AD says Kansas Jayhawks are making progress toward major football stadium renovations

Earlier this week, Texas Tech became the envy of the Big 12 when it announced plans for a $200 million renovation to its football stadium.

Kansas athletic director Travis Goff definitely took notice.

“I love it,” Goff said Wednesday at Big 12 media days. “I’m excited for Texas Tech and Kirby Hocutt and that program. I think it’s good for everybody in the conference. I think it’s good for everybody to know that, ultimately, you have to invest in your programs. You can’t just sit idle.”

Goff would like little more than to announce plans for a similar project at Kansas. You could say it’s his top priority.

Few, if any, major football teams have struggled more than KU throughout the past decade-plus as the Jayhawks have cycled through coaches in a futile attempt to recreate the Mark Mangino days. But there is finally hope that Lance Leipold has KU football heading in the right direction, evidenced by a road victory over Texas and several narrow defeats in his first season at the helm.

It will take more than quiet optimism to truly send the Jayhawks on an upward trajectory, though. If KU wants to invest in football, Goff believes it is long past time to renovate Memorial Stadium or possibly build a new venue.

Stadium renovations have been floated in the past in Lawrence. Lew Perkins and Sheahon Zenger both announced plans to renovate Memorial Stadium, but they could never get those projects off the ground as the Jayhawks continued to finish last in the Big 12 standings and home attendance dwindled to laughable levels.

Goff has been working with donors behind the scenes to make sure things will be different this time around.

“We’re significantly ahead of where I thought we’d be a year ago in terms of where we are today,” Goff said. “So I’m excited about that.”

He thinks the athletic department is “progressing” toward something big. Goff can sense enthusiasm for an improved stadium from both donors and casual fans.

“For me, 14 months in, we are progressing on exactly the track we should be,” Goff said, “which means being really thoughtful, exploring multiple options, making sure we’ve got key partners involved in those discussions and making sure an entire institution can get behind what that investment is going to need to look like, that it’s not a short-sighted deal.

“We’re not going to rush to an announcement just to say we’re doing something. It’s something that has a 25-plus year trajectory and impact to it. So that’s that’s the immediate path we’re on.”

Goff doesn’t know when KU will be ready to announce formal plans for a stadium renovation. Nor does he know exactly what they will look. But he is optimistic that they will happen.

Just like earlier this week at Texas Tech.

“It’s another reminder that you can’t sit idle,” Goff said. “We know what that will look like if you don’t do what you have to do at your place and you don’t move the needle day to day for the student-athletes with your football program. You’re going to step backward if you don’t do something that makes a statement within your own league.”