The KU Rayhawks are NOT going through a rough patch. They make Raytown, Missouri proud!

[meow meow]

pretty genius of ole Trav to get the project to a stage where if you don't commit funds one way or another, the stadium will actually look worse than the old stadium.  wait until ku gets cyber bullied enough, ala the track, and someone will end up begrudgingly footing the bill.

[Dugout DickStone]

Leipold had better beat KSU if he wants to land another job.

[catastrophe]

Oh. My. God.


How do any of the people in charge of this project still have jobs!?!????

I highly doubt that those people are that incompetent, and if they were I doubt they would so readily admit it. This seems to me like they set themselves up to get bailed out by the taxpayers because they knew they couldn't afford to do the renovations they proposed.

[passranch]

So, like, the left side of the pic is what there is money for and the right side is what there is not money for?

https://x.com/AustinCEckert/status/1835693877237354703

Well, not exactly.  They're still $100 million or more short of what's needed for the stuff on the left side.

[sonofdaxjones]

Almost every project (but not all) is just an absolute grift at KU.

It's amazing and at this point it's only surpassed by what Farve tried to pull in MS.

I see nothing but fights over FOIA's (again) in the future.

[kim carnes]

So, like, the left side of the pic is what there is money for and the right side is what there is not money for?

https://x.com/AustinCEckert/status/1835693877237354703

Well, not exactly.  They're still $100 million or more short of what's needed for the stuff on the left side.

Are you telling me that construction company is building a project which isn’t fully funded?

[CNS]

KU gets surprise news on football stadium renovation; work on east side likely needs to begin sooner than thought

Future development around KU’s football stadium — currently undergoing a partial $450 million renovation to add a conference center and other amenities — has recently become more complicated.

Soon, local governments may be asked to ease some of those complications by providing financial incentives to the project at 11th and Mississippi streets.

“It is going to take the whole community to get this done,” KU Chancellor Douglas Girod told the Journal-World in a brief interview.

As a reminder, the development has been billed as KU’s Gateway Project. KU hopes to build around the stadium a hotel, restaurants and retail that will bring convention-goers and others to Lawrence to spend their money even when KU football isn’t playing a game.

The project is underway in a big way currently. The west side of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium was demolished, and is currently being rebuilt while KU plays its home football games in Kansas City. A conference center that will host events up to 1,000 people in size is being built in the northern end of the stadium.

What’s not happening, though, are any improvements to the east side of the stadium. The $448 million project is essentially just renovating half of the stadium, plus building the conference center.

Instead, KU had largely put the east renovation on pause, saying it had no timeline for completing that renovation, and acknowledged it didn’t have enough donor money or other funds to begin the project.

Rather, the next phase of the project has been focused on finding a private partner to build a hotel on the east side of the stadium to connect to the conference center. KU and other industry officials have said a hotel is critical to the success of the under-construction conference center.

Here’s where the new complication emerges: Developers have told KU that it is infeasible to build a hotel or anything else on the east side of the stadium until KU actually completes the stadium renovations on the east side.

“That is what we learned going through the process with developers,” Girod said. “I did not appreciate that until fairly recently. We can’t wait on the stadium because none of it can happen.”

The reason the renovation must happen first comes down to space. Renovation of the east side of the stadium will involve moving the grandstands 80 to 100 feet to the west, said Jeff DeWitt, KU’s chief financial officer, who also has been involved in the discussions. That extra 80 to 100 feet of space is what makes it feasible to build a hotel, retail, restaurants, parking and other amenities on the east side.

DeWitt said that was surprising news to KU officials.

“It didn’t enter my mind until the developer saw it,” DeWitt said.

Girod said the revelation has been pivotal.

“They said ‘you don’t understand. You can’t wait on (renovations) because none of this will happen,'” Girod said of recent conversations with an unnamed development group that KU is considering as a potential partner.

What comes next will be highly consequential as well. While KU has learned what it needs to do to have enough space to build the project, it is still working on what it needs to do to have enough money to build it.

No cost estimates have been announced for the east-side stadium renovations. Conceivably, it will be less than the $450 million on the west side because the west-side project includes the press box, luxury suites and the conference center. By the time you add a hotel, restaurants, retail and parking garages to the project, the east-side projects could be at or above the $450 million mark. KU is counting on a private development group — which it has not yet selected — to contribute heavily to the nonstadium portions of the project.

