Nebraska announces groundbreaking on new football facility

LINCOLN — A little less than a year after the project was slated to begin, groundbreaking for NU's massive North Stadium Expansion/football facility will commence Friday at 3:30 p.m., Nebraska announced Tuesday. 

The COVID-19 pandemic — and some fundraising issues related to that — set the project back almost a year.

The NU Board of Regents recently approved a physical downsizing for the first phase of the project — which will still cost $155 million — and Nebraska Athletic Director Bill Moos told The World-Herald that the school had secured a major donation last month to get close to the fundraising finish line.

On his monthly call-in radio show, Moos elaborated on the fundraising figures. Of the $155 million, 80 has been raised, and that can start the project. Should NU reach $100 million in private donations, Moos suggested the second phase can be finished along with the first. Moos praised donors who didn't balk on pledges made before the COVID crisis hit and those who pledge money after COVID hit. 

The project will be finished in 2023. 

Moos, Husker coach Scott Frost, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Ronnie Green and University of Nebraska president Ted Carter will be among the speakers at the event, which is open to the media but not the public due to COVID restrictions.