KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Share your story idea with Tod.
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It’s nowhere near the scale of the Gateway District project, which includes a new football stadium at the University of Kansas, or the $250-million Memorial Stadium renovation that the University of Missouri Board of Curators recently approved, but MidAmerica Nazarene has its own football stadium project underway.
Beams for the seating bowl and press box went vertical Wednesday.
Pioneers Director of Athletics Todd Garrett said the new Copeland Athletic Complex "will be named after our late mayor of Olathe and MNU alum," Michael Copeland, who died unexpectedly four years ago.
The Copeland Athletic Complex will include a 1,000-seat football stadium with an artificial turf field; new locker rooms for men’s and women’s soccer, baseball and softball; restrooms and concessions; and a new practice facility for track and field.
The final price tag: $14 million — a pittance compared to KU’s ambitious $450-million project or Mizzou’s $250-million renovation, but a massive investment for the Christian NAIA school in Olathe with an enrollment of 2,000, including 850 undergraduate students.
“Athletics is a vital part of our MNU community,” Garrett said. “Roughly 65% of our undergraduate population come to MNU for some form of athletics.”
Funding for the project, which originally was expected to cost $12 million, included a $2 million challenge grant from the Mabee Foundation.
It may pale in comparison to the palatial projects for the Tigers and Jayhawks, but it will be no less transformative for the Pioneers.
“We had an old strength coach, his name was Tom Cross, and he always made the statement: make it big time where you’re at,” Garrett said. “For us, if you look at an institution like us — and we’re just over 50 years of age — to be preparing for a $14-million athletic-complex renovation, that’s significant for an institution of our age and our size. So, we’re thoroughly excited.”
MNU closed its old football stadium in 2012 due to safety concerns and has played off-campus at the Olathe District Activity Complex for the last 13 seasons, but that ends next fall.
“We need additional locker rooms and we need an atmosphere and an environment that builds back into our community versus using off-site facilities,” Garrett said. “The Olathe Public Schools have been good for us, but it’s time for us to bring our athletes back home for competition and practices, so this is a vital piece of our MNU community.”
The school opened a new $20-million student center, the Cunningham Center, two years ago, so the Copeland Athletic Complex continues to build positive momentum — and add add-rate facilities — at the 105-acre campus, which is located south of East Santa Fe Street and west of South Mur-Len Road in Olathe.
“I can’t tell you the number of text messages or emails that I get from our football alumni or our track alumni that says, ‘Man, we are so excited for MNU,’” Garrett said. “They dreamed of this when they were here and now we have an opportunity to create their dream, if you will, and to create our dream and build back into our community, so it’s really exciting. ... There’s certainly a bit of enthusiasm that’s boiling across Olathe and on our campus.”
MidAmerica Nazarene University hopes to open the Copeland Athletic Complex in March. The new eight-lane track will be located southeast of the new football stadium at the site of the old football stadium.
William Jewell College, an NCAA Division II school in Liberty, has a new amphitheater-style football stadium included in its $30-million Link Project, which was initially slated to cost $20 million.
The Link Project, which broke ground in June 2023, also includes a new practice and competition venue for basketball and volleyball, but the school declined a request for an interview about the project.
Other small schools in the Kansas City area continue to use athletics to attract students. Avila University in Kansas City, Missouri, added men’s and women’s tennis this year, while the University of Saint Mary in Leavenworth announced plans to add men’s and women’s golf next year.
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