University of Memphis president Bill Hardgrave, athletic director Laird Veatch and Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland held a news conference on Thursday hours after the announcement of the planned renovation of Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium.

Construction is scheduled to begin after the 2023 season, with the goal of being completed before the 2025 season. The work will continue through 2024, but won’t prevent the Tigers from hosting games.

The news conference lasted nearly 30 minutes. Here is what they had to say about the decision to renovate, how the project will be funded, and what this does for the Tigers’ chances if there is another conference realignment.

Choosing to renovate

Veatch said the U of M looked at both options: renovation, and building a new stadium. It explored what it would take to build an on-campus stadium, which included an independent market study to determine the revenue generation capacity for such an endeavor. Veatch said the result suggested that the school could secure approximately $200 million to finance a new stadium.

He said the study identified potential locations around campus, though all of them also presented site challenges, such as the need to acquire more land.

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“It estimated our optimal stadium capacity to range from 38,000 to 44,000,” Veatch said of the study. “So we ended up utilizing Colorado State’s Canvas Stadium as our optimal benchmark. We did that because it has very similar amenities to what we would want. A capacity of about 41,000 and it was completed in 2017 for a price of approximately $238 million.”

The Canvas Stadium in the Memphis market today was estimated at approximately $400 million, according to Veatch, not including additional costs such as land acquisition. He said renovating the current Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium was a much better value of time and money.

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“While we absolutely recognize the appeals and benefits of an on-campus stadium,” Veatch said. “After consulting with the university leadership and learning that we could truly accomplish our goals with a transformational renovation of Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, we’re excited to partner with the city to pursue this vision.”

Keeping up with conference realignment

There were several talks in summer 2021 about conference realignment after Texas and Oklahoma agreed to leave the Big 12 for the SEC. Memphis was in the conversation of possibly joining a Big 12 expansion, but the conference landed on BYU, UCF, Cincinnati and Houston to replace the two programs.

The discussions surrounding realignment are what ultimately pushed the stadium conversation into gear.

“We recognized that we need to go all in,” Veatch said. “We need to invest and we need to make this happen. What we didn’t have at that point, candidly, is a real clear vision of what it would take and how it would get there. We entered into that process quickly shortly thereafter and it was a very thorough process.”

The Tigers presented architectural renderings of what the renovations would look like. The main focus is to completely transform the west side of the stadium. The Tigers are confident that the renovations will allow them to stay competitive in the evolving world of college athletics. That includes opportunities for conference realignment.

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“From the beginning, I didn’t necessarily sense that an on-campus stadium was critical,” Veatch said. “But I did sense that the commitment and the ability to have sustainable success demonstrated by a stadium like this is necessary. We need to look like we belong and we believe this accomplishes that.

“If you’re looking at Memphis football, we’ve had significant success over the last several years. We need to demonstrate that we care about football and that we are willing to invest and do what it takes to compete at that level. Because candidly, football in many ways drives that decision for other conferences.”

A renovated stadium doesn’t guarantee a conference realignment opportunity, but it ensures Memphis will at least stay in the conversation if the possibility arises.

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“Part of that is just by being around and seeing all those other facilities,” Veatch said. “We’ve all had the opportunity to see all the Big 12 stadiums and other stadiums across the country and this is the kind of stadium that looks like it belongs in that club. But we have to go through the process and I can tell you that if we don’t do something like this, then that definitely hurts our position.”

Funding

The renovation plan is in place, but the $150 million to $200 million has to come from somewhere, and that part is an ongoing conversation. When asked about specific funding details and where the money would come from, Strickland and Veatch both said it’s too early to say right now.

Veatch said the key is making sure to put all options on the table in exploring the multiple ways to fund the project. The effort will be a combination of private and public support.

“The university needed to decide which direction they wanted to go,” Strickland said. “They’ve done that. Now we’ll work over the next few months on firming up those numbers between $150-$200 million and where that money will come from. We’re going to partner on this and I feel very confident that we will get there. We just don’t know what path we’ll take.”