Trev Alberts details how Nebraska will reach financial requirements for stadium renovation

On Thursday, athletic director Trev Alberts announced that the Nebraska Board of Regents will consider a $450 million Memorial Stadium renovation. The goal of those renovations would be to modernize and improve the facilities at Memorial Stadium.

The scale of this renovation is massive. To pay for it, Alberts explained that approximately half would be raised privately.

“It’s $450 million, $225 million we hope to raise privately,” Trev Alberts said. “The athletic department will participate in $100 million. So, we have about $50 million that’s at the University of Nebraska Foundation in surplus funds, essentially donor funds, and actually those are the dollars we’re going to use first. Part of the approval from the board is actually three different components, one of which is about a $45 million initial infrastructure package, which will allow us to get started immediately. Nothing that maybe the average fan is even going to see, it’s back-of-house mechanical stuff we need to put in place before major construction happens.”

When Memorial Stadium was first built, money for it was privately raised. At the time, that amounted to $450,000. Now, the university is once again looking to its community of supporters for at least a portion of the money needed to renovate Memorial Stadium.

Of course, private donations won’t be the only place Trev Alberts and Nebraska raise money. The plans also call for money to be lent in the amount of $50 million.

“We will then seek to use the Central Lending Program through Varner Hall and borrow another $50 million, just for a little context. We did borrow $50 million for the Go Big Project and through the support of our fans and others, we have a very aggressive payment plan. That debt will be expired at the end of this fiscal year. We will not start another project and add debt to the athletic department until our previous debt has been extinguished, so really important there,” Alberts said.

“The other $125 million we’re working through several sources to figure out how, in a true private, public partnership, we can impact and so we’ll be examining those areas as well.”

Renovations will lower Memorial Stadium’s capacity

Among the changes to Memorial Stadium that will come with these proposed renovations is a reduced capacity to the stadium. As of now, Memorial Stadium seats approximately 12 percent. That would take the capacity of the stadium overall into the mid-70,000s.

“The reality is if you look at putting in the modern amenities that our fans would like, the physical structure of Memorial Stadium remains the same, but you’re going to have a 10-12% reduction in capacity, just based on widening aisles, putting handrails, doing the things from ADA and other things that I think a stadium in 2023 really demands,” Trev Alberts explained.

As of now, Nebraska has sold out 391 straight games. That’s an incredible streak that goes back to the 1962 season. With a smaller capacity, it should be even easier to maintain.