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Official: Northwestern will play football at their soccer stadium next 2 years

ScarletDave

ScarletDave

Heisman
Oct 7, 2010
34,377
14,981
85
Unbelievably, Northwestern knocked down their home football stadium (Ryan Field) before finding a temporary home for the next 2 seasons while their new stadium is being built on the same plot. After timing issues with other evens at Soldier Field, Wrigley, and nearby high schools, they made the unthinkable decision to play all home games at their soccer stadium. They will add temporary stands in the endzone, but the capcity will surely be less than 10,000 … incredible for a Big Ten football program.

news.northwestern.edu

Northwestern football ‘staying home’ with temporary enhancements to the Lanny and Sharon Martin facility on lakefront

Northwestern football will play a majority of its games this season at the Lanny and Sharon Martin athletics facility near Lake Michigan on the University’s Evanston campus, keeping the team close to home as it seeks to build on its bowl-winning 2023 season.
news.northwestern.edu news.northwestern.edu
 
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ScarletDave

ScarletDave

Heisman
Oct 7, 2010
34,377
14,981
85


This is now a Big Ten home football stadium for this season.
 
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R

RUPete

Heisman
Feb 5, 2003
26,846
16,117
0
It will bring back HS Friday night lights memories for players. Well, maybe not if they’re from Texas.
 
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J

JerseyNoles

All-Conference
Jul 28, 2021
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Very surprised the B1G permitted this
Hawaii did it, but for them, it wasn't a big deal
For NW on the other hand, though their not Michigan, this screams small time
 
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Fat Koko

Fat Koko

All-Conference
Nov 28, 2022
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Northwestern should be able get 20,000 capacity in its temporary stadium. A temp stadium is under construction on Long Island that is taking just a few months to build and will seat 34,000 fans.


Northwestern home games drew crowds of around 20,000 last season. Makes sense to keep games on campus rather than play at off campus stadiums miles away where few would attend.
 
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e5fdny

e5fdny

Heisman
Nov 11, 2002
113,550
52,148
102
jaydogsmooth1 said:
Very surprised the B1G permitted this
Hawaii did it, but for them, it wasn't a big deal
For NW on the other hand, though their not Michigan, this screams small time
Click to expand...
And really, what other options where there for Hawaii?

Proper planning is planning for success.

Poor planning is planning to fail.
 
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JayDogSmooth

All-Conference
Aug 18, 2006
8,099
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e5fdny said:
And really, what other options where there for Hawaii?

Proper planning is planning for success.

Poor planning is planning to fail.
Click to expand...
Like I said, for Hawaii it fit the needs
That’s a lower level SCHOOL playing on an island in the Pacific Ocean 3000 miles away from the mainland

Northwestern is a world, renowned, prestigious big ten university on the outskirts of Chicago who just built a state of art practice facility on lake Michigan

They knew they were doing this year’s in advance and have ample time to plan out for suitable venues

It’s embarrassing
 
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D

dconifer0

All-Conference
Oct 4, 2004
4,216
3,239
113
Fat Koko said:
Northwestern should be able get 20,000 capacity in its temporary stadium. A temp stadium is under construction on Long Island that is taking just a few months to build and will seat 34,000 fans.


Northwestern home games drew crowds of around 20,000 last season. Makes sense to keep games on campus rather than play at off campus stadiums miles away where few would attend.
Click to expand...
Maybe they will cleverly build out their soccer stadium in a permanent, attractive way, and end up with two new venues. Trying to figure this out, ha ha...
 
K

kupuna133

All-American
Jul 13, 2015
5,778
6,385
113
Fat Koko said:
Northwestern should be able get 20,000 capacity in its temporary stadium. A temp stadium is under construction on Long Island that is taking just a few months to build and will seat 34,000 fans.


Northwestern home games drew crowds of around 20,000 last season. Makes sense to keep games on campus rather than play at off campus stadiums miles away where few would attend.
Click to expand...
20k at a game is piss poor as a percentage of available seats. But capping the available seats and max attendance at 20k is the issue and should not be allowed even its temporary
 
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K

Knight Owl

All-Conference
Jul 27, 2001
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Maybe coach Brian Kelly can supervise the installation of scissor-lift seating to add capacity.
 
J

JerseyNoles

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koleszar said:
For a bunch of supposedly smart people, that's pretty fvcking stupid.
Click to expand...
It's de-emphazing football while sucking the tit of Daddy (OSU & Michigan)

Prime example of why they'll eventually be a split amongst the schools that want to compete and the ones that want to cash checks
 
bigmatt718

bigmatt718

Heisman
Mar 11, 2013
15,028
20,642
113
They play Indiana, OSU, Wisconsin, and Illinois at home next year. There's zero chance OSU and Wisconsin will allow NW to play at their practice field when both bring thousands of road fans per game. They'll have to play at Wrigley or Soldier Field.
 
