Rumors About Kansas Football Stadium Renovations Make More Sense Than You Might Think
As Jayhawk fans were preparing for the Baylor game last Saturday, a tweet came out that seemed to indicate that stadium renovation plans would be released sometime this week.
And in an email to donors (obtained and confirmed by Blue Wings Rising), it seems that some sort of confirmation of these rumors came from Athletic Director Travis Goff, although details on the renovations and the timelines were scarce:
One of the main questions that seemed to fly around after the announcement was "Why?" or more specifically "Why now?" The simple answer is that it's actually much later than Kansas originally planned.
The need to update the stadium has been discussed ad nauseum for nearly two decades. When I first started attending the University of Kansas back in 2003, people had already been talking about making changes to the stadium to remove the track and make other needed updates. But somehow, there never seemed to be the needed momentum to get renovations funded and completed.
Back in 2017, then-Athletic Director Sheahon Zenger discussed the announced plan for a $300 million renovation project to update the stadium (a plan that ultimately didn't result in stadium changes). In the discussion, he noted that he first looked at the much-needed renovations when he first arrived in 2011, but that many other facilities needed to built and/or updated before they could start on the stadium.
The need to update the stadium has never gone away, but the planned departure of Oklahoma and Texas and the recurring rumors surrounding realignment has created a renewed sense of urgency surrounding this project. I don't think anyone seriously thinks that an invite to another conference is just waiting on the football stadium to be updated. However, it seems pretty clear that Kansas' stadium situation has the potential to become an issue if they need to find themselves a new conference home in the near future. At the very least, this has provided the needed push to get fundraising amounts closer to the levels needed to make the plans for stadium updates a reality.