Most expensive college football stadium ever rejects Big Ten tradition for ‘European’ experience in $870m gamble

Northwestern’s New Ryan field might be the biggest gamble in college football history.

The Ryan family is dropping $870 million on the project, making it comfortably the most expensive in the NCAA.

Northwestern .edu

Northwestern .edu

Only Kyle Field and Notre Dame Stadium cost over $500 million and they can fit 100,000 and 80,000 fans inside respectively.

Ryan Field, on the other hand, will hold just 35,000 people — 15,000 fewer than the Big 10’s current smallest stadium.

The conference average is a massive 71,000, but interestingly the two most recent builds are also the smallest — a trend that has also been seen in the NFL.

Minnesota’s Huntington Bank Stadium (2009) holds 50,000 people and will lose its crown when the Wildcats move in to their new home in 2026.

In the past, attendance was king but fan experience now shapes design.

“If you look at the classic cathedrals to college football, they were all built to maximize the number of seats, because back then it was the only way you could see a game,” Pat Ryan Jr. told SBJ’s Bret McCormick.

“This will be, we believe, the best place to watch a football game in America.

“That’s a bold statement. I didn’t use to say that when you and I first talked. And why do I say it now? Because I’ve been in so many buildings and arenas.”

Built in 1926, the former Ryan Field could hold 47,130 people but was 350,000 square feet smaller than its successor.

That means more space, cupholders in every seat and a canopy that covers the entire crowd.

Northwestern .edu

Getty

“Because we’re a community, you can’t have benches for the many, sky boxes for the few,” Ryan Jr. said. “It’s not healthy in a college. It’s not a great thing for community and building a fan base, anyway.

“[And] we didn’t do that by just lowering everybody. We did it by raising everybody.”

The increase in premium seating and sweeping concourses is a distinctly American take on sports stadia. Wildcat Wall — a 2,000-person student standing section — is borrowed from European soccer.

Ryan family building three stadiums at once

Billionaire Pat Ryan, worth an estimated $10bn, is a trustee at Northwestern with the old and incoming new stadium named after him.

The Ryan family is also a minority owner of the NFL’s Chicago Bears and owns a stake in the English Premier League club AFC Bournemouth.

Bournemouth and the Bears are also building new stadiums.

Getty

Getty

Ryan, who made his money in insurance, donated $480 million to the funding of the new stadium, with the rest coming through other private backers.

“Our worst seat in this stadium is 100 feet closer to the field than the most expensive seat at the Big House [Michigan Stadium],” Ryan said last year.

“You’re building things up and cantilevering them over instead of going out.

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“It’s structurally much more challenging from an engineering perspective, but you’ve got to create better-than-TV sightlines.

“A lot of people look at first-of-its-kind and say, ‘Oh, it’s just a mini NFL stadium,’ but it’s really something specific for college.

“Every college we’ve seen has said, ‘We know we need to think about doing something like this, but somebody needed to go first.’

“Everybody else is saying, ‘We’re going to watch closely, and if it works, we’ll come see it.”

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