Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - University of Kansas Jayhawks Football Stadium Renovations Announced: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, KU football released more information, details, renderings of their upcoming football stadium renovation plans. We're going to discuss them on today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can hear me as well, Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. on KLWN in Lawrence with Rock Chalk Sports Talk.

Starting point is 00:00:43 Thanks for making Locked On Jayhawks your first listen every day. We're free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can find us with our new Locked On Jayhawks your first listen every day. We're free and available wherever you get any of your podcasts. You can find us with our new Locked On website, and you can like and subscribe to the show on our YouTube page, which we're going to be talking to KU Football Renovations today. I would just recommend, I mean, we're going to talk through as much as we can, describe as much as we can, but we're going to throw up some renderings here, so it'll be easy to see all the different renderings on our YouTube page. So like and subscribe to our show here with uh locked on jayhawks as i mentioned we're talking

Starting point is 00:01:09 ku football stadium renovations travis goff doug gerrard chris harris all sorts of people were at a press conference talking about this uh just on tuesday about the renovations and everything that is going to have happen um before i get into some of the renderings here, I just want to go over some of the key points, some of the quick facts to get to about how this is all going to go down for KU. Construction on the project is going to begin at the end of the 2023 football season. It will be completed by the start of the 2025 season. So the 2024 season, there will be a slightly reduced capacity.

Starting point is 00:01:54 Now, Travis Goff said that the capacity will maintain over 40,000 people, but interestingly enough, they don't have an exact number on the number of people, the capacity it's going to be when it all is said and done. He basically left it open that you know we'll see how many season tickets we sell and how much people fill up the stadium that it'll show us if we need more or less people i do think it's funny that you go back to like the lj world article about one of the rough draft like renderings that they did and uh it came out it was like 39 850 something or i don't know so it's like 150 away from being 40,000 and since then KU has very adamantly maintained to be like no it will be 40,000 or above as if to be like we are not even close to that and that's only like 150 more people like it's not that big of a deal if if they're like because every comment is like it will be above 40,000 but is it going to be 40,000

Starting point is 00:02:41 or is it going to be 48,000 you know there is kind of a big difference there. One of the mentions too, there's going to be no tuition dollars or state general funding used as a part of this. I know for some people that was questioned, like, are we paying all this tax money and stuff to this? Like that's kind of a part of it. They've done a lot of kind of private donation already. I think they said they're up over 125, 150 million or something like that as part of all this. So they've done a ton of fundraising as a part of this. Now it is kind of an ongoing thing, which you hope that doesn't lead to any pauses, stumbling blocks kind of along the way, any pauses that could make this thing have to go any further. The future phases of the Gateway District project are going to focus on the south and the east portions. And that's, to me, kind of to generate revenue.

Starting point is 00:03:31 It kind of seems like it's more of a money grab thing. I'm going to throw up on our YouTube page one of the renewings here. If you haven't seen it, it basically shows an aerial view of what Memorial Stadium is going to look like here. And on the west side, which is the left side from where the rendering sits, like the south side would be where the Campanile is, they basically have a bunch of buildings and sidewalk and grass.

Starting point is 00:03:59 It's basically where the one parking lot is that is closest to the like union parking lot and where a lot of people park and you know uh tailgate and and all that sort of stuff um this part to me it kind of is a money grab because it's basically an arts and entertainment center they're gonna have dining they're gonna have retail spaces they're gonna have like doctor's offices, conference centers. I don't love this part of it. I understand you're kind of adding some sort of experience to it. It kind of has a downtown baseball stadium feel to be completely honest, which I'm fine with. But when you're going to baseball games, you're kind of walking there and it's a, you know, there's so many games with, with college, like part of the fun of college football to me is tailgating and so this part of it where it's going to be on the side of the stadium that uh was the the tailgating parking lot and that's where a lot of like the diehards have been for

Starting point is 00:04:55 the last 20 years even when they've been bad now they're gonna have to find a new spot now there's gonna be less parking all that sort of stuff uh basically this just became a cash grab it'd be one thing if if that parking lot and that tailgating area had to go, because it's like, we need to do this to the stadium and we need to push this wall out. It's like, okay, that's fine. To do it for a money grab, I'm not getting the money. You're not getting the money. So why should you care about these weird businesses that they're just going to have in this area that I don't know. This seems silly to me. But nonetheless, I guess it can make them more money. So congrats for them. As far as the stadium, if you can see the picture, if you have seen the picture before,

