EVANSTON, IL – The length of a standard basketball court — 94 feet — is central to the almost-completed, opulent home of Northwestern’s football program: New Ryan Field.
How so?
Because, as Pat Ryan Jr. tells a small gathering of reporters, the “worst” seat at the $875 million stadium — college football’s newest and most expensive stadium — is about one-and-a-half basketball courts from the end zone.
The canopied stadium, replete with chairback seats and cupholders for all — save the standing only ‘Wildcat Wall’ student section — opens Friday, Oct. 2, when Northwestern hosts Penn State.
“We really do believe this will be the best stadium to watch a football game or stadium-concert in America,” said Ryan, CEO of Ryan Sports Development and in charge of the project's design/development. “The worst seat is only 136 feet from the sidelines.
“Our (sight) lines are even better than a lot of basketball arenas that are half the capacity, including the United Center (home to the NBA’s Chicago Bulls, NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks). This is more like a baseball-stadium size. Not small by any means but very much allows us to be aggressive if we’re willing to invest.”
Yes, New Ryan Field seats significantly fewer fans — 35,000 in the new home, with previous venue capacity 47,000 — but it occupies a much larger footprint near the banks of Lake Michigan amidst the stately homes and campus buildings of Northwestern.
A promotional clip features a town-square vibe as families ice skate on a temporary structure amidst a holiday village, snow dappling trees.
Project leaders tout New Ryan Field as the “most accessible stadium ever built,” with 194% of ADA seating and the absence of between-concourse ramps; it boasts 25 private accessible/family restrooms, as well as 11 accessible elevators.
There are field-level suites with bars, 10,000 square feet of LED scoreboard displays and 244 TVs hanging throughout the stadium. The 300,000 square feet of canopy roofing fully covers all 35,000 seats but keeps the field’s surface open to the natural elements.
That surface, by the way, is FieldTurf’s Trico One system, which Northwestern notes is one of the first in the world that meets the joint standards of the NFL and NFLPA.
No area inside New Ryan Field gets closer to the action than the ‘Wildcat Zone.’ Ryan Jr. envisions the smallish Northwestern student body — about 8,000 full-time undergrads — become a significant part of the desired home-field advantage.
“By putting 2,000 students right on top of the end zone, we amplify the power of our student section in a way,” Ryan Jr. says. “Not amplify with sound; you amplify it with the intensity of that many people in that tight of space.”
Northwestern, which intends to announce musical acts at the space in the coming months, hosts additional home football games this season against Ball State (Oct. 10), Rutgers (Oct. 24), Iowa (Nov. 7) and Illinois (Nov. 28).
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Inside college football's newest, most expensive stadium
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