How much developers are actually willing to contribute to the project is unknown, and even then the question remains of how KU will come up with the funds to cover the stadium-specific costs. The west-side project is slated to be covered by a mix of gifts from donors and new debt that Kansas Athletics Inc. will add to its books. KU hasn’t yet said how much debt the athletics department will have to take on, but Girod previously has acknowledged it could be more than $100 million.

That’s why Girod said it’s likely that KU will seek financial assistance from local governments like the city of Lawrence and Douglas County, though he did not provide any details about what KU may seek.

“My suspicion is we are going to need some incentive work with the city and the county to figure that (financial) piece out,” Girod said. “We need to understand that better.”

Girod said a key point of figuring out the overall finances of the east-side project is related to whether the project should include a student housing component. Girod said university officials are leaning toward the idea that the Gateway Project should include a new building for student housing. That building likely would be a revenue generator for the project, producing millions of dollars in student housing fees.

Exactly how large and what type of student housing component should be included is what KU officials are now studying. DeWitt said he thinks KU housing officials will have answers to those questions by the end of the year.

However, there also are major parking questions to answer. The east side of the stadium currently houses the two largest lots for gameday parking. Some sort of parking garage is expected to play a role in replacing that lost parking. But where and how much are key details that still must be determined.

Additionally, KU must finalize an agreement with a private developer. Girod acknowledged KU has one proposal from a developer that it is “pretty excited about,” but the university has not entered into a contract with the unnamed company.

DeWitt said that spring is likely the earliest KU would announce next steps on the project, including ideas on financing and timing.

Girod said much work has to be done between now and then. With the news that the stadium renovations must proceed before other work can begin, he said there are multiple elements KU is actively working on: a hotel, retail, student housing, parking and the east-side stadium improvements.

“Really, it now has five elements to it, which adds significant complexity to it, but it is the right way to do it,” Girod said.

Oh. My. God.


How do any of the people in charge of this project still have jobs!?!????

This is mind blowing. 

[pissclams]

KU gets surprise news on football stadium renovation; work on east side likely needs to begin sooner than thought

Future development around KU’s football stadium — currently undergoing a partial $450 million renovation to add a conference center and other amenities — has recently become more complicated.

Soon, local governments may be asked to ease some of those complications by providing financial incentives to the project at 11th and Mississippi streets.

“It is going to take the whole community to get this done,” KU Chancellor Douglas Girod told the Journal-World in a brief interview.

As a reminder, the development has been billed as KU’s Gateway Project. KU hopes to build around the stadium a hotel, restaurants and retail that will bring convention-goers and others to Lawrence to spend their money even when KU football isn’t playing a game.

The project is underway in a big way currently. The west side of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium was demolished, and is currently being rebuilt while KU plays its home football games in Kansas City. A conference center that will host events up to 1,000 people in size is being built in the northern end of the stadium.

What’s not happening, though, are any improvements to the east side of the stadium. The $448 million project is essentially just renovating half of the stadium, plus building the conference center.

Instead, KU had largely put the east renovation on pause, saying it had no timeline for completing that renovation, and acknowledged it didn’t have enough donor money or other funds to begin the project.

Rather, the next phase of the project has been focused on finding a private partner to build a hotel on the east side of the stadium to connect to the conference center. KU and other industry officials have said a hotel is critical to the success of the under-construction conference center.

Here’s where the new complication emerges: Developers have told KU that it is infeasible to build a hotel or anything else on the east side of the stadium until KU actually completes the stadium renovations on the east side.

“That is what we learned going through the process with developers,” Girod said. “I did not appreciate that until fairly recently. We can’t wait on the stadium because none of it can happen.”

The reason the renovation must happen first comes down to space. Renovation of the east side of the stadium will involve moving the grandstands 80 to 100 feet to the west, said Jeff DeWitt, KU’s chief financial officer, who also has been involved in the discussions. That extra 80 to 100 feet of space is what makes it feasible to build a hotel, retail, restaurants, parking and other amenities on the east side.

DeWitt said that was surprising news to KU officials.

“It didn’t enter my mind until the developer saw it,” DeWitt said.

Girod said the revelation has been pivotal.

“They said ‘you don’t understand. You can’t wait on (renovations) because none of this will happen,'” Girod said of recent conversations with an unnamed development group that KU is considering as a potential partner.

