photo by: Photo courtesy of Kansas Athletics

Kansas fans pack David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium for the school's first football sellout since 2019 on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022.

The University of Kansas now thinks the first phase of its plan to upgrade its football stadium and the area around it at 11th and Mississippi streets will cost $115 million more than once envisioned.

KU officials have submitted new documents to the Kansas Board of Regents requesting that the phase one budget for the project be increased to $335 million, up from $220 million when KU last submitted paperwork to the Regents. The previous cost estimate had been focused more on a traditional football stadium renovation rather than a “gateway” project that aims to add development around the stadium.

The Regents — who oversee all major university construction projects — are scheduled to consider the request at their meeting next Wednesday in Manhattan.

In the new documents, KU is highlighting that the project will be about much more than refurbishing David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium. When KU announced the project in September, university leaders highlighted that the project would have components beyond the football stadium renovation, possibly including a convention center, hotel and medical facilities.

However, there has been talk in the state’s higher education circles about whether KU was attempting to use economic development funds available to the state to primarily refurbish its football stadium, a source has told the Journal-World.

The “program statement” filed with the Regents does more to highlight that the primary purpose of the project is about economic development. Past documents related to KU’s capital improvement plan identified the project as the Memorial Stadium Renovation project. KU now is officially changing the name to the 11th and Mississippi project.

“The new venue will be designed to drive economic development, provide services that help to recruit and retain students and make KU, and the KU experience, even greater,” a memo to the Regents reads.

The program statement continues to state what KU Chancellor Douglas Girod has previously said about the potential types of development that could occur on the site.

“As the north gateway to campus, the University wants to develop a multi-purpose venue with year-round use, which may incorporate conference or entertainment capabilities, retail, dining, hospitality, health care services, or other facilities that support economic development and the University’s academic mission,” the memo to the Regents reads.

When Girod has talked about the project previously, he has acknowledged it could be a project of more than $300 million. The new $335 million price tag is a bit higher than that number, but more significantly, KU is projecting the $335 million would be spent in Phase 1 of the project. The memo to the Regents said “this may be a multistage project,” but doesn’t identify how many stages or what the total cost of the multiple stages may be.

The memo says KU expects to have more details about what type of activities and businesses could be located in the “multi-purpose events center” after an economic impact study is completed in January.

The memo also gives information on some other key timelines. KU hopes to have designs for the project completed in the spring of 2023, and believes it will take 30 months to build the project. The goal is to have all work done by the fall of 2025.

KU believes some work will begin in 2023, and will include improvements to the water, sewer, stormwater, electrical and broadband systems in the area near campus.

The memo said KU’s current funding plan for the project envisions private donations, economic development funds, revenue generated by the project and revenue from the “associated development.”

Previously, Girod has told the Journal-World that he does not envision using state dollars or tuition dollars — which are the primary sources of funding for KU’s general operations — to fund any part of the project.

Girod, however, previously had said that he envisioned Kansas Athletics would have to take on new debt to pay for some of the project. The new memo to Regents doesn’t specifically raise the possibility of new debt for Kansas Athletics.