Huskers AD gives update on Memorial Stadium project

Under the original plan put forward last year, South Stadium would have been razed at the end of the 2024 Husker football season in preparation for a new stadium that offered better amenities and accessibility throughout the facility.

Athletic Director Troy Dannen said while the needs underlying the project remain, the plan to tear down South Stadium has been put on hold as the university shifts its attention to improving East and West stadiums.

“The project remains on track,” Dannen told reporters on Thursday, “however, the timing and the sequencing is going to be different than I think might have been projected earlier.”

The South Stadium rebuild is still part of the scope of work approved by the NU Board of Regents last October, but Dannen said it made more sense to work on other areas of the stadium first.

“The rationale for that, quite simply, is East and West has the potential to monetize itself,” he said. “The South end, more than the East and West, will rely on public and private philanthropy to get done.”

NU could tap into its internal lending program, which was created from savings realized in 2019 following a successful debt refinancing, to pay for work in East and West stadiums without having to incur new debt.

By installing chair backs in those areas overlooking the sidelines, what Dannen called “the highest-value real estate inside of a stadium,” and adding amenities like club access and elevated concession options will allow the university to attach premium seat licenses that help drive new revenue — which in turn would pay for the improvements.

But doing so will likely mean some longtime Husker fans who have sat in those areas for years, even generations, will have to move to other areas of the stadium, potentially delaying the start of construction.

“If you ever have a re-seat, you have to have at least a year’s notice for your fans,” he said. “We’d be looking at something post-(2025) into (2026) before really anything tangible inside East and West can happen.”

The reconsideration of how to approach the Memorial Stadium project, which is the largest construction project in NU’s 155-year history, has been front and center for Dannen since he arrived in Lincoln, although he admitted to believing it was farther along than it was.

“Honestly, when I got hired, I thought the project was totally done,” Dannen said. “I read the headlines, but I hadn’t read the stories.”

In the whirlwind weeks that followed, the new athletic director said he kept an intentionally low profile as he talked “to everybody I could possibly talk to” about the project to learn its ins and outs.

Interim NU President Chris Kabourek, who hired Dannen in March, said he wanted to give the new leader of Husker Athletics the time and space to get up to speed on the project and evaluate it against the changing landscape of college athletics.

On Thursday, ESPN reported the NCAA and several collegiate athletics conferences have scheduled meetings to consider a proposed settlement for an antitrust lawsuit brought by former college athletes seeking damages after they were barred from cashing in on their names, images and likenesses before the ban was lifted in 2021.

“College athletics was already changing at a rapid pace,” Kabourek said Friday morning. “The antitrust settlements that might come down the path soon added a new nuance that had to go into our thinking.”

Kabourek, who will return to the vice president for business and finance office this summer after Dr. Jeff Gold becomes NU’s ninth system president, said Husker Athletics is and will remain in a strong financial position.

But, he added, reconfiguring the way in which the Memorial Stadium renovation is considered will ensure NU maintains a balanced budget moving forward.

“We would not be in this position without Husker Nation and the incredible support of our fans,” Kabourek said. “If college athletics is moving to share revenue with players, Nebraska will be in a very strong position to not walk out of the gate, we will be able to sprint and be competitive on day one.

“There’s not a lot of places that can say that, and it’s important that any capital projects moving forward don’t jeopardize that,” he added.

Dannen said NU will continue to look at other revenue opportunities to support the department as well as the stadium project. Both he and Kabourek said there were no immediate plans to seek financial support from the Legislature.

Driving new revenue streams could take on several different appearances, including the sale of alcohol and expanding the use of the stadium.

After regents gave last-minute approval to the sale of alcohol at Husker baseball games in April, Dannen said beer sales have averaged $12,000 per game: “Think of the magnitude of a similar project inside the stadium.”

He also echoed former AD Trev Alberts’ suggestion that Memorial Stadium be used “more than seven times a year” and said NU would look to hire someone whose job would be to secure more events at the facility.

The shift in focus and timing of the stadium project, which has received support from regents who were briefed on the plan on Thursday, is all happening under Dannen’s mission to “do everything I can to be a great steward of our resources.”

“I think that is expected by Nebraskans,” he said, “and I do feel we’re being as good of stewards as we possibly can be by making sure we have the right plan.”

While Husker fans might be eager to see the Memorial Stadium of the future, Dannen said making sure the project can be done within the university’s existing means and the country’s changing collegiate athletics environment was more important than moving quickly.

“There is no urgency clock ticking, the clock that’s ticking is the ‘make-sure-you-do-it-right-clock,'” he said. “Which we will.”