Starting point is 00:05:35 one of the big, more notable things people have mentioned is kind of the lights. To me, it looks like a prehistoric animal that had its mouth open with its teeth. The lights do. And it's about to chomp down on something. The lights are the teeth. They're basically teeth lights. I don't like the look, personally. That's been kind of a polarizing thing among KU fans,

Starting point is 00:05:58 whether they like it or not. I don't, personally. Maybe a new video board on kind of the South end of the stadium. I don't know if that'll be the old one or if that'll be a new one. That's something that's kind of new as part of this as well. And then there's going to be some like seating upgrades and different things around or kind of inside the stadium from improved wifi, hopefully to,

Starting point is 00:06:22 you know, bigger seats that they did mention that they're going to have more club and suite areas, which I think that's a great thing. Hopefully, it's not one of those things. Because I know right now they do have a few suites, but it's like you have to have season tickets in the suites to be able to use them. And I think for some people, it would be nice to be like,

Starting point is 00:06:38 you know what, let's just do a suite once in my lifetime, or once every few years and bring a bunch of family and whatever and have a suite together hopefully with the more suites you'll be able to do that because you can't currently do that as uh part of the the like ticket package and athletic plan so hopefully that's something that comes of this that would be cool they said there's going to be more space that's given between the seats and more um space that's kind of gonna be around so it's going to be a more comfortable type of stadium, more space for the chair back.

Starting point is 00:07:06 If you've ever like had a chair back at Memorial stadium, sometimes it, I don't know. You feel like you're kind of like getting closed inside of a lawn chair a little bit with it going forward a little bit. So those will be positives as part of all this with, with some of the renderings. One thing that I find interesting when you look at some of the renderings,

Starting point is 00:07:24 you're trying to figure out like where the suites are and where, like what's the suites, what's the press box, what's the luxury box, what's the club seating, all that sort of stuff. I'm showing a rendering on the YouTube page now, and it shows kind of the inside of the bowl. It shows the inside of the stadium from, if you're looking at it from the south side looking out north and it almost looks like to me that the press box is going to be in the corner

Starting point is 00:07:50 now I don't know if that's right but I don't really know where the press box would be on the like sideline part which that's going to be really weird for like tv broadcasts for radio broadcasts for the the I don't know the media that are covering the game like I think that's going to be very interesting if that is the case, but I could be misinterpreting that part of it. So those are just some of the base details about what's kind of going on in this. I want to get to specifically, you know, what my favorite parts of this were, my least favorite parts, and then kind of overall thoughts

Starting point is 00:08:20 about the stadium renovation and the plans that are being put together by KU Athletics with Locked on Jayhawks. First, though, this episode of the show is brought to you by Nutrafol. You don't have to choose between hair growth and your health. Nutrafol provides a whole body health approach for men that promotes healthier hair. No drugs, no compromises, just better hair. Nutrafol is the number one dermatologist recommended hair growth

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Starting point is 00:09:23 That's Nutrafol.com slash men promo code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE. That's Nutrafol.com slash men, promo code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE. Let's get on to my favorite and least favorite parts about the KU football stadium, Memorial Stadium, kind of upgrades and renovations here. I guess first in general, it's nice to have like a new stadium. It's nice to just have a newer complex and and you know be the talk of the town that's a good thing obviously uh the fans are going to be 100 feet closer to the field so this is actually going to be interesting because there was a comment made about that everything would be lifted up like

Starting point is 00:09:55 four feet so if you've ever been to like a chiefs game notice how the distance between the people on the sideline to like the actual players to the people with you know front row people on the sideline, like the actual players, to the people with front row seats on the sideline, there is that kind of built-up wall that you do have a little bit of a buffer there. And yes, it makes you, I guess, technically further from the players, but if you're actually on floor level basically sitting down, you can't see as well because you have a bunch of six-foot-three people standing in front of you on the football team. So adding that four feet up is going to actually help. It's going to give you a better angle, better vantage. It's just like a lot of other pro

Starting point is 00:10:32 stadiums. And in addition to what they're doing there, fans are going to be kind of around a hundred feet closer to the field. So even though you're going to be slightly higher up, you're going to have a more angled approach. It'll probably be more stacked on each other, I guess, is how I would kind of interpret that. That's a good thing. The increase in the seating space, so you have more room. They said 50% on the increase of the seating space. That's great.

