As Kansas football prepares for games in KC, Jayhawks will bus students to games

Kansas football has announced a plan for getting students to football games this season, as the Jayhawks head to Kansas City.

The Jayhawks will play two home games at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas, and four at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium across the state line, all while renovations at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium in Lawrence continue.

At a news conference on Thursday, Kansas athletic director Travis Goff said the games at Children’s Mercy Park, home of Sporting KC, are sold out.

KU this week announced plans to offer free bus rides to up to 1,000 students to all the home games. The first wave of buses will leave approximately three hours before kickoff, with more details for students on the KU Athletics site.

Goff also noted ticket sales have been strong for the games at the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium.

“Whatever their capacity is … 76,000? That’s the goal at the end of the day,” Goff said. “It’s a delicate dance. We want an incredible home-field advantage and do everything possible to maximize that. We want to maximize student attendance. We certainly want to expose new people to Kansas football. We’ll have a couple visiting fan bases that will have something to say about that.

“It’s tremendous and we’ll appreciate their investment. Ultimately this is about maximizing Jayhawk support in that venue. We have not put a ceiling on that.”

Goff said there is no plans to limit attendance to the lower bowl at the larger Arrowhead.

“Somebody may have made some assumption of suggestion, ‘Let’s just play down there in the lower bowl and shut down the upper deck.’” Goff said. “No. Our aspirations are far greater than that. We want that upper bowl feeling (and) looking the part of what this program deserves.”

That means some fans will be making a bit of a drive ... across the state line.

Where is Arrowhead Stadium located any way?

There was time for levity during Goff’s 45-minute chat with area media members Thursday.

Asked if he’s received any negative feedback from scheduling four home games in the state of Missouri, Kansas AD Goff said with a smile: “I didn’t know that was in Missouri. I just thought Kansas City was all situated mostly within this state line. Somebody told me that (Arrowhead was in Missouri). I was shocked.”

Jokes aside, Goff said the Jayhawks “do think of it as a Kansas City metro,” one they find themselves immersed in.

“Regardless of where that state line falls, it is our metro and Jayhawks really dominate that marketplace,” Goff said. “I think people understand the Chiefs are an incredible partner with the University of Kansas and Kansas Athletics. They don’t get dinged by being home-based on that side of the state line. We haven’t heard much of any blowback at all. I think in general Kansas City is a really important community for KU and KU Athletics. We couldn’t feel better frankly about how this fits.”