Christian Ryckman

Snuck upstairs to have a celebratory drink… and am watching Todd Reesing and his brother celebrate a Jayhawk win. Todd’s the receiver here #ToTheHouse 😂 Love this guy and his family!

ATTN: STUDENTS 🚨🚨   We’ve dang near made it! We are just more than 48 hours away from reopening The Booth! As an incredibly proud alum myself, I know how much being a Jayhawk means to you. We’re so grateful for your support and regardless of the sport or venue, we are committed to an elite student experience. A home field advantage is often only as good as the student section makes it and we have seen first-hand the impact you all make at The Booth, The Phog, Horejsi and countless other venues.   We can’t wait to get you back in there Saturday night, while the rest of the nation watches what we’re building right here in Lawrence, Kansas. We need you to be loud and proud and help us show everyone what Kansas Football is all about.   That said, we fully understand that with student seating on the east side, there will still be some challenges before we tackle Phase 2 of the stadium. There are certainly obstacles when you’re talking about a foundation that is 104 years old. Chief among those is the fact that we won’t have WiFi access available on the east side this season. With Phase 2 slated to begin after the season, installing permanent WiFi on the east was not an option. We looked closely into temporary solutions, but they didn’t prove viable because and that wouldn’t have been financially justifiable. If you have AT&T as your provider, you will still have access to data and internet through your Distributed Antenna System (DAS). Unfortunately, if you have Verizon or T-Mobile, you likely won’t be able to access full services on your phone. We are still engaged with both providers and will continue to be as we move forward.   We know this isn’t ideal. We know it’s frustrating and we hear you. As I said earlier, we are fully committed to providing an incredible experience for our students and WE WILL achieve precisely that in due time. Your experience is central among our conversations as we design the east side of the stadium for Phase 2. Once we get there, we truly believe it will rival any student experience in the country. What I’m asking for today – a couple of days before our season – is a little patience and understanding as we get through this year (and trust me the big-picture upgrades that ALL will experience will largely negate the shortcomings).   Our team has worked hard to improve your experience this year and feel really good about some options we’ll have for you. We will have student-friendly concession pricing exclusively for you, located under Section 17. You’ll also enjoy our new videoboard that is 2.5 times bigger than our previous and 60 feet closer to the action. We’ll have new ribbon boards that display advanced stats and out of town scores. We will also have a free student tailgate on The Hill for you to enjoy and also encourage you to check out the 11th Street tailgate at the north end where food and beverages will be offered. Students arriving early this Saturday will get a free jersey (while supplies last) to participate in our stadium-wide stripe out.   We haven’t forgotten about you, and we value you more than ever! We are tackling The Booth in a multi-phased approach and now that Phase 1 is a reality, we are ready to to dig in and make Phase 2 (east side!) first-class as well.   Thank you so much for bearing with us. If you see me at the stadium on Saturday, come say hello and introduce yourself. Let’s keep the dialogue open so we can continue to improve your experience.   ROCK CHALK!