photo by: Henry Greenstein/Journal-World screenshot

This screenshot of EA Sports College Football 2025 from Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024 shows a renovated David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.

The first phase of construction for the University of Kansas’ football stadium is still just over a year from its conclusion, and there’s no firm date set for the completion of KU’s full Gateway District project.

But EA Sports gave KU fans a glimpse of the future with the installation of a new patch to its College Football 25 video game on Thursday.

The update added as the Jayhawks’ default home stadium a new-look version of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium that reflects the renderings KU released at the time of the Gateway District project’s formal announcement in August 2023. It replaced the pre-construction Booth that had been in the game since its mid-July release.

Of course, while EA Sports College Football 25 is supposed to reflect the 2024 season, in reality the Jayhawks aren’t playing at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium at any point in 2024, despite having originally planned to do so; KU will host two nonconference games at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas, and four league games at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri.

Of note, the version of the stadium presented in the game goes beyond the first phase of renovations, which will revamp the north and west ends of the stadium and is due to get done before KU hosts Fresno State on Aug. 23, 2025. (Athletic director Travis Goff has referred to this as 70% of a new stadium.) EA Sports’ rendition of the facility includes changes to the southern and eastern portions of the venue that are expected to take place as part of phase two. The difference is clear because in the video game, the wheat-themed lights that ring the stadium surround it on the north, west and east sides, as opposed to just the north and west.

Goff recently made some of his most detailed public comments on the prospects for phase two of the stadium, suggesting that as KU approaches its fundraising goal for phase one, officials are also having “really important, active conversations that we’re hopeful can be catalysts to then moving us with momentum into planning for phase two.” He also said that KU does not anticipate having to play outside of Lawrence once again as part of the second phase.

Other schools that had their stadiums updated in Thursday’s patch, according to EA’s patch notes, were Kennesaw State, Louisiana-Monroe, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Texas State and Wake Forest, as well as San Diego State’s stadium when it plays host to the Holiday Bowl.

photo by: Henry Greenstein/Journal-World

The ongoing construction at the northwest corner of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium is pictured on Monday, Aug. 5, 2024.