Here’s what’s being said about Kansas football playing its home games away from Lawrence
LAWRENCE — Back in August of last year, Kansas Athletics unveiled its plan for the Gateway District project and renovation of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.
KU’s chancellor Douglas Girod described it as an attempt to create an outdoor Allen Fieldhouse — one of the best, if not the best, venues in college basketball. Jayhawks football coach Lance Leipold went as far as to say it was game-changing, when it comes to his discussions with recruits and their families. The first phase would see construction of a new look to the southwest, west and north sides of the football stadium.
The 2024 season was seen as one Kansas would play through in David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. Girod noted they were working on what a reduced capacity would look like as construction continued, with 2025 being the season the first phase of the project would be unveiled. Girod mentioned the possibility of temporary structures to enhance that capacity.
But even though the Jayhawks football team’s home games in 2024 will be split between Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas, and Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, that shouldn’t take away from the momentum the program has garnered in the early years of Leipold’s tenure. There’s time to manage the business side of things, when it comes to the effect on the local economy in Lawrence, the student experience and more.
And the vision Travis Goff, Kansas’ director of athletics, has, is still attainable.
“I think we’d tell them intimacy, community, energy,” Goff said back in Aug. 2023, explaining the stadium would provide something for everyone. “I think that’s what this venue is going to create. I mean, the reality is the game day experience is not a direct correlation with capacity or numbers of 80,000 or 110,000 as you might see in some of the Big Ten or SEC footprint. We hear, time and again, that the most exciting and best fan experiences — and therefore best student-athlete experiences — are in full stadiums that have intimacy to the sideline, that as I think the renderings have demonstrated bring kind of a stacked approach to the decks that puts even that upper deck, most inexpensive seat, literally on top of the action.”
Here’s what was said last week — per a KU release — after the full schedule release for Kansas football's 2024 slate:
Kansas football coach Lance Leipold
“This is an exciting move for our team as these are two well respected and exciting venues to watch a sporting event. I’m confident our fans will be able to create a ‘home field’ that our players will be energized to play in. Our administration has done an excellent job of partnering with both organizations and venues during our construction phase. This will allow the project to continue its path to completion in a timely manner and provide the best competitive advantage for our team during the transition.”
Kansas City Chiefs president Mark Donovan
“We are excited to host Jayhawks football games at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium while David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium is undergoing renovations. In addition to another huge summer of concerts and the FIFA 2026 World Cup, the stadium continues to serve as a community asset for the region. Our Arrowhead Events team has been working closely with the University of Kansas Athletic Department to ensure that players, coaches, staff and fans feel at-home. We look forward to seeing college football return to the home of the Chiefs this fall.”
Sporting KC president and CEO Jake Reid
“Sporting Kansas City and the University of Kansas are longtime supporters of one another. We’ve worked closely on numerous initiatives in recent years including preparations for FIFA World Cup 2026, playing Sporting KC II matches at Rock Chalk Park and also launching our Sporting U and Sporting U NIL platforms. We look forward to hosting Coach Leipold and the nationally-ranked Kansas Football program at Children’s Mercy Park and welcoming KU students and fans to cheer on the Jayhawks.”
Kansas football running back Devin Neal
“I know the whole team is excited about having the opportunity to play in Kansas City this season. Obviously, we all love playing in Lawrence at The Booth, but this will be a great experience for our team and it’s what’s best for the future of the program and stadium. I know our fans will show up in a big way at Children’s Mercy Park and Arrowhead Stadium to provide a homefield advantage, the same way they have in Lawrence the past couple of seasons.”
Lawrence Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Bonnie Lowe
“We have listened and heard the concerns from our business community, and while we all would rather be cheering on the Jayhawks at Memorial Stadium, we understand that growth of this magnitude comes with challenges. We have an opportunity for our businesses to showcase what they’re known for - their innovation and creativity — in finding fun, new ways to watch and celebrate KU Football. When we think about the new stadium, the Gateway District, and the conference center on the horizon for Lawrence, we will be well posed for future success.”
Turner Construction operations manager Joshua Jones
“Our collective Gateway District project team has been diligent in exploring all options for delivering a world class facility for the University of Kansas and KU Athletics. This process is inclusive of strategic reviews of project schedules, early procurement processes, reviews of alternative sequencing of workflow, key decision dates, material production timeframes and overall project budget to meet a final completion of August 1, 2025. Through this team partnership and continued coordination, the project team has recognized that hosting all home KU Football Games in 2024 at alternate locations creates a safer and more efficient environment to complete this project.The Turner team is appreciative of the efforts that KU and the design team have made to support the safety of the community and our workforce by recognizing the incredible challenges that hosting games in 2024 at David Booth Memorial Stadium would have created. This decision creates the best path forward for our project team to successfully complete the new construction and renovations for the launch of the 2025 football season.”
Kansas student body president Turner Seals
“Although we’d obviously prefer to host our home games in Lawrence, we appreciate Athletics working to provide a great alternative venue for our team and school for the upcoming season with games at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium and Children’s Mercy Park. Student Senate will continue working with our partners at Athletics to ensure accessible bussing and other efforts to make it a great game day experience for our students and fans as a whole.”
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Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas football will play at Children’s Mercy Park, Arrowhead Stadium
