LAWRENCE — In the past two seasons, Kansas baseball has made significant strides under head coach Dan Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald, who took over the program ahead of the 2023 season, had the Jayhawks on the cusp of reaching the NCAA tournament in year two with a rebuilt roster. The 2024 MLB draft saw six of his players picked, setting a new program record for selections before the end of the 20th round. As the team prepares to compete in a new-look Big 12 Conference next spring, the momentum to drive Fitzgerald’s squad further is there.

But according to Travis Goff, KU’s director of athletics, that momentum has the potential to do even more as they look at future potential facility upgrades for the baseball program. Those around the campus community, including campus leadership, can see what’s happening just as the fans and team alumni can. It’s just a matter of people stepping up to be a part of where the team wants to go, because from Goff’s perspective the ongoing Gateway District project isn’t something that’s affecting what they want to do elsewhere in the department.

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“It hasn’t changed any of our goals, objectives, vision to try and make sure we’re invested in every one of our facilities in the right manner,” Goff said in late July. “And so, I would just say that that’s one of the goals, is to — you hope we can create a path to fund rev-share at a very high level, uber-competitive level. … We will, it’s not a hope, finish the full vision of the Gateway, including an East side (of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium) and a development element. And then, absolutely, we still have some facilities we want to tackle and baseball’s at the forefront of that.”

Goff acknowledged there’s more planning to do, but that remains their mindset. What’s listed in the fiscal year 2026 capital improvement request and five-year plan for KU on the Kansas Board of Regents’ agenda from May — $12 million for Hoglund Ballpark renovation in FY-2027 and $10 million for it in FY-2028 — is subject to change as past iterations of these plans have been.

Fitzgerald, speaking in late July, too, said he couldn’t possibly be more on board with Goff’s vision. Fitzgerald highlighted the trust he has in Sean Lester, a deputy athletics director for administration. Given the alignment Fitzgerald sees within the department, he feels free to devote his time to what he can do for the program in the present — such as not miss a chance to add a quality player because he’s spending all of his time thinking about the stadium.

It’s not that Fitzgerald doesn’t think there are tweaks that need to be made to the ballpark, or that there won’t be things done in the interim. But in terms of anything massive, he trusts those updates will be made when needed amid the current landscape of college athletics. Back when he was hired about two years ago, he wasn’t thinking about a possible increase to how many scholarships a college baseball team could have or the name, image and likeness (NIL) space becoming what it has.

Fitzgerald noted this all comes with time. He still has work he wants to accomplish with things he has direct control over. The Gateway District project is a significant one, with phase one of the multi-phase endeavor at $450 million, but Goff pushed back on the notion that means there’s a delay for baseball facilities.

“I think in fact, if anything, with having Dan here now for these last couple years, he’s now had a chance to really think about what the prioritization of facility needs are for the baseball program,” Goff said. “Because it’s not one, only one, answer to that question. There’s not just one potential way to make a difference there. There’s a multitude, and I think it’s been really good to have that couple years for him to understand what most moves the needle and for us to understand how we might be able to tackle that.”

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas baseball facility updates remain a goal for Jayhawk athletics