Mizzou Athletic Director Laird Veatch gives update on his department

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KMIZ)

As Mizzou approaches the end of the 2025-26 athletic calendar, Athletic Director Laird Veatch gave an update on some of biggest things to watch for his athletic department, heading into the offseason.

Since Veatch last spoke to media members, he made his first hire as the leader of MU Athletics. The Tigers found their new women's tennis coach in former Tennessee associate head coach Robin Goodman, who Veatch said he is excited about for quite a few reasons.

"He is definitely one of the coaches that if you drew up what you will be looking for ahead of time," Veatch said. "You know, he's a proven head coach, got SEC experience, he played in the Midwest, but he's got, you know, big-time European recruiting ties and all those kind of things. I really feel confident he's going to fit well, just his personality and his engagement. He's very community-oriented, really wants to engage with the tennis community in Mid-Missouri, but throughout the state. So, it'll be really good to have somebody in that position that wants to be here and really wants to build something over, you know, long term."

You can watch the full press conference with Veatch in the video player below.

Veatch's hiring of a new tennis coach comes as other athletic departments across the nation have decided to cut their tennis programs to free up money to revenue sharing and NIL. However, that was never going to be the case at Mizzou.

"For us, we're just at a time where we really want to indicate that we are committed to high level success at Mizzou and, you know, across the board in what we're doing. We want to seek excellence and, you know, that's a reflection of that. [There's] some steps we need to take with that program. We need to get our outdoor courts up to speed, we've been investing on the indoor courts, but across the board we want to do things the right way," Veatch said.

He also talked about the ongoing construction to the north end zone at Faurot Field, as he said it is still set to be complete for Mizzou football's season opener against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Sept. 3.

Of course, some of the most notable features of that renovation will be the total enclosure of Memorial Stadium, as well as the new video board and new placement of the historic 'Rock M." However, Veatch also pointed to the opportunities that come with how many premium suites they are adding, as well.

Mizzou still won't have the biggest football stadium in the SEC, but Veatch still believes this project will be a game-changer.

"I mean, we're not going to be the biggest stadium in the SEC, right? But, in terms of the now the number of, like, suites and premium opportunities that we have and just enclosing the stadium overall and having that feeling of just being really loud and on top of the action, it is going to make a big, big impact on that that home field advantage and home field experience," Veatch said.

The athletic department is still also in the process of finding a corporate naming sponsor for Memorial Stadium. On Tuesday, Veatch said he would be 'surprised' if that process was complete in the 2026 season, as they're taking their time to find a partner that fits Mizzou.

"I would say really good conversations. As I've told everyone involved and including my bosses and coaches and everybody else that that wants us to to move forward, those conversations take a while, right? You're talking about multi-million dollar, long term commitments. They're huge investments, right? Typically you're talking about publicly traded companies that are that are big and significant and have a process they go through and they're going to look at it like an investment in the in the local state team, but it's also an ROI for them," Veatch said. "So, having a lot of really good engagement. But, you know, if it happens before this next year, great. If it happens before the the year after that, great. We're going to find the right partner."

As fans begin to turn their attention towards the 2026-27 athletic calendar, ABC 17 Sports also asked Veatch about the state of the Mizzou baseball program, as the team finished the 2026 regular season with a 6-24 mark in SEC action.

"It's been challenging," he said. "You know, we're not where we want to be, I know it's not where Coach [Kerrick] Jackson wants to be, where I want it to be, where you know anybody that's around that program wants it to be...It is a challenging sport for us, candidly, right? It's a sport that, you know, being the furthest north kind of some tradition and history and just not having the the level of competitive success over the years, it's difficult. So, we got to keep we got to keep being better and we can't accept that as what we've been. We need to really push forward and get to another level in the future."