Northwestern Unveils Plans For New Intimate, Premier Football Stadium

EVANSTON, IL — Northwestern football fans may have gotten used to an intimate, classic-looking stadium on fall Saturdays, but in an era of state-of-the-art sports venues, the school that pitches itself as Chicago’s Big Ten team will soon have a new look.

Northwestern officials on Wednesday unveiled plans for a reported $800 million stadium complex that will replace the existing Ryan Field. The school said that the project – which was approved last week by the university’s Board of Trustees — will be entirely privately funded and will require no taxpayer support.

The project will be funded in part by a $480 million gift that was made last year by the current stadium's namesake, Patrick and Shirley Ryan.

The university unveiled renderings of the proposed stadium on Wednesday and said the new venue would provide more of an “intimate” setting for fans while providing attendees a top-notch, “fan-centered” game day experience. The stadium will be smaller than its current 47,000-seat capacity and will be reduced down to about 35,000 seats once complete, school officials announced.

The school said in a news release that the stadium will offer some of the best sight lines in college football and could provide a “premium” experience with chairback seating for every fan, state-of-the-art scoreboards, upgraded concessions from local restaurants, and “iconic design features” inside and out.

School officials anticipate demolishing the current Ryan Field at the end of 2024 and expect the new football venue to be ready for the start of the 2026 season, the school said. But school officials said that they plan to use the facility beyond football Saturdays and hope to use the venue’s state-of-the-art setting to attract concerts that could help bring revenue to the school.

Northwestern currently hosts seven home games a year, but Northwestern officials plan to take advantage of the modern environment in ways that the Wildcats’ current football home never could.

"We are extremely excited to move forward with a transformational stadium project and grateful to our university leadership and to the Board of Trustees for their decision to take the next steps toward a new Ryan Field," Northwestern athletic director Derrick Gragg said in a statement issued on Wednesday. "We are all grateful to the Ryan family for their unwavering commitment to Northwestern University and our academic and athletics programs."

The plan will need to get approval from the Evanston City Council. School officials said that the stadium project’s budget has not been finalized, but Crain’s reported that it will approach $800 million.

A Northwestern athletics spokesperson told Patch on Wednesday night that everything financial involved in the project is “all estimates at this point.”

The university announced that preliminary market studies indicate that the current interest in concerts in the area could generate over $35 million in new tax revenue for the City of Evanston from Northwestern over the first decade of the new Ryan Field alone, school officials said.

The new stadium project will create significant economic benefits for Evanston, the university said. During the construction phase, the stadium project will generate more than $10 million in direct fees and more than $600 million in indirect economic development for the City of Evanston. It also will create more than 2,900 new jobs during the rebuild.

School officials said they have been in communication with local working groups of residents who have contributed feedback about the project. The plan calls for less vehicle traffic around the stadium when it is in use and that with 12,000 fans in attendance, traffic around the area would be reduced.

In a statement, Pat Ryan said that the family’s donation — the largest in school history — is meant to not only enhance the football experience at Northwestern but to add to the educational setting that already exists at the Evanston campus.

“Our family's commitment to athletics is much deeper than football,” Ryan said. “It's about developing the body, mind, and soul, which we experienced as undergraduates at Northwestern and have carried with us throughout our lives.

"The new Ryan Field will be more than just an amazing home for Wildcat football. Our hope is that through this new stadium campus, Ryan Field is reimagined as an architecturally significant year-round gathering place for the Northwestern and Evanston communities that is accessible to all."