What comes next will be highly consequential as well. While KU has learned what it needs to do to have enough space to build the project, it is still working on what it needs to do to have enough money to build it.

No cost estimates have been announced for the east-side stadium renovations. Conceivably, it will be less than the $450 million on the west side because the west-side project includes the press box, luxury suites and the conference center. By the time you add a hotel, restaurants, retail and parking garages to the project, the east-side projects could be at or above the $450 million mark. KU is counting on a private development group — which it has not yet selected — to contribute heavily to the nonstadium portions of the project.

How much developers are actually willing to contribute to the project is unknown, and even then the question remains of how KU will come up with the funds to cover the stadium-specific costs. The west-side project is slated to be covered by a mix of gifts from donors and new debt that Kansas Athletics Inc. will add to its books. KU hasn’t yet said how much debt the athletics department will have to take on, but Girod previously has acknowledged it could be more than $100 million.

That’s why Girod said it’s likely that KU will seek financial assistance from local governments like the city of Lawrence and Douglas County, though he did not provide any details about what KU may seek.

“My suspicion is we are going to need some incentive work with the city and the county to figure that (financial) piece out,” Girod said. “We need to understand that better.”

Girod said a key point of figuring out the overall finances of the east-side project is related to whether the project should include a student housing component. Girod said university officials are leaning toward the idea that the Gateway Project should include a new building for student housing. That building likely would be a revenue generator for the project, producing millions of dollars in student housing fees.

Exactly how large and what type of student housing component should be included is what KU officials are now studying. DeWitt said he thinks KU housing officials will have answers to those questions by the end of the year.

However, there also are major parking questions to answer. The east side of the stadium currently houses the two largest lots for gameday parking. Some sort of parking garage is expected to play a role in replacing that lost parking. But where and how much are key details that still must be determined.

Additionally, KU must finalize an agreement with a private developer. Girod acknowledged KU has one proposal from a developer that it is “pretty excited about,” but the university has not entered into a contract with the unnamed company.

DeWitt said that spring is likely the earliest KU would announce next steps on the project, including ideas on financing and timing.

Girod said much work has to be done between now and then. With the news that the stadium renovations must proceed before other work can begin, he said there are multiple elements KU is actively working on: a hotel, retail, student housing, parking and the east-side stadium improvements.

“Really, it now has five elements to it, which adds significant complexity to it, but it is the right way to do it,” Girod said.

Oh. My. God.


How do any of the people in charge of this project still have jobs!?!????

This is just noise, right Piss'?

it is, albeit pretty damn embarrassing.  is there any doubt all of this doesn’t get built? no. 

either ku’s administration is lying or they were woefully incompetent.  i think it is the latter.

[Woogy]

Gonna brow beat the locals to forgo the development's sales tax benefit in order to STAR bond construction of the commercial entities in Phase 2.

[deputy dawg]

Athlon sports is reporting that Florida is zeroing in on Matt Rhule and James Franklin as replacements for Napier.  Does Lance Lightpole have a shot of being in the mix?

[PurpleOil]

Athlon sports is reporting that Florida is zeroing in on Matt Rhule and James Franklin as replacements for Napier.  Does Lance Lightpole have a shot of being in the mix?

Didn't Rhule just start at Nebraska? Also, I would think Florida would basically have to pull an A&M Jimbo Fischer type contract to pull Franklin away from the Lions.

[PurpleOil]

Oh. My. God.


How do any of the people in charge of this project still have jobs!?!????

I highly doubt that those people are that incompetent, and if they were I doubt they would so readily admit it. This seems to me like they set themselves up to get bailed out by the taxpayers because they knew they couldn't afford to do the renovations they proposed.

This project wasn't supposed to be built in phases.
Then it had to be built in phases.
They originally had almost all the money for everything.
Then they didn't have enough money for phase 1 yet.
Then they had to borrow money just to finish phase 1 because donations weren't enough.
Then they were behind schedule.
Then they didn't know where they were going to play in the fall.
Then they split the "home" games between a soccer field and an NFL stadium in another state.
Then they didn't have enough money for phase 2.
Then the timeline for phase 2 becomes ambiguous.

