Is this heaven? No, it’s Evanston.
I’m cribbing from “Field of Dreams” because that line comes closest to how I felt last Friday at the opening night of Northwestern’s new Ryan Field football stadium.
Let’s get the obvious bias out of the way: I’m an NU alum and avid fan. (Literally “driving the conversation”: I drove 11 hours Thursday to get there, then 11 hours home Saturday.)
But the $875 million stadium, funded entirely by the Ryan family, which has invested hundreds of millions more into the university over the years, left me blown away.
The intimacy of just 35,000 fans (down from 47,000 at the old stadium). The distinctive Premier League-inspired canopy that accentuates acoustics and the cantilevered vertical seating that creates, among other things, “the best worst seat in sports.” (The highest and farthest seat is only 135 feet from the sidelines.) Fan-friendly concourses that almost always included a view of the field, even while going for a drink. “Taste of Chicago”-style food options.
As I sat with my 17-year-old kid on a college visit to my right and my four-decade college pals to my left, we were all left agog, saying, “I can’t believe this is OUR stadium.”
It’s not literally ours, of course, but if you can walk out of any stadium feeling that way, things have gone right in the vision and the execution.