photo by: Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World

Fans dance to music during warm ups Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024, during the game against Texas in Allen Fieldhouse.

The new-look, 15,300-seat renovated Allen Fieldhouse is on track to be open early in October in advance of Late Night in the Phog on Oct. 18, Kansas athletic director Travis Goff reiterated on Thursday.

“Definitively, (Late Night is) the first time 15,300 will make their way into Allen Fieldhouse,” he said, “but we expect the team to start getting activated in (the) early part of October, prior to Late Night and get acclimated with the renewed Fieldhouse.”

As KU has previously announced, that $50 million renewal project includes redesigned concourses and a new central video board for the arena — though it also features several characteristics that have caused the Fieldhouse to reduce its capacity by 1,000 seats.

Goff said that each decision about renovations caused the athletic department to weigh impact on fan experience against the effect on total capacity.

“There’s certainly exposure to as many fans as possible as part of the evaluation,” he said. “There are financial considerations as part of that evaluation. There’s that commitment to the history and the heritage and tradition that we all love about the historic Allen Fieldhouse that are part of that formulation.”

KU Athletics had previously cited three factors as the cause of the capacity reduction: new video boards in the corners of the venue, increased chairback seating on its west side and enhanced options for Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant seating.

Goff expanded on the first factor on Thursday, noting that those video boards in the “crow’s nests in the corners” serve a utilitarian purpose beyond simple fan entertainment: “It’s also to really hide the mechanical that needed to come out, in particular, of the third upper-level concourse.”

He also stressed that the broad reduction in capacity will not impact the overall student allotment for basketball games.

“You can simply just make some modifications in where some of that student spillover is,” he said, “so you can make an adjustment to still allow for the same amount of student attendance and capacity that we’ve had in the past.”

After Late Night, KU will next have fans in the Fieldhouse for an exhibition against Washburn on Oct. 29.