Northwestern is Chicago’s Big Ten team, and like the city’s NFL franchise, that moniker hasn’t come with much winning. However, the program is making a major investment to change that, and a year into the project, it appears that the new Ryan Field will be the pinnacle of Big Ten football stadiums.
June 24 marked the one-year anniversary of the groundbreaking on the Ryan Field rebuild. The cost of the project is nearing $900 million, according to a report from Front Office Sports, which was given a private tour of the progress at the site in Evanston, just north of downtown Chicago. Interestingly, that money isn’t being spent to increase capacity, chasing over 100,000 fans on gameday like Beaver Stadium in Happy Valley or The Big House in Ann Arbor.
While much of the Big Ten is focused on having the biggest possible crowd, the rebuilt Ryan Field will focus on creating the best possible experience for the fans in attendance. The new capacity will be about 35,000, only about 75 percent of the previous stadium.
Also, unlike the rest of the conference, the fans in Evanston won’t have to deal with Big Ten weather because of a canopy that will cover the seats. The canopy and the seats themselves are yet to be installed as the project is expected to be completed ahead of the 2026 college football season. In the meantime, Northwestern will continue to play at its temporary lakefront stadium.
The new-look stadium, aiming to create a feeling of intimacy and exclusivity with a smaller capacity and more premium options, fits with the current trends of modern NFL stadiums. Both the Tennessee Titans and Buffalo Bills have recently embarked on new stadium projects, and both plan to have capacities around 60,000, about a 10,000-seat drop from their current homes.
A 35,000-seat stadium could feel out of place in the Big Ten, but Northwestern has never been a traditional Big Ten football program. The new Ryan Field promises to be the nicest in the conference, but the best? It depends on what you expect from a college football game. Ryan Field will never be able to replicate the environment of 100,000-plus at Penn State, Michigan, or Ohio State, so credit to Northwestern for trying something different.