Kansas tops out east side of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium

A final steel beam went into place on the east side of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, giving Kansas another visible milestone in the Gateway project at 11th and Mississippi streets in Lawrence. The topping-out ceremony marked the end of the structural steel phase on the east-side bowl, a piece of the renovation that has already used more than 1,200 tons of steel and remains central to Kansas Athletics’ plans for the stadium’s future.

The ceremony matters, but it does not mean the east side is ready for fans. Kansas Athletics said the east side will be only partially complete for the 2026 football season, with the lower east bowl open and temporary concessions and restrooms in place. The upper east side will not have seats or concrete this fall, so game-day crowds will still look out on an unfinished section of the stadium while construction continues around them.

That limited opening sets up the next phase of the project, not the finish line. KU says the east side is scheduled to be complete before the 2027 season, while the full Gateway District is slated for completion in 2028. Phase 2 also includes student housing, a full-service hotel, retail, restaurants, office space, an outdoor event plaza and an underground parking facility, all intended to transform the area into a year-round district rather than a football-only venue.

Funding for Phase 2 is expected to come from private donors, university sources and public incentives, which makes the project as much a financial test as an architectural one. For Lawrence, that means taxpayers and downtown businesses will be watching whether the promised foot traffic, hotel activity and event-space demand materialize once the district is built out. KU and Gateway materials say the goal is to activate the area year-round and benefit both the university and the city of Lawrence by supporting economic development and student recruitment.

The stadium itself gives the project a long historical shadow. David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium opened in 1921, and KU says it was the first stadium built on a college campus west of the Mississippi River and the seventh-oldest collegiate stadium in the nation. The listed capacity is 47,000 before the phased renovation. KU first announced the Gateway plans in October 2022, and the phase-1 reopening in August 2025 completed the southwest, west and north sides. With the east side now topped out, the next milestones will show whether the project’s public promise begins to match its scale.