Starting point is 00:10:56 Everybody's been at a game in Allen Fieldhouse or Memorial Stadium where everybody's sitting in the row and one person's taking up too much of the space or the last person who comes in the row comes and there's six inches of space for them to sit and they got to ask everybody to move down. That sucks. This is a great thing that they're adding more seating spacing there. Travis Goff also mentioned better Wi-Fi. How many people have been to a KU football game and raise your hand if you straight up don't have phone service at times, can't text anyone anyone can't check scores around the country you want to see what else is going on and some other big top 25 game going on

Starting point is 00:11:29 at the same time but you can't you can't see what's going on right uh very bad cell phone signal from in there so they and they did have wi-fi but it didn't really work very well you said the best wi-fi possible so the better wi-fi again great thing this is another part of my favorites uh you also kept some ability to watch from the hill, though it might be lessened a bit. When you look at some of the renderings, you're closing off the bowl. There are actual seats there as opposed to the touchdown club. There still is a big screen, which there is now.

Starting point is 00:12:00 And to be clear, you can't really see the entire game from the Campanile at this point anyway, but you can see a lot of it. You can probably see, I don't know, 60, 70% of the field. I don't know if this inhibits that, if this is enough to take away even that 60 or 70%, but it seems like there's at least enough there that maybe you're able to watch. I don't know. This could go under least favorite parts very easily if you can't see any of it.

Starting point is 00:12:24 And again, I get it. Like you can't watch the entire game from the hill, but it is kind of nice to, you know, you, you take your pet, you take your dog, you just stop by for a few quarters. You want, I don't know, for somebody if they want to go watch it from the hill, I think there is some fun to that. So hopefully that kind of remains intact as part of this. I remember like Cal the bears, they have this place.

Starting point is 00:12:41 It's called like tightwad hill and you can watch the game from the hill for people who like, don't want to pay for the game. And that's kind of a, some of the charm of a sport like college football. Right. Um, also they said hopefully more concessions and bathrooms as far as it goes bathrooms, they said one and a half times more. So that doesn't seem like a huge number. That one scares me a little bit. It's a, this is one of my favorite things because it is a good thing. They're adding more bathrooms. They needed more of them. Hopefully when they say more bathrooms, it's a this is one of my favorite things because it is a good thing they're adding more bathrooms they needed more of them hopefully when they say more bathrooms it's not

Starting point is 00:13:08 more porta potties it's like real bathrooms that's what i would assume this is a part of but um my worry is is that going to be enough right is one and a half more bathrooms going to be the difference of having enough in this stadium you You do have four times more concessions, though. That is great numbers. That is part of the favorite parts here. And then going back to the suite area, sounds like there's going to be more suites, club seating, all sorts of stuff that is going to be, I think,

Starting point is 00:13:34 good from a fan experience, buying tickets, trying to experience different types of tickets, different types of things that you can try out. You know, you're having a birthday party or something and you want to have like a bunch of people in a suite. Like maybe you can try it out for one game if they're going to have more suite options than they do now. Those are all my favorite parts about the stadium renovation

Starting point is 00:13:53 that KU is doing. Let's get to my least favorite parts because there certainly are some things. I know this is polarizing. Some KU fans love everything about this. I get that. I'm probably in the minority here, but I want to get to my least favorite parts next

Starting point is 00:14:04 with Locked on Jayhawks. So my least favorite parts about these stadium renovations, first of all, is the parking. You're getting rid of that one lot, which, yes, that's not the be-all end-all, but okay, think about it this way. How many people walk to the stadium from parking just on side streets nearby. It's a lot, right? Now you're taking away, I don't know how many cars fit in that lot, a thousand, I don't know, whatever, to begin with that you're going to be getting rid of.

Starting point is 00:14:34 Which again, if it was to make the stadium better, whatever, I'm fine with that. But because you're doing it to build like, I don't know, doctor's offices and retail places and conference rooms. I'd rather just have the parking lot and the tailgating. And so you're going to have all those extra cars. You're going to be looking for more parking spots. Now, all of a sudden, all the side streets are going to be even more full than normal.

Starting point is 00:14:58 People are going to be walking further away. You don't really have that parking alternative. Build a parking structure somewhere. I'm all for this, and this is fine. But also, if this is going to be like a parking garage situation, for those of you that have parked in the parking garage at Allen Fieldhouse, if you get wedged in there, sometimes it can take half an hour. Sometimes it can take an hour for you to get out of there.

