The Kansas Athletics department opened David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium to the media. It featured a tour and information about the renovation from Athletics Director Travis Goff, Deputy Athletics Director Jason Booker, and Senior Associate Athletic Director Brad Nachtigal.

There has been a lot of progress made, and Goff said the project is “on time, on budget.”

“Four words that we're really enjoying continuing to say around here,” Goff said.

The construction is led by Turner Construction, and they have ramped up the manpower to stay on schedule.

“They're working incredibly hard,” Goff said. “The Turner team and all the subs are doing outstanding work. Double shifts, 600 people on site any given moment. And everything is on track for that August 23rd home opener.”

The new stadium will be loaded with amenities and features that should make the venue of the nicer in the country. Goff went into recruiting mode when he was talking about the stadium.

When recruits and their families are on campus they get to the see the new facilities and know they will be playing in it.

“It's powerful and we've been talking about it for a couple years,” Goff said. “We've had renderings, we can do videos and fly throughs, but there's nothing like a recruit and a family walking up and actually seeing. And of course, knowing that they're going to be playing there their entire career.”

For years the administration showed drawings and talked about the vision of a new stadium to recruits, but now they get to see it.

“Whether they're coming this fall or they're 26 or 27, they know they're going to be in this facility,” he said. “They know the vision is because becoming a reality. And I think that's been pretty impactful.”

The home opener against Fresno State is less than 100 days away from kickoff. They want to be done with as much construction as possible when that time comes.

“We'll see if it's as clean as a whistle, but it'll be pretty close to that,” he said. “In every aspect of the stadium will be completed and fully open. The conference center to the north will be the one piece that probably lags a little bit. And we've known that and prepared for that. We anticipate the conference center will be open and active in the middle-point of the fall.

He continued: “But every other aspect, stadium wise up and running. Landscaping mostly in place. Plaza on the front, northeast entry, World War I Memorial, you name it, it’ll be ready to go as we get into the fall.”

Once the west side and other projects associated with it are completed the talk will soon center on phase two. That will include the east side and the Gateway District.

“There is great work underway when we think about moving into that phase two,” Goff said. “And there's multiple levers to that. Some of it's been pretty well documented, but essentially we're working in two major fronts. Certainly, fundraising can't get any of these types of things achieved without the right kind of donor support.”

VIDEO: Tour of the stadium

Goff said they will continue to work on financial commitments, star bonds, and on the local front to move forward with phase two.

“We’re working with the City of Lawrence and our partners to make sure we've got a successful path forward,” he said. “I would say both of those are within striking distance and of course for us to meet a really ambitious timeline, like to really continue moving with intense intention through 25 and into 26 with some additional construction. These next handful of weeks, couple months will be really critical to that.”