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LINCOLN, Neb. — Nebraska is moving ahead with a plan to renovate Memorial Stadium, but the timeline and sequencing of construction has been upended, athletic director Troy Dannen said. The change comes in an effort to adjust to the changing economic times in college football.
No longer is the South Stadium coming down after the 2024 season, a major piece of the $450 million project laid out by former AD Trev Alberts and approved by the Nebraska Board of Regents in October 2023.
Dannen was hired in March from Washington after Alberts left for the same job at Texas A&M. The new Nebraska AD said the first focus of renovation will shift to the east and west sections of the stadium behind the team benches. Dannen wants to put chairback seating on both sides.
“The rationale for that, quite simply,” Dannen said, “is the east and west has the potential to monetize itself.”
The west stands and lower bowl on the east side hold 28,000 seats. The installation of chairbacks would require a re-seating of season-ticket holders and come with a reduced capacity, an increase in fan amenities and a rise in revenue generated by required donations.
The unveiling of chairbacks would occur no sooner than before the 2026 season. Dannen said he believes a re-seating requires impacted fans to receive a full year of notice.
The Nebraska athletic department collected a school record $204.8 million in revenue in 2022-23, the most recent fiscal year for which data is available. Big Ten media rights have ballooned to approximately $1 billion per year, split between the member schools, in a deal that went into effect last summer and runs through 2029-30.
Still, Nebraska faces a “revenue problem,” Dannen said, because of shifting forces in college sports. The possibility of a settlement looms in a landscape-changing case against the NCAA. It could contribute to the creation of school-driven revenue sharing with athletes that replaces the current NIL model.
Dannen said he’s preparing for a $20 million line-item expense in the annual Nebraska budget.
“Urgency is not the right word,” Dannen said, “but (there’s) demand to make sure we can support the costs of college athletics moving forward. So it’s a high, high priority. We’re starting from a great place, but that doesn’t mean we’re there.
“We have to find ways to drive revenue.”
The scope of Nebraska’s stadium renovation remains unchanged, Dannen said. Alberts’ plan called for a 360-degree main-level concourse and a 270-degree upper-level concourse, among other amenities to enhance the fan experience. Construction was set for completion by 2026 and would have delivered a rebuilt South Stadium after one or two seasons of capacity reduced by approximately 22,000 from the current figure of 82,841.
Nebraska still plans to redo its in-stadium Wi-Fi for fans before this fall.
“The needs that were identified to build this project,” Dannen said, “they’re all valid.”
The school has sold out 396 consecutive games, dating to 1962. Its season-ticket base in 2023, not including students, sat at 67,445.
The fate of the South Stadium in Dannen’s plan and the overall cost of the renovation remain uncertain. The AD said he would look at options to replace the South Stadium in phases to prevent a significant — although temporary — reduction in capacity.
The Nebraska Board of Regents approved $45 million last year in preliminary funding for Alberts’ plan, including $12.4 million to architectural firm HDR to generate designs. Most of the architects’ design work to this point has focused on the South Stadium.
“We’ve turned them 45 degrees,” Dannen said.
He said he expected that work on designs for the east and west seating areas would take almost the remainder of 2024.
In the meantime, Dannen said Nebraska might slow its fundraising efforts “until we have a real project” to present, “until we have the drawings, until we know what’s viable, until we know what the costs are.”
Rest assured, Dannen said, when he understands the details of the stadium plan, he’ll aim to raise money aggressively. Dannen said he anticipated that more of the funding to renovate the South Stadium, in comparison to the east and west, would come via donors.
He said he would consider submitting a request for public funding, which has never been used by Nebraska in athletics.
“At some point in time, I will ask everybody for everything,” Dannen said, “once we have a financial model that doesn’t compromise our ability to compete in the new world of college athletics.”
And if he sat on the other side Dannen said, as a potential donor, he would demand answers.
“Before you come ask me for money,” Dannen said, “I need to know what’s going to happen. I need to know how a college athletic department is going to run and function before I’m going to financially support it.”
Dannen said he spends time daily with second-year football coach Matt Rhule and that the duo are in lockstep over the needs of the Nebraska program. Though Dannen has never attended a football game at Memorial Stadium, he has grown familiar with numerous aspects of the 100-year-old venue in less than two months on the job in Lincoln.
He served as athletic director at Tulane and Northern Iowa before his five months at Washington. Already at Nebraska, he’s developed a high appreciation for the fans who fill Memorial Stadium.
“What’s happened here is remarkable,” Dannen said. “I’m just talking about the last decade. The support that fans have given this program, in the absence of success at the level that anybody wants to see it, is remarkable. I’m a firm believer. I believe in Matt. And I believe in the program.
“I believe in everything that’s been done to get the program competitive again. When success happens, I’m excited to see the wave that we all get to ride.”
(Photo: Reese Strickland / USA Today)
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Courtesy : https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5501319/2024/05/17/memorial-stadium-nebraska-renovations-troy-dannen/