EVANSTON, IL – Pat Ryan Jr. wants to make a statement with Northwestern football’s new Ryan Field.
The $862 million stadium will replace the former Ryan Field and Ryan is willing to bet it will stand out in college and professional football — whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
‘Never seen a stadium like this before. And when they say that one of two things is true,’ Ryan told USA TODAY Sports. ‘Either we’ll be right in making these bold bets. And if we’re right, you’ll see echoes of it in lots of buildings going forward. And if we’re wrong, it’ll be one of a kind, the only one of its kind, you know?’
While Ryan is proud of the investment he, his family and their company Ryan Sports Development are making in Northwestern athletics, college fans elsewhere may wonder why they may invest so much into a program that has historically has struggled. The Wildcats have not been ranked since 2020 and with Indiana’s resurgence, Northwestern has assumed the mantle of FBS’s all-time losingest program.
Here’s what you need to know about why the Ryan family opted to invest nearly one billion dollars in a brand-new stadium for Northwestern:
Why is Ryan family investing $862 million into Northwestern football?
The former Ryan Field opened in 1926. It was expanded in 1949 and 1952, and underwent renovations in 1996. In 1997, the stadium was re-named from Dyche Stadium to Ryan Field, after Patrick Ryan Sr, Ryan’s father.
Since then, the school and the Ryan family determined further renovations to a nearly 100-year-old stadium would prove to be more costly than building a brand-new stadium.
The former stadium was demolished in 2024.
‘If you look at our academic facilities, our performing arts facilities, everything we try to do with the highest order of excellence,’ Ryan said. ‘So, you see that in every type of nanotechnology building, performing arts building, anything. We try to do things to the highest order of excellence.’
Who is the Ryan family?
The Ryan family ― the largest donors in Northwestern University’s history ― are all Northwestern graduates, starting with Patrick Ryan Sr. and his wife Shirley Ryan. Patrick graduated from Northwestern in 1959 with undergraduate degree in business. Shirley graduated in 1961 with a degree in English.
Patrick distinguished himself as one of the most successful entrepreneurs and prominent civic leaders, according to Northwestern’s school website. He served 41 years as CEO of Aon Corporation, the leading global provider of risk management, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, while Shirley was appointed to the National Council on Disability. Ryan Field was named after him in 1997.
The Ryan family is a minority owner of the Chicago Bears and owns a stake in the English Premier League club AFC Bournemouth.
Ryan family committed to Northwestern
While the $862 million commitment to the football stadium ― with the majority coming from the family ― is an obvious investment into the football program, it also goes beyond that in athletics.
‘We’re very proud of the fact of how competitive our other sports are,’ Ryan said. ‘In the last few years, we won women’s golf, and we won the national championship, two field hockey championships, lacrosse national championship, and runner-up last year. We’ve won eight national championships in lacrosse. We’re very proud of all of the sports at Northwestern.’
Belief in David Braun, future of Northwestern football
David Braun took over the Northwestern football head coach role on an interim basis following the firing of Pat Fitzgerald. Braun was in his first year as a defensive coordinator.
In his first year, Braun led the Wildcats to an 8-5 record, including four wins to close out the season, which culminated in a 14-7 win over Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl.
In 2023, Northwestern went 5-8, missing a bowl game for the fourth time in six seasons. The Wildcats were far removed from a 7-2 finish during the 2020-COVID-impacted season, which saw them ranked as high as No. 8 in the College Football Playoff rankings.
However, Braun and the Wildcats have proven the belief in their future during the 2025 season. Following a 1-2 start, Northwestern enters Week 13 and its matchup against Minnesota with a 5-5 overall record and a 3-4 record in Big Ten play, just a single win away from bowl eligibility.
The Wildcats won four straight games over UCLA, Louisiana-Monroe, Penn State and Purdue between Sept. 27 and Oct. 18, which included a Week 7 upset of the Nittany Lions on the road on Oct. 11.
‘The good news there is I know we have the right football coach to get us there,’ athletic director Mark Jackson told USA TODAY Sports in August. ‘I can’t wait to see the progress that we hopefully make this season. So I think we have all the right ingredients, and now it’s time to mix them all and go compete to get in that College Football Playoff.’
New Ryan Field is for Evanston community
For most teams, football season runs from the end of August until late November. The season could extend into January for the teams in the College Football Playoff.
That means the stadium is in use for football for seven to eight Saturdays a year. For Ryan, that’s not nearly enough usage to justify the cost of its construction: He wants the new Ryan Field to be used throughout the year for the community of Evanston.
‘This is going to be an asset that’s used by the Evanston community, by the Chicago community, by youth athletes, by athletes with disabilities, adaptive athletes,’ Ryan said. ‘We’re very seriously committed to making this a year-round asset.
‘Now, it’s not going to be a full stadium year-round, but it’s broken up into all these plazas and spaces and festival grounds. The whole idea there is that you can activate any of these smaller spaces all around the year, as well as do smaller-scale events for non-revenue sports.’
New Ryan Field is Chicago’s Big Ten stadium
According to Ryan, the new Ryan Field is being constructed to become Chicago’s Big Ten stadium. The reasoning is simple: While Northwestern does not have the largest alumni group of the conference, the rest of the conference have plenty of alumni who live in the city.
‘You’ve got to remember Chicago is the home, historic home of the Big Ten,’ Ryan said. ‘It is the largest, for the traditional Big Ten, it is the home to more alumni from Michigan than Detroit, more people from Ohio State than Cleveland or Cincinnati, or even Columbus.
‘So the reality is that Chicago, and then if you look, where do people in the traditional Big Ten travel to for trips and dates? Chicago. So, Chicago is the home of the Big Ten, traditional Big Ten.’
Could Ryan Field be home of Illinois high school championships?
State championships for high school football are rotated between Hancock Stadium on the campus of Illinois State University in Normal and Memorial Stadium at the University of Illinois in Champaign.
Hancock Stadium has the contract to host the state championships from 2023 to 2027. However, Jackson said with the new Ryan Field opening in 2026, Northwestern would also put in a bid to host them.
‘I’ve been in touch with the Evanston athletic director a little bit,’ Jackson said. ‘We haven’t gotten any details, but we’ve talked conceptually about the Illinois Football state championships. … We’d love to be a hub for all of that. We’re not trying to pull events away, but I think we have a great showcase.’