Today that includes press box suites. Just about every major college football program offers either sky boxes, luxury boxes or, as Kansas University euphemizes, “scholarship suites.”

Missouri is the latest to join the Big 12 Conference sky box fraternity. Mizzou’s new press box with suites is on schedule to be completed later this month.

More important, all of Missouri’s private suites are spoken for. Five-year license agreements have been signed by all 32 tenants, MU athletics director Mike Alden announced late last month.

“Selling out our private suite seating really shows the level of commitment to Missouri athletics is very high,” Alden said.

A similar statement you will not hear from Bob Frederick, Alden’s Kansas University counterpart.

Kansas went the scholarship-suite route for the first time last season, and obtained license agreements for just 24 of the available 36 boxes, according to Scott McMichael, director of the athletics department’s Williams Fund.

All four of the high-end $50,000-a-year suites went quickly, including the Chancellor’s Suite funded by the Kansas University Endowment Association. So, too, did the four bottom-line $22,000 boxes.

“The largest and the smallest are all taken,” McMichael said.

Still available are several mid-level suites in the $31,000- and $32,000-a-year range. The number is dwindling, though.

“We obtained two more license agreements over the winter,” McMichael said. “we have about eight or nine left, depending on what the university does. Some of the departments are looking at them.”

All scholarship suites vacant when the 2000 football season begins will be available for single-game rental at a rate of $6,000 a game, not including tickets or food.

“For example, for last year’s Missouri game, an accounting firm from Kansas City signed up,” McMichael said. “It was mainly KU people, although I saw some people wearing black and gold in there.”

McMichael has had inquiries about the Kansas State game on Oct. 7 and the Texas game on Nov. 11, but, of course, he cannot commit until he knows how many suites will have “For Rent” signs.

“The good news is we have folks coming in to look at them,” McMichael said. “We have people coming in this week and next week.”

Before the new press box was completed last August as part of Phase II of the two-year renovation of ancient Memorial Stadium, KU officials stressed the sale of license agreements would fund construction.

But with a dozen or so empty suites, would there not be a revenue shortfall? Not according to Susan Wachter, the KU athletics department’s chief financial officer.

“We budgeted very conservatively,” Wachter said, “and (the suites) brought in more money than was budgeted.”

About $100,000 more, in fact, than Wachter says was needed to pay the annual $2.4 million required to pay off the bonds. Most of the debt-retirement money about $1.9 million comes from a ticket surcharge.

That extra $100,000 is being held back, Wachter said, most likely for future capital improvement projects. No. 1 on the list is expansion of the Shaffer-Holland weight room. Also on the wish list are a combined track and soccer facility, a softball stadium, a separate tennis facility and lowering of the Memorial Stadium field.

Thus, the more scholarship-suite license agreements the KU athletics department is able to obtain, the sooner it will have the funding necessary for future projects.

The Jayhawks’ first home game is Sept. 16 against Alabama-Birmingham. In addition to the K-State and Texas games, KU will be home on Sept. 23 against Southern Illinois, Oct. 21 against Colorado and Oct. 28 against Texas Tech.