Kansas Memorial Stadium plan could drop capacity to smallest in Big-12

Kansas Univ. has “big plans to turn the area around its football stadium into a hub for conventions and tourism,” but it may need to make its football stadium the “smallest in the Big 12 to do so,” according to a front-page piece by Chad Lawhorn of the LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD. An outside consultant hired by the is recommending a “55,000-square-foot conference center, a 175-room upscale hotel and even a 2,500-seat concert and event venue” for the stadium site, but the consulting group is also recommending that KU “shrink the size of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium to 39,839 seats,” a drop of a little more than 7,000 seats from the stadium’s current official capacity. A KU spokesperson said that the university is “open to the idea of decreasing the seating capacity of the stadium” because leaders are “confident that improvements to the stadium ... will make for a much better fan experience.” KU Vice Chancellor for Strategic Communications and Public Affairs Karla  Leeper said, “We love football. “We want that football stadium to appropriately reflect KU’s commitment to athletics and KU’s argument for remaining in a Power Five Conference … But financially it doesn’t make sense to make that type of investment in something that is only used seven days per year.” The plans call for more than 2,500 “club seats,” which would be a type of “premium seating that would include additional services -- perhaps concessions and other amenities -- as part of their ticket.” The plans also call for about 55 new suite-level seats in the stadium (LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD, 6/22).