{"id":795502,"date":"2026-07-31T13:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T13:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/795502\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T13:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T13:51:08","slug":"whats-missing-from-northwesterns-new-875-million-stadium-seats-in-the-student-section","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/795502\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s missing from Northwestern\u2019s new $875 million stadium? Seats in the student section"},"content":{"rendered":"

EVANSTON, Ill. \u2013 The official capacity for Northwestern\u2019s new $875 million football stadium<\/a> is 35,000. But that doesn\u2019t mean it has 35,000 seats.<\/p>\n

This week I toured the nearly complete Ryan Field (opening Oct. 2 against Penn State) for the first time and tweeted a few photos and a video. I did not anticipate it would blow up like it did, with more than 1 million views. Based on the comments, it was because of one sentence: \u201cThere are no seats in the student section.\u201d<\/p>\n

Touring Northwestern\u2019s new Ryan Field for the first time. Will debut Oct. 2. <\/p>\n

The lower deck (including the student section) could not be much closer to the field. <\/p>\n

Also, there are no seats in the student section. They want them standing the whole time. pic.twitter.com\/nywQ714dC0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) July 29, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Wildcat Wall<\/a> is a 2,000-person \u201cSafe Standing\u201d section directly behind the south end zone, consisting solely of empty rows separated by metal railings. The concept is straight out of European soccer stadiums, where some clubs\u2019 rowdiest supporters stand in a terrace behind one goal for the entire match.<\/p>\n

Which is exactly what virtually every student section in college football \u2014 yes, including Northwestern\u2019s \u2014 does every Saturday. Pretty cool, right?<\/p>\n

To my surprise, though, a lot of the commenters were, um, horrified? One called it \u201cdiabolical.\u201d They can\u2019t sit at halftime?? The games are four hours! What if a kid had too many at the tailgate?<\/p>\n

There were also, of course, no shortage of jokes about the quality of the product.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to be the fun police here \u2014 hate it,\u201d college football humorist and 2020 Iowa grad Lucy Rhoden said in a TikTok video. \u201cIt\u2019s Northwestern. What are you going to do when it\u2019s 24-0 in the second quarter. Stand there?\u201d<\/p>\n

(I must quickly remind Lucy that my alma mater went 3-1 against hers during her time there.)<\/p>\n

@cfblucy<\/a> <\/p>\n

#northwestern<\/a> #bigten<\/a> #collegefootball<\/a> #NU<\/a> #cfb<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u266c original sound \u2013 cfblucy<\/a> <\/p>\n

I must confess, I fired off that tweet on my phone in about 10 seconds. With hindsight, it could have used some more context. So, I called up Pat Ryan Jr., CEO of Ryan Sports Development (and son of the stadium\u2019s namesake), to provide some more detail about Wildcat Wall and address some of your questions.<\/p>\n

The interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.<\/p>\n

First of all, what is \u201csafe standing\u201d?<\/p>\n

It comes from European football, and it\u2019s designed to provide supporters with the most energized environment to use as part of their support base. Obviously the whole stadium is primarily one team, but the supporter section is kind of the heart of it, right? And the reason it\u2019s so energized is because of the safe standing \u2013 you can essentially put more people closer to the field than you can with traditional seats. And that\u2019s why they have handrails. You can stand and know it will be very safe.<\/p>\n

We can put 2,000 students in an area that might not normally fit half that. It\u2019s not that we don\u2019t want them to sit, it\u2019s that most of our students don\u2019t want to sit.<\/p>\n

Is there a specific European stadium that you emulated?<\/p>\n

In a lot of ways, it\u2019s more like the German ones because they\u2019re steeper. They say 34 degrees is generally considered the steepest you can go from a safety perspective. Being Northwestern, we went to 33 degrees because we\u2019re concerned Midwesterners. We want one less than the full extreme.<\/p>\n

We took what they call the slope and the things that make it intense, and looked at EPL and some of the German ones. We\u2019re minority investors in (AFC Bournemouth), so we took ideas from that, but then you had to custom fit it to our building. You can basically access it from all three levels, which is why we kind of go with the Wildcat Wall. Because it does look like a giant imposing wall.<\/p>\n

Is there any option for students who do want to sit?<\/p>\n

Anybody who wants to sit has two choices.<\/p>\n

One, we have stools available for people who feel like that\u2019s important. If you want to sit, as you\u2019re walking in, you can ask the usher for a student chair if you want to sit (in Wildcat Wall).<\/p>\n

And the other thing is \u2014 for the first game, we expect to have 2,500 to 3,000 students. But 1,000 of those seats will be regular seats. Also, we have the two sections adjacent to the video board that form a Y (above the goal posts) that are also available to students as necessary.<\/p>\n

So, if you don\u2019t want to sit in (Wildcat Wall) at all, we\u2019ll have student seats that are as comfortable as every other seat in the stadium, with arm rests and a cup holder. Seats that people would pay a lot of money for if we didn\u2019t allocate them to the students for free.<\/p>\n

(Ryan also wanted to make clear that there is ADA seating within the Wildcat Wall as well.)<\/p>\n

I personally don\u2019t think people are going to come asking for those stools before the game. But what about halftime?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think they\u2019ll want to stay in their seats.<\/p>\n

We have this incredible Student Hall that\u2019s underneath the Wildcat Wall that\u2019s super cool. It\u2019s got a $5 concession menu for students. It\u2019s got a student hype tunnel, it has a DJ, it has all this memorabilia from old Northwestern. And then we have a student plaza right outside the stadium with benches and landscaping.<\/p>\n

My bigger worry is not will they have plenty to do; it\u2019s how do we make sure they don\u2019t get so caught up in what they\u2019re doing and lose track of time.<\/p>\n

So fans can leave the stadium and come back?<\/p>\n

Oh yeah. Our security line is in the parking lots. We have 200,000 square feet of festival grounds that wrap the building. Think Super Bowl, where they have that security buffer out and then they wrap it in festivals on your way in. Same principle. Probably 40,000 to 50,000 square feet of it is student space for parties and activities.<\/p>\n

The risk is if (Northwestern is losing), they leave (the game). But I think we\u2019re a good team. (Offensive coordinator) Chip Kelly is going to add some flash factor we haven\u2019t had before.<\/p>\n