The University of Kansas football team will play its six home games next season in Kansas City because of ongoing construction at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, the university announced Tuesday.
The first two games of the season will take place at Children’s Mercy Park, home of the Sporting KC soccer team, and the final four games will be played at Arrowhead Stadium.
KU had originally intended to keep playing at Memorial Stadium amid the construction of what the university has dubbed the “Gateway District,” but realized that the demolition and rebuilding of much of the stadium and surrounding area would make it impossible to have games there without delaying the work and adding costs. Phase I of the Gateway District project is scheduled to be completed just before the beginning of the 2025 football season.
The full schedule for 2024 KU football games:
- Aug. 29 (Thursday): vs. Lindenwood (Children’s Mercy Park)
- Sept. 14 (Saturday): vs. UNLV (Children’s Mercy Park)
- Sept. 28 (Saturday): vs. TCU (Arrowhead Stadium)
- Oct. 19 (Saturday): vs. Houston (Arrowhead Stadium)
- Nov. 9 (Saturday): vs. Iowa State (Arrowhead Stadium)
- Nov. 23 (Saturday): vs. Colorado (Arrowhead Stadium)
“While we had hoped to play these games in Lawrence, the move to alternate venues is needed to ensure that our fans, student-athletes and all constituents have the best possible gameday experience and that we stay on schedule to complete construction for the 2025 season,” KU Athletics Director Travis Goff said in a news release. “We recognize this move is not ideal for some members of the Lawrence community, and we hope they will understand this is a necessary one-year move to ensure the Gateway District can begin benefitting Lawrence as soon as possible in 2025.”
The construction will not affect KU’s plans to hold its commencement ceremonies in Memorial Stadium in May, the school said.
KU said it is working to coordinate student transportation and accommodations for the six games in Kansas City. The student ticket allotment at Children’s Mercy Park will be approximately 3,500, which KU said is roughly equivalent to the allotment for a full Memorial Stadium. At Arrowhead Stadium, the student numbers will “match or exceed” the total number normally available.
Single-game tickets are not expected to be on sale for the two games at Children’s Mercy Park due to anticipated demand from KU season ticket holders. The park has a capacity of just 18,467 seats for soccer games.
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Conner Mitchell (he/him), reporter, can be reached at cmitchell (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com or 785-435-9264. If you have sensitive information to send Conner, please email connermitchell (at) protonmail (dot) com. Read more of his work for the Times here.
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