Kansas City, Mo. — The University of Kansas athletic department on Wednesday unveiled plans and renderings for upcoming to renovations to Allen Fieldhouse that KU coach Bill Self said were going to be “big time.”
KU is preparing to execute a series of upgrades in the next couple of years that will address and enhance all three levels of the venue’s concourses, upgrade and expand donor areas and install additional chairback seats, state-of-the-art videoboards and a new sound system.
The news release indicated that one of the keys to the project would be to modernize and improve several aspects of KU’s home basketball arena while also “maintaining the history and tradition of the Fieldhouse.”
“This project will go to great lengths to maintain that,” KU Athletic Director Travis Goff said in the release. “This is a strong statement to our commitment to not just sustaining but elevating Kansas Basketball to new heights, and it will be a game-changer for our programs, student-athletes and fans.”
According to the release, the renovations and enhancements, which will be managed by local design firm Multistudio, will begin this spring and be executed in two phases in order to navigate the 2023-24 basketball season.
“We only see it when it’s full on game night and then it’s perfect,” Self said after his team’s practice at T-Mobile Center ahead of this week’s Big 12 tournament. “But we don’t see what the fans go through or deal with, the amenities, concessions and all these things. This will make the coolness inside the arena, which we are doing things to improve that too, be equaled on the outside of the arena.”
Added KU women’s coach Brandon Schneider in the release: “I am excited our fans will get to enjoy a first-class experience each time they come through the doors. This will have a major impact on our program moving for-ward and will make it an even better experience for our student-athletes.”
The entirety of the project, which also will included upgrades to the Wagnon Student Athlete Center to create a “modernized and welcoming front down for recruits, fans, donors and sponsors,” is expected to be completed by the fall of 2024.
The release notes that the project will be funded in large part due to the generosity of longstanding KU supporters and multi-generational Jayhawk families. Goff said the entire project would not be possible without “the inspirational gifts from one of our very best Jayhawk families.”
The family was not named in the release.
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Allen Fieldhouse will soon undergo a series of upgrades that will profoundly enhance the fan experience and equip the most historic arena in the country with state-of-the-art amenities. pic.twitter.com/jLOOLBV3be
— Kansas Men’s Basketball (@KUHoops) March 8, 2023
Included among the plans are:
• Enhanced concessions and new LED lighting to elevate and unify all concourses, including an all-new premium “Jayhawk Pub” concept on the second level, which will have a variety of food options and expansive space for Jayhawk fans to meet and connect while at the fieldhouse.
• A new and expanded Rally House Team Store in the Booth Hall of Athletics that will feature a flexible mezzanine space above it.
• Reimagined and expanded premium hospitality spaces, including the donor atrium, which integrates into Allen Fieldhouse, as well as the Naismith Room.
• Enhanced seating opportunities to include additional chair-backs and accessible seating.
• Important investments into the in-game experience, including a new center-hung scoreboard, LED sports lighting, a new sound system, new digital signage and upgraded Wi-Fi.
Self said Wednesday that he did not have any input into the project but that he was asked for his opinion on certain ele-ments of it. So far, he has liked everything he has seen.
“I’m excited about it,” Self said Wednesday. “I think it puts us in a position for the next 10, 15, 20 years that we’re not going to have to do too much to a building that’s already thought of to be about as fun a place to watch a game as there is.”
Added Self in the release: “This makes the best and coolest place to play college basketball that much better. The fan experience will truly be enhanced, and our team will benefit greatly. We’ve always taken great pride in having the best fans and the best homecourt in the country. These major improvements inside the arena, and throughout all three floors of the concourse, ensure that Allen Fieldhouse will always be recognized as a top venue in America, regardless of sport.”
Allen Fieldhouse opened in 1955 and has received plenty of renovations throughout the past several decades, with the most recent significant moves coming in 2005 and 2009, when the outside was cleaned up and the concourses inside were widened. The KU locker rooms also have been upgraded in recent years.
The announced renovations to Allen Fieldhouse are the latest in a series of plans to upgrade athletic facilities at KU. Several months ago, the university announced a major renovation to David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium and the surrounding area as part of the 11th & Mississippi project. And just last week, KU announced plans to renovate the locker room and weight room at the football program’s Anderson Family Football Complex.
