Sources: Price Tag on Memorial Stadium Renovations Expected to Top $500 Million

The home of Nebraska football is soon to undergo changes that will cost close to $1 billion.

Memorial Stadium in December 2020. / Steven Branscombe-Imagn Images

Changes are coming to Memorial Stadium.

That we already knew. But what kind of changes is Nebraska looking at? For the most part, that’s been kept under wraps, with hints of an announcement to come at some point in 2025. Former Nebraska athletics director Trev Alberts first announced plans for a Memorial Stadium renovation in 2022, coming in at an estimated $450 million. In the original plan, 25,000 seats were going to be temporarily removed ahead of this upcoming season.

Memorial Stadium proposed renovation in 2023. / Nebraska Athletics

Troy Dannen took over as athletics director in March 2024 and by late April, the plans were changing. In a statement at the time, he said, “We are all aligned on the need to modernize our aging stadium. But as we have said, any work we do needs to follow our guiding principles. First, it needs to help us win. Second, it needs to advance our goals for acquisition and retention of talent. Third, and equally importantly, it must preserve our financial stability - one of the greatest assets of Husker Athletics.”

The third point was what many latched onto, as the cost of half a billion dollars seemed too high for many.

A year later, sources tell me that the number associated with the cost of the renovation will actually climb above the original plans, settling somewhere between $500 million and $1 billion. The total cost is expected to be at least 1.5 times what it would have under Trev Alberts' plan of $450 million.

Memorial Stadium proposed renovation in 2023. / Nebraska Athletics

South stadium will still undergo changes, similar to what was originally planned under Alberts, but a portion of the overall cost will come from changes being made on the west side of the stadium. The lower portion of the west bowl in particular will undergo a facelift, with one "level" moving to three.

Each “level” of the new west side will have its own club level. Chairbacks are expected as well. Field club levels could be in the cards, similar to what we've seen happen at stadiums like AT&T or SoFi, homes of the Dallas Cowboys and Los Angeles Rams/Chargers, respectively.

Assuming the Board of Regents vote goes as expected, construction is expected to start after the 2026 season. That's a starting point later than what the target completion would have been under the original Alberts plan at July 2026.

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