New $800 million Northwestern FB stadium

[Seth53]

Northwestern releases early design concepts for dynamic new Ryan Field

One year after announcing a transformative gift by the Pat and Shirley Ryan Family to build a new Ryan Field, Northwestern University today released renderings of a schematic design for the new stadium to replace the current 97-year-old structure.

news.northwestern.edu

A 12K *drop* in capacity?....guess they want to keep all of the opposing fans out?

 

[ssckelley]

Isn’t that stadium too small by Big Ten standards? Seems like I remember they made Rutgers build a bigger stadium when they joined.

 

[guffus]

I guess if they ever need to play at a larger venue, they could move that game to Soldier field or the new stadium the Bears are building in Arlington Heights. The new Bears stadium would be indoors and might be better for those late November games.

But that of course invites the question why build this smaller stadium for $800M in the first place?

 

[Grady]

Very unique, cool look for an intimate BTen venue. I used to attend Iowa-NW games there back in the '80s & '90s and loved watching a BTen game on basically a h.s. field. Smart of them to keep the stadium limited in size -- love the idea of actual SEATS for all fans, local food, some of the things Kinnick doesn't have. If they ever get it built, I just may pay a visit.

 

[okeefe4prez]

Very unique, cool look for an intimate BTen venue. I used to attend Iowa-NW games there back in the '80s & '90s and loved watching a BTen game on basically a h.s. field. Smart of them to keep the stadium limited in size -- love the idea of actual SEATS for all fans, local food, some of the things Kinnick doesn't have. If they ever get it built, I just may pay a visit.

It will be tough getting the permits unless they have already greased the city council and can get it done before the next election. The neighbors hate the stadium and if you tell them "hey bros, good news, now instead of 7 events per year bringing loud drunkards to your neighborhood you will have 30 events per year bringing loud drunkards to your neighborhood" it ain't gonna go over well.

Evanston has a massive pension underfunding problem and their plan to fix it about 20 years ago was to allow unfettered growth of the downtown area. The theory was that if they put up a bunch of towers they would boost tax collections and most of the people living in them wouldn't have kids in school so it would be just gravy. Well, two towers got built and then the NIMBYs turned over the city council and now it is virtually impossible to build anything over 12 stories.

This venue has the same potential to be the focal issue of the next election cycle.

 

[Grady]

It will be tough getting the permits unless they have already greased the city council and can get it done before the next election. The neighbors hate the stadium and if you tell them "hey bros, good news, now instead of 7 events per year bringing loud drunkards to your neighborhood you will have 30 events per year bringing loud drunkards to your neighborhood" it ain't gonna go over well.

Evanston has a massive pension underfunding problem and their plan to fix it about 20 years ago was to allow unfettered growth of the downtown area. The theory was that if they put up a bunch of towers they would boost tax collections and most of the people living in them wouldn't have kids in school so it would be just gravy. Well, two towers got built and then the NIMBYs turned over the city council and now it is virtually impossible to build anything over 12 stories.

This venue has the same potential to be the focal issue of the next election cycle.

Interesting.

 

[HuckFinn]

Very unique, cool look for an intimate BTen venue. I used to attend Iowa-NW games there back in the '80s & '90s and loved watching a BTen game on basically a h.s. field. Smart of them to keep the stadium limited in size -- love the idea of actual SEATS for all fans, local food, some of the things Kinnick doesn't have. If they ever get it built, I just may pay a visit.

Me,too

 

[hawkinn3]

They have enough alumni money so why not?

 

[M1911A1Hawkeye]

Interesting. Hell, they get it built I'll go the first time Iowa plays in it.

 

[dahlhawk]

I went to a NW game several years ago and I remember being by the field and asking someone where's the stadium? He points to what I thought was a practice field pumping in crowd noise on a soda machine size speaker atop a wall. We sat on a tiny bleacher in an endzone. How did they ever get into the Big? It really was kind of fun, but no feeling of history or excitement.