Starting point is 00:15:21 Are you really looking forward to doing that at KU Football too? Probably not. So it feels like this is getting rid of a parking thing where it's like, I mean, there've been chiefs games have gone to where it's taken me an hour, an hour and a half to get out of. I don't want something similar like that at KU football games. That would not be a lot of fun to get out of that. So that would not be great. I don't love the parking stuff, the tailgating stuff. I also don't love that. To me, college football, half the battle is about tailgating. That's how people have the most fun. And that parking area right there, yes, it's not the entirety of tailgates. Yes, people can go tailgate on the hill. Of course, if you're trying

Starting point is 00:15:57 to play cornhole, a little tough to play cornhole on the hill. One side's a little unfavored to the other. Of course, there are certain places on the hill where it's going to be, things are leaning over, going to be tough to grill if your grill falls over, if it's not standing upright, right? You will be able to still tailgate on the hill and some other areas and, you know, houses and weaved between certain streets that people rent out, like spaces and grass lots. But you're getting rid of a big portion of it.

Starting point is 00:16:23 And here's my biggest issue. That area where was the parking lot where a lot of the big tailgates were and a lot of the tailgaters were, yes, it's not a Chiefs game tailgating where it's this giant thing. And yes, there's not tens of thousands of people doing it. Those though, even if it's only 500 people, even if it's only a thousand people in that parking lot that are going to those tailgates, those people have been your most dedicated fans. Those people are a lot of the fans who suffered through 0-12, 2-10, 3-9, but were going to every game.

Starting point is 00:16:57 But were still going to KU football. Were still buying KU football season tickets, even when the team was bad. And so this was basically, to me, it was a cash grab by KU to get rid of even when the team was bad. And so this was basically to me, it was a cash grab by KU to get rid of that for their own personal benefit of business. And basically saying to the biggest fans, bleep you. That's how I view it. So is it the biggest deal in the world? People are still going to be able to park on other cross streets and maybe just walk an extra block or, you know, you're going to find maybe other ways to tailgate, but there's not those obvious options. And it does feel like a disservice to me,

Starting point is 00:17:26 to the people who have been most loyal to KU football. And that's what I hate most about the stadium. Which again, that part that you were doing, getting rid of that parking lot and tailgating area, that's not a necessity to fix the stadium. You just want to add this corporate little area behind the stadium to make extra money, which I get nothing of the fans get nothing of. Okay.

Starting point is 00:17:47 So I'm not a fan of that. I'm also not a fan of the lights went over this earlier. I think they look silly. I think they look a little stupid to be honest, but everybody has their own opinion on that. So that's fine. Overall thoughts, overall thoughts on all of this.

Starting point is 00:18:00 This was much needed. It shows great support by KU donors and the big wig donors all the way down to the smaller donors and what they've been able to do. That is a positive. It shows Travis Goff is doing a great job in rallying up funds and he continues to do a really good job as the athletic director at Kansas. It shows that people are willing to invest in the football program. That's a good thing. It gives love back to the football players who have worked hard to get to this point and make a bowl game last year. All those are great things for the university and for the program. Still don't love the stadium though. I think it's a little ugly. I think

Starting point is 00:18:35 there are a few things that I don't love, but overall, I guess you get what you get and you don't throw a fit. You know, like you needed a new stadium. You got a lot of things better. I would rather them have this and have more bathrooms and have bigger seats than, and complain about some of the other stuff, I guess, than not have it. But overall, I'm going to give this a C plus. This is C plus to me. And again, I think I'm in the minority there. I think a majority of KU fans would give this an A or a B.

Starting point is 00:19:01 There's probably some that would give this even lower than me. I don't know. But I'll definitely be interested come 2025, you know, how this all works with the parking, how this all works with the tailgating, because those are my biggest questions remaining at this point in time. And I do have a lot of questions still about like, okay, what is the capacity? Like, what happens if this project does take longer than you think? And we're still talking about it happening in 2027 or something like that. Like that's not a good thing.

Starting point is 00:19:27 So there are a lot more questions that I have out of this or negatives that I had of this than I would hope and that I was expecting to have. But there's still enough good things to come away with this, I guess, overall positive, which C plus your passing grade. It's a passing grade, but I'm not going to brag to any of my friends about it. That's basically the bottom line. Like, I'm not going to brag to any of my friends who are fans of other schools. Like, you got to check out this stadium. It's where, like, no, I'm not going to do that. But it's cool.

Starting point is 00:19:56 It is a thing. So I know that's going to be controversial. Some of you probably not going to like those takes, but whatever. All right. Hit us up anywhere you can get your podcast. Locked on Jayhawks. You can also find us can get your podcast, Locked on Jayhawks. You can also find us on our YouTube page with Locked on Jayhawks. Had a good one.

Starting point is 00:20:10 We'll get back to some more KU football preview shows or position previews in some of our upcoming episodes here with LOJ. Have a good one. See you next time. you you you you you

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Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - University of Kansas Jayhawks Football Stadium Renovations Announced: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

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