Travis Goff provides update on current and future stadium construction, fundraising
Kansas athletic director Travis Goff met with the media at the Big 12 Media Days on Wednesday. Goff outlined the current and future state of construction at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, as well as talking about fundraising for KU Athletics.
‘Every aspect of a football game day will be completed by August 23’
Goff continues to hammer home that the stadium will be fully functional for the Jayhawks’ opener against Fresno State on August 23rd. He hopes that by the start of August and in the early weeks of the month, both staff and players will be able to utilize the stadium.
“We can get more people in there to test to have our game ops, event operations folks literally living it and experiencing it, doing mock kind of operational stuff,” Goff said. “And then we have also identified at least a couple dates where our team can practice, right? So they can experience the new lights. They can be on the new turf. Obviously, break that turf in a little bit. So yeah, that, that couple, two, three weeks into August, we expect there’ll be a ton of activity for it to be a pretty functional venue for the most part.”
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Goff said there are mainly just finishing touches that need to be put on the stadium, not a lot of major aspects. He walked through the stadium on Monday and called it “surreal.”
“I can’t wait for our fans to experience it,” Goff said. “There’s gonna be some kinks and some stumbles right to that opening, but I think that’s part of the fun, and people deserve a venue of that degree of excellence. And our guys also, our student athletes deserve it as well, and I know they can’t wait to run out of that tunnel.”
Capacity for the stadium in 2025 will be a hair above 40,000, according to Goff. He said it’ll get deeper into the 40s as the east side gets developed, with opportunities to add more capacity as the future dictates.
“One thing I’ve always asked of the design architect team is like, make sure not to design this thing to where it’s fixed, where you can never come back in a future state and do some major adaptation, either add more premium or add more capacity, or both,” Goff said. “And so that’s a daily almost reminder to our team, when you think about that East, think about some other future states. Hey, why wouldn’t we be able to then adjust and grow in a future like, who knows what 15 years from now is going to hold?”
‘One of one’ fundraising announcement coming soon
Goff said the old east side of the stadium is a good reminder that Kansas has to finish the project that it started. He said there’s good momentum through the city and fundraising to help fuel Phase Two.
“Fundraising is is always going to be a major, most prominent driver of being able to keep the foot on the gas,” Goff said. “And we’re going to have announcement in the fundraising space in the next few weeks that I think maybe is one of one in college athletics history. So I’m excited about what’s coming.”
Despite having what Goff said were “disappointing” seasons in football and men’s basketball, he thinks KU Athletics will have a record-shattering year in the fundraising space. However, competitive success is a driving factor in fundraising, which for Goff means hanging banners for men’s basketball and “unequivocally pursuing a College Football Playoff appearance.”
“We’ve had what I think will end up being a record shattering year in the fundraising space, as I referenced a minute ago, and that was coming off, if we’re being honest about, it a disappointing football season, disappointing men’s basketball this season,” Goff said. “So I think that says a lot about our fan base. It also says a lot about people who still have the ability to not just live today and tomorrow, but like, how are we investing in a way that can be sustainable for the future, to lift the entire program to where your bottom is not as far down, and you have an endless kind of ceiling, so to speak.”
