{"id":447153,"date":"2026-02-03T20:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T20:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/447153\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T20:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T20:12:08","slug":"northwesterns-new-ryan-field-wont-open-until-oct-2-against-penn-state-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/447153\/","title":{"rendered":"Northwestern’s new Ryan Field won’t open until Oct. 2 against Penn State: exclusive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Northwestern<\/a>\u2019s promised \u201cpremium for everyone\u201d fan experience at the new Ryan Field, the $862 million stadium project under construction since mid-2024<\/a>, will have to wait until October, the Sun-Times has learned.<\/p>\n

The stadium will not be ready for the season opener against South Dakota State on Sept. 5 or for the next home game, against Colorado on Sept. 19. Both games will be played at the temporary lakefront stadium used for football the last two seasons, athletic director Mark Jackson confirmed.<\/p>\n

That makes home game No. 3, the Big Ten home opener against Penn State, the one to watch in Evanston. An announcement by Northwestern of a Friday, Oct. 2 opening of new Ryan Field came Tuesday afternoon, confirming this report.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to open new Ryan Field on Friday night, Oct. 2, on a national platform with Fox,\u201d Jackson told the Sun-Times.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not official, but the game between the Wildcats and the Nittany Lions likely will start at 7 p.m. And \u2014 coincidentally \u2014 it will take place on the 100th anniversary of the first game at the first Ryan Field, which opened as Dyche Stadium on Oct. 2, 1926.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot that that drove the decision,\u201d Jackson acknowledged.<\/p>\n

A hundred years ago, the Wildcats blanked South Dakota 34-0 in their stadium debut and were so stingy on defense throughout a 7-1 season, they allowed a total of 16 points in six home games. At least this season, they\u2019re guaranteed to make it through September without allowing a point in their new digs.<\/p>\n

But being unready to kick things off in style \u2014 in September weather that might make fans more likely to spend maximum time in and around Ryan Field \u2014 wasn\u2019t on anybody\u2019s wish list. An FCS matchup against South Dakota State at the pop-up venue isn\u2019t going to be moving many needles. A game there against high-profile Colorado and celebrity coach Deion Sanders already feels like a letdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook,\u201d Jackson said, \u201cthe lakefront has been an attractive draw for everybody the last couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Sanders raving about the state-of-the-art new place \u2014 the first new Big Ten football stadium since Minnesota\u2019s Huntington Stadium in 2009 \u2014 would\u2019ve been gold.<\/p>\n

According to Pat Ryan Jr., CEO of Ryan Sports Development, which has overseen the new stadium\u2019s design and construction, the stadium is expected to be completed by mid-September, leaving only a couple of weeks for job training and everything else that comes with handing over the keys. Though he still characterizes the construction as being \u201con time,\u201d he cited a stormwater permitting delay and severe winter weather as having set back the privately funded project, which had an original price tag of $800 million.<\/p>\n

Ryan also said an \u201cextended government approval process\u201d set back the demolition of old Ryan Field \u2014 \u201cthe worst stadium in the Big Ten by a lot,\u201d he called it \u2014 about 10 weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a world in which nobody\u2019s on time or on budget, I give a lot of credit to our team,\u201d Ryan told the Sun-Times.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A rendering of the proposed new Ryan Field in Evanston. It would replace the current 97-year-old stadium that\u2019s home to the Northwestern Wildcats.<\/p>\n

Ryan, whose billionaire father is a Northwestern alum and its most prolific (and eponymous) benefactor \u2014 the family donated nearly $500 million in 2021 alone \u2014 doesn\u2019t anticipate any major problems with opening for a game on Oct. 2.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wouldn\u2019t schedule the game and announce it if we didn\u2019t feel confident,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Stadium building has come a long way since 1926, when a Tribune headline dated April 8 of that year read, \u201cNorthwestern Starts Work on New $1,000,000 Stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new place will have only 35,000 seats and promises pristine sight lines thanks to proximity to the playing field that isn\u2019t available anywhere else in major college football. It\u2019s likely to draw rave reviews given how rare new stadiums are in the college game; Rutgers\u2019 (1994) and Oregon\u2019s (1967) are the Big Ten\u2019s next-youngest after Minnesota\u2019s.<\/p>\n

When Jackson envisions the Penn State game, he sees \u201cthe whole place packed in purple in what I believe is going to be the nation\u2019s best venue for football that\u2019s ever been built.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he knows there will be some disappointment at having to wait.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe once we announce this, there might be,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I think what we\u2019re putting together is in the best interest of everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the pop-up stadium \u2014 the brainchild of former football coach Pat Fitzgerald \u2014 Jackson isn\u2019t sure how much longer it will stand. Whenever it\u2019s pulled down, he said, the expectation is to build a permanent structure that can accommodate women\u2019s lacrosse, men\u2019s and women\u2019s soccer, football practices and potentially other teams.<\/p>\n

Northwestern football has undeniable momentum after two bowl wins in three years under coach David Braun. The 2024 hiring of Jackson was highly touted. Braun\u2019s recent staff additions \u2014 most notably offensive coordinator Chip Kelly \u2014 heading into 2026 have turned heads. Last year\u2019s House vs. NCAA settlement did away with the amateur model and leveled the playing field to some degree, which a university as well-heeled as Northwestern sees as a giant opportunity. Add a nearly billion-dollar stadium to all that, and it\u2019s exciting.<\/p>\n

A late start to the party, though, is going to be a bit anticlimactic. There\u2019s no getting around that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northwestern\u2019s promised \u201cpremium for everyone\u201d fan experience at the new Ryan Field, the $862 million stadium project under…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-447153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}