EVANSTON, Ill. — While the work on the foundation is already underway, Monday was the official groundbreaking for what in two years will become the new home for the Northwestern University Wildcats football team.
Demolition on the former, nearly 100-year-old Ryan Field on Central Street has been underway for months. It will be replaced with a new 35,000-seat stadium that is smaller than its nearly century-old predecessor but with modern amenities.
Still, the new field continues to be met with resistance from many locals. Whereas the old Ryan Field was limited to mostly hosting football games on Saturdays, the new stadium is expected to also host other events including concerts. The Evanston City Council voted last fall to approve the construction, with Mayor Daniel Bis casting the deciding vote. Northwestern pledged $150 million in economic development money for the city to get it through approval.
“It’s going to be a world class facility,” Bis said at Monday’s ceremony. “It’s going to be a beautiful facility for all of us to enjoy, and the journey to approve it was rocky, but it lead to an agreement the city and the university that fundamentally reshapes the relationship in a way that I believe will be massively beneficial to both institutions over the course of a long, long period of time.”
Meanwhile, construction is also underway on a temporary facility that will be an enhancement to the existing Lanny and Sharon Martin Athletics Facility and part of Chap and Ethel Hutcheson Field. The temporary stadium will serve as the team’s home for the next two seasons.
“I want to thank the entire city of Evanston. It’s very important to have a great partner when it comes to an important initiative like this. You can’t do things like this without the city, so thank you for supporting this amazing transformational project and for having our backs as we build not one, but two football stadiums at the same time,” said Northwestern University athletic director Dr. Derrick Gragg.
Northwestern will host two games at Wrigley Field in November. The Wildcats will welcome the Ohio State Buckeyes on Saturday, Nov. 16. and the University of Illinois Fighting Illini on Saturday, Nov. 30.
Their season kicks off Aug. 31 against the University of Maryland.