photo by: Henry Greenstein/Journal-World

A crane begins to lift the final steel beam for phase one at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. The beam contains the signatures of contributors to the KU football program, KU and United States flags and an evergreen tree for good luck.

Kansas Athletics held a topping-out ceremony for its stadium renovation project on Thursday afternoon, marking a significant milestone as it continues on track toward the August 2025 deadline for the project’s first phase.

The last of 6,500 total pieces of steel required for phase one, which deals chiefly with the north and west portions of the venue, assumed its permanent place near the southwestern corner of the new-look David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.

The placement of the final steel beam marks the approximate halfway point between what Jason Brown of Turner Construction called 4,000 hours of work in the last 10 months and 3,000 more in the next 10.

“One of our core pillars in our program is to leave it better than you found it,” said KU running back Devin Neal, a Lawrence native. “And obviously a lot of us, us seniors, older guys, we won’t be able to play in this stadium. But everything we’ve done to this point, we get to experience the niceness of seeing that last steel beam go up. And it means a lot to us.”

Construction on phase one began in December and, as project leaders repeated throughout Thursday’s ceremony, is on budget and on schedule to finish before KU hosts Fresno State on Aug. 23, 2025.

“Anything of this kind of magnitude, there has to be celebratory kind of benchmark moments,” KU athletic director Travis Goff said. “You have to pause and reflect and certainly acknowledge and thank everybody who’s helping make it happen. Today was absolutely a really important day.”

The steel beam, which was adorned with KU and United States flags plus an evergreen tree for good luck, bore the signatures of KU athletic staff, football players and more, along with those of the construction workers who have contributed to the project.

“We’re going to put it in place and it’s going to stay there,” Brown said shortly before the placement of the beam, “so you’re a permanent fixture of this stadium, you’re a permanent fixture of this project.”

As he often has since the project began, KU football coach Lance Leipold compared the construction to the ongoing work his team has done to build the Jayhawks’ program.

“We’re not done yet, just like the stadium’s not done,” he said. “We have some things to do, and we’re continuing to be a work in progress, but like it was said by Devin, we’re going to leave it better than we found it, and it’s because of all of you.”

photo by: Henry Greenstein/Journal-World

A crane places the final steel beam for phase one at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024.

Hints for the future

Chancellor Douglas Girod closed his remarks at the event by making reference to the yet-announced second phase of construction, which he said “is going to be even bigger, and that is coming, so stay tuned.”

Goff, who has also spoken speculatively at times about the future phase that would focus on the south and east portions of the stadium (which he has characterized as the final 30% of the project), said that KU has raised close to $200 million of its $250 million for phase one and is creating “the right kind of momentums and bridge” to phase two.

Goff said the university is also close to finding a developer for the second phase; the Journal-World reported earlier on Thursday that KU is excited about a pending proposal but has not yet signed a contract.

Other notes

The much-discussed capacity of the renovated stadium for 2025 is still yet to be determined, Goff said, although it will be more than 40,000. He said the exact number depends what kind of temporary seating KU opts to employ in the south end of the venue.

Girod made a remark about how the timing of the stadium project couldn’t have been better “in this ever-shifting landscape of athletics.” On that note, KU Athletics is still trying to hammer down its operating budget for the currently ongoing fiscal year 2025, after taking the unusual step of entering the year without having approved a budget at its June board meeting.

“We certainly had some evolution in Big 12 distributions that we’ve had to work through,” Goff said on Thursday. “Big part of it, of course, has been the debt-service component when we go out to market later this year to borrow against phase one. We’re trying to really refine and determine what that annual impact is going to be this year, and then of course the subsequent years thereafter.”

He added that the detailed budget is still “a number of weeks away,” but made sure to add that the department is functioning normally in the interim.

photo by: Henry Greenstein/Journal-World

KU athletic director Travis Goff speaks at a ceremony marking the installation of the final steel beam for phase one at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024.