Now they're announcing that the private developers will not/cannot develop on the land like they're supposed to because it's currently being occupied by the old part of the stadium that they don't have the money to demolish/replace and they currently don't have any type of schedule to do so, and in order for any of this to be completed they're going to need more state tax dollars to keep going.

I'm sorry, but since when can an athletic department just procure state funds because their project goes way over budget?

Call me naïve but I don't think that's how any of this is supposed to work.

[Cire]

Goff leaked that because donations are drying up with the season unfolding and he needs to create the urgency to get the money going to finish or it will never happen

[Cartierfor3]

Honestly the move would've been play in crappy memorial until like 2030 when the new Chiefs dome is in the Legends and play home games in an NFL state of the art stade.

[sonofdaxjones]

The Dax plan for KUMS would have had the project completed 5 years ago, and that historical facility would have been absolutely fantastic.

I'd drive by it regularly just to take in the application of beautiful Kansas limestone.  The next round would be to tear down Default Football Guy Complex in it's entirety and start all over again, just like K-State did, once again incorporating magnificent Kansas limestone.

All done for approximately $350-$375 million tops

The truly sad part is the excuse making for not moving forward years ago.  SMU sucked balls . . . built a whole new stadium.  Oregon State - mediocre, redid their entire stadium.  Illinois - Not very good, renovated their entire stadium.  Houston - Pretty mid, built a whole new stadium.  Minn - bottom dweller - built a whole new stadium (instead of just using the Vikings new stadium).  Colorado State - slightly above mediocre at the time - built a whole new stadium.

[Spracne]

Tell me more about SMU’s stadium.

[Shooter Jones]

Athlon sports is reporting that Florida is zeroing in on Matt Rhule and James Franklin as replacements for Napier.  Does Lance Lightpole have a shot of being in the mix?

He won't be in the mix for the original openings, but he'll be in the mix for all the backfills.

Got to assume the Nebraska job is his if Rhule leaves.

[Dugout DickStone]

Athlon sports is reporting that Florida is zeroing in on Matt Rhule and James Franklin as replacements for Napier.  Does Lance Lightpole have a shot of being in the mix?

He is legit too old for them.

[I_have_purplewood]

Athlon sports is reporting that Florida is zeroing in on Matt Rhule and James Franklin as replacements for Napier.  Does Lance Lightpole have a shot of being in the mix?

He is legit too old for them.

Florida isn't dumb enough into getting duped to pay him 7mil.  I'm not sure they'd be able to match the season tickets and free popcorn LL is currently getting for all Sporting games either.

[sonofdaxjones]

Tell me more about SMU’s stadium.

Oh boy, here comes OCD/anal Spracs

It opened 24 years ago. SMU in the previous 5 season had 1 winning season. I also know what you're going to say about money and per Phogistan, when the time came to redo memorial stadium, it was going to be 3 or 4 phone calls tops and it was going to all be funded.

Now it's going to take a village to raise KUMS 

[ChiComCat]

UF or any blue blood would be wise to get Rhule, drop a bag on his Frosh QB, and you're probably most of the way to fixing your problems.  Leipold can get a do-over and take the NU job and everyone wins (except NU and KU which continue to lose).

[meow meow]

KU's stadium is the bastard child that no one wants to take care of 

[meow meow]

UF or any blue blood would be wise to get Rhule, drop a bag on his Frosh QB, and you're probably most of the way to fixing your problems.  Leipold can get a do-over and take the NU job and everyone wins (except NU and KU which continue to lose).

Raiola won't look like Mahomes in blue and orange, he's not going anywhere.

[ChiComCat]

UF or any blue blood would be wise to get Rhule, drop a bag on his Frosh QB, and you're probably most of the way to fixing your problems.  Leipold can get a do-over and take the NU job and everyone wins (except NU and KU which continue to lose).

Raiola won't look like Mahomes in blue and orange, he's not going anywhere.

I think NU would probably match or pay more in all honesty, similar to what Arizona did with their bunch of losers when their coach left.

[meow meow]

UF or any blue blood would be wise to get Rhule, drop a bag on his Frosh QB, and you're probably most of the way to fixing your problems.  Leipold can get a do-over and take the NU job and everyone wins (except NU and KU which continue to lose).

Raiola won't look like Mahomes in blue and orange, he's not going anywhere.

I think NU would probably match or pay more in all honesty, similar to what Arizona did with their bunch of losers when their coach left.

and his dad played at Nebraska