phase II. Since the Jayhawks will be playing on campus next year, fan support should be greatly improved in Lawrence. Head coach Lance Leipold talked about how important playing back at home will be for the upcoming season.
Lance Leipold discusses the impact of playing back in KU's home stadium
"It's really exciting,” Leipold said. “We're moving along in a way that hopefully here in the next couple weeks to a month we'll be able to access more of the building, and more the operations center for our guys on a daily wave. We'll never know exactly the impact of not having games here in Lawrence played last year. I don't want to. It's not an excuse. I said it last year, and I'll say it again, that we’re not going to use it as an excuse, but I'm sure there were some parts of that really has put its toll on this program, for over 18 months of adapting and doing some things.”
Leipold made a great point when mentioning that playing away from home may have affected the team last year. Given the distance between campus and the alternate locations KU played at, fan turnout was not always the greatest in 2024. Jayhawk fans caught a lot of flak for the amount of empty seats in Arrowhead, albeit in an NFL stadium with a capacity near 80,000.
With seven home games for the team this year, it is paramount that fans and students pack The Booth. KU's 2025 campaign will begin in Week 0 on Aug. 23 against Fresno State.