photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The north end of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, which includes a new conference center, is pictured on Oct. 16, 2025.

Demolition on the east side of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium will begin next month, and KU leaders now say a portion of the east side of the stadium will open for the 2026 football season.

University of Kansas Chief Financial Officer Jeff DeWitt told the Journal-World that demolition on the east grandstands likely will begin in mid-December, just a couple of weeks after KU’s final home football game of the 2025 season, which is set for Nov. 28.

Crews will immediately start rebuilding the east side of the stadium after demolition is complete, DeWitt said. KU’s plan is to have the lower bowl portion of the stadium completed and open for seating during the 2026 football season.

Work on the upper bowl of the east side would continue through the 2026 season, and be open for gameday seating during the 2027 season. Work on the hotel, student housing, and a parking garage would stretch into 2028, DeWitt said.

As the Journal-World has reported, KU does not plan to move any regular home games out of the stadium in 2026, even though construction work will be underway at and around the stadium. KU Chancellor Douglas Girod has said it is critical that KU play in the stadium through this second phase of construction, now that the west and north ends of the stadium have already been completed. KU did move games to Kansas City during the first phase of the stadium.

“I’m not doing that again,” Girod told the Journal-World last year.

DeWitt on Wednesday told the Journal-World that plans for the east side of the stadium will be released soon. He said the east side will include a section devoted to suites, similar to what has been built on the west side. A big difference with the east side will be an approximately 150-room hotel that will be connected to the northeast corner of the stadium, which will also give the hotel direct access to the 55,000-square-feet conference center that is now open at the stadium.

DeWitt said that hotel also is planned to have a club area for gameday viewing, among other amenities.

The hotel deal is in the advanced stages of negotiations, but hasn’t yet been finalized, he said. KU has chosen a group led by Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate — the lead developer of the new KCI airport — to oversee the second phase of the Gateway project, which will include the hotel, student housing and about 1,000 parking spaces in a mix of new surface parking lots and a parking garage. DeWitt confirmed the garage is no longer slated to be underground, but rather will be on the first two floors of the student apartments that will be just east of the stadium.

University officials also confirmed that KU will have to do another round of fundraising from donors to bring the project to completion, although they did not announced a specific fundraising goal for the second phase.

“So, we’ll be calling,” Girod said with a laugh to a crowd of about 300 who had gathered for a Wednesday morning ribbon cutting of the new stadium conference center.