COLUMBIA, Mo. — Early in Laird Veatch’s tenure as Missouri’s athletics director, he did the rounds of the grounds.
Veatch met with every head coach. He talked with sport-specific administrators, facility staff and business personnel. And he toured all of MU’s athletic facilities.
His takeaway: There are some fixer-uppers.
“The Memorial Stadium improvement project is unquestionably the No. 1 thing that we need to be focusing on,†Veatch told the Post-Dispatch. “But there are some key things that need to be done that aren’t wants, they’re needs — particularly related to our playing surfaces and a few of our sports: baseball, track, soccer, tennis. We have some things that just need to be done.â€
A planned renovation of Memorial Stadium’s north concourse that will add premium seating and event space to the tune of $250 million is expected to wrap up in time for the 2026 football season. Though the project was approved by university administration just before Veatch’s hire, fundraising for its completion has been one of his immediate priorities.
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Since seeing some of the other facilities, like baseball’s Taylor Stadium, soccer and outdoor track’s Walton Stadium, and the Mizzou Tennis Complex, which hasn’t been hosting the Tigers’ home events, Veatch has a sense of urgency about renovations to other facilities.
He also sees a role for himself in making them happen.
“The advocacy from me on those playing surfaces and the basic things needs to be, ‘We gotta find a way — we gotta find a way as soon as possible,’ †Veatch said, “whether that’s working with donors, working with our institutional partners, finding a way within our budget process to make some of those things happen.â€
The sentiment that some of Mizzou’s athletic facilities — particularly the three Veatch highlighted — need upgrades is not a new one. Broad renovations across MU’s stadiums were part of a facilities master plan announced in October that never left a closed session UM System Board of Curators meeting.
Specifics of the master plan have yet to emerge. When the Post-Dispatch submitted a public records request for the document, the university system declined to release the plan because “it was not presented in public session and the deliberative decision-making process related to the plan continues.â€
It seems there were quite a few facility upgrades included in the plan.
The proposed course of action “would impact every Mizzou sports program and feature sequential construction projects to address current facility needs,†according to of the plan, which came before a November Board of Curators meeting. In addition to the north concourse project, the facilities master plan floated “the construction of several new competition venues and practice facilities,†per the same announcement.
All that emerged from the Curators’ lengthy executive session in November was the Memorial Stadium upgrade.
As a result, there’s a promise that the additional revenue created by that renovation will cover other athletics department expenses, like facility upgrades.
“It’s been encouraging to me how the vast majority of people I speak to here see the big picture and they recognize the importance of football and the impact that has — not just for football but for everyone else,†Veatch said. “When I say, even in my (introductory) press conference, how important that is, it’s not just because I played football or I love the game or recognize it’s our biggest revenue driver. It’s because it has such a bigger impact on everyone involved, and the best way for us to get to a point where we can really move some of these other projects forward is by getting the football stadium done.â€
Set in motion before Veatch’s arrival, that’s how facility renovations will proceed at Mizzou.
“Really from a competitive, safety and security standpoint we’ve got to get some of those things shored up,†Veatch said. “And — let me say ‘and’ instead of ‘but’ — I do believe in the future there’ll be some significant developments we can do with our other sports as well. But for now, we’ve got to solidify our football resource and then be able to focus on some of the bigger things down the road.â€