SEMO’s Houck Stadium set for major upgrades in “Phase 2” renovation

KBSI FOX23 News at 9 p.m.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (KBSI) – Southeast Missouri State University has announced a sweeping expansion and renovation to Houck Stadium, marking phase two in a multi-phase project aimed at modernizing and enhancing the facility. 

Brady Barke is the Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics at SEMO. He shares details of the proposed phase two updates.

 “It’s actually a multi-level building right now. It’s, a six level building that, would house our football offices, locker room spaces, a new sports medicine facility, soccer offices and locker room space, administrative offices, all of our game day functions, that we utilize up in the press box area, as well as some premium spaces that we can use both on game day as well as, you know, outside of that for an event space” says Barke.

 Renovations were made to the South Side of the stadium that ended in 2023, that included new concession stands, restrooms, a new entryway, over 4,000 additional seats, along with new turf, and a new goal post and playing surface. That was phase one of the project and cost about 18 million dollars. Paid for by various different sponsorships, donations and the City of Cape. Barke shares that since Phase one they’ve seen a lot of success with fans.

 “The fan amenities are much improved” says Barke. “You know, the number of restrooms themselves and being able to, queue those lines into the restrooms and into the concessions are much improved. Since the renovation, we’ve seen record ticket sales numbers. We’ve seen record, concessions numbers and so, we’re certainly able to accommodate our fans in a much better way than what we were prior to that which is positive, and again, I think if you look even just across the street at the local restaurants, the impacts that they have seen, as we’ve had more and more people come to our games,.” 

Barke shares that they are still looking over the design and financial process for phase two and plan to open up for bids in January of 2026. He shares that this project is about more than sports, but the community, students, and surrounding businesses all benefit from a facility that draws more and more fans in each year. 

 “The opportunity to be able to welcome people to campus. There’s probably no singular event, that draws more people to our campus than something like this, and so, it’s important for those reasons, just to be able to have a great way to interact with the community, with prospective students. Have an opportunity for current students to be involved in student life” says Barke.

The second phase is estimated to take around 2 years, and the exact cost for the project is unknown until they reason a bid according to Barke.