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koleszar

Heisman
Jan 1, 2010
35,166
54,543
113
Fat Koko said:
Northwestern should be able get 20,000 capacity in its temporary stadium. A temp stadium is under construction on Long Island that is taking just a few months to build and will seat 34,000 fans.
Click to expand...
The lake side is a complete no go, at best maybe a couple rows of bleachers. The lights on the other side will be in the way to further expand that side. So, you're mainly looking at endzone seats into the small parking lot and other athletic field. No way do they have the footprint to add over 15,000 seats to what's existing.
 
e5fdny

e5fdny

Heisman
Nov 11, 2002
113,550
52,148
102
kupuna133 said:
20k at a game is piss poor as a percentage of available seats. But capping the available seats and max attendance at 20k is the issue and should not be allowed even its temporary
Click to expand...
That’s the issue.

But…

dconifer said:
Maybe they will cleverly build out their soccer stadium in a permanent, attractive way, and end up with two new venues. Trying to figure this out, ha ha...
Click to expand...
If this is the end result, not bad. Not good for Football but beneficial for their other sports (M/WSOC, Field Hockey, WLAX). They are more than pretty good at a few of those. And who knows, maybe they add MLAX when all is said and done.🤷‍♂️
 
e5fdny

e5fdny

Heisman
Nov 11, 2002
113,550
52,148
102
JayDogSmooth said:
Like I said, for Hawaii it fit the needs
That’s a lower level SCHOOL playing on an island in the Pacific Ocean 3000 miles away from the mainland

Northwestern is a world, renowned, prestigious big ten university on the outskirts of Chicago who just built a state of art practice facility on lake Michigan

They knew they were doing this year’s in advance and have ample time to plan out for suitable venues

It’s embarrassing
Click to expand...
I just meant there weren’t any other realistic or comparable options for Aloha Stadium.

Northwestern has Soldier Field, Wrigley and as @vkj91 pointed out…Northern Illinois.

The Bears are the only tenant at Soldier Field and don’t play on Saturday or Friday night.
 
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RUTGERS95

RUTGERS95

Heisman
Sep 28, 2005
25,382
33,833
113
ScarletDave said:
Unbelievably, Northwestern knocked down their home football stadium (Ryan Field) before finding a temporary home for the next 2 seasons while their new stadium is being built on the same plot. After timing issues with other evens at Soldier Field, Wrigley, and nearby high schools, they made the unthinkable decision to play all home games at their soccer stadium. They will add temporary stands in the endzone, but the capcity will surely be less than 10,000 … incredible for a Big Ten football program.

news.northwestern.edu

Northwestern football ‘staying home’ with temporary enhancements to the Lanny and Sharon Martin facility on lakefront

Northwestern football will play a majority of its games this season at the Lanny and Sharon Martin athletics facility near Lake Michigan on the University’s Evanston campus, keeping the team close to home as it seeks to build on its bowl-winning 2023 season.
news.northwestern.edu news.northwestern.edu
Click to expand...
this is what happens when you let academics run business decisions

PAC 12 valuation committee says hello!!!!!!!!
 
L

Letitrip

All-Conference
Sep 4, 2007
2,362
4,194
66
The harder the university is to get into the dumber the leadership. Weird but true.
 
J

JerseyNoles

All-Conference
Jul 28, 2021
2,844
2,425
3
e5fdny said:
I just meant there weren’t any other realistic or comparable options for Aloha Stadium.

Northwestern has Soldier Field, Wrigley and as @vkj91 pointed out…Northern Illinois.

The Bears are the only tenant at Soldier Field and don’t play on Saturday or Friday night.
Click to expand...
Ahh - in that case, we're in total agreement
 
DJ Spanky

DJ Spanky

Heisman
Jul 25, 2001
46,016
55,703
113
BigRnj said:
You can slap together a hodgepodge of temporary crappy bleachers pretty quickly… he’ll Beaver stadium holds 105K and looks like a third world construction project.
Click to expand...

The problem is where to put them when you're perched on the lake like that.
 
P

Panthergrowl13

All-Conference
Nov 11, 2002
13,332
1,718
0
This is surprising.

The Bears rent Soldier Field for about $6.5 million a year (good deal) and it has a capacity of about 61,000.

Soldier Field is only about 15 miles from Northwestern.

Schedule probably could have been manipulated to play at Soldiers Field with a reasonable rent deal.

Going to play in downtown Chicago at a renovated (not recently) NFL Stadium would be much more appealing (especially if you had access to Club Seats) than playing at the soccer field with reduced capacity.

If Rutgers were to play at Northwestern I wounder how many would be making plans to go.

HAIL TO PITT!!!!
 
e5fdny

e5fdny

Heisman
Nov 11, 2002
113,550
52,148
102
Panthergrowl13 said:
This is surprising.

The Bears rent Soldier Field for about $6.5 million a year (good deal) and it has a capacity of about 61,000.

Soldier Field is only about 15 miles from Northwestern.

Schedule probably could have been manipulated to play at Soldiers Field with a reasonable rent deal.

Going to play in downtown Chicago at a renovated (not recently) NFL Stadium would be much more appealing (especially if you had access to Club Seats) than playing at the soccer field with reduced capacity.

If Rutgers were to play at Northwestern I wounder how many would be making plans to go.

HAIL TO PITT!!!!
Click to expand...
What schedule manipulation? They don’t play on the same day.

It’s the same field. The Giants and the Jets have switched it up in 24hrs.

It’s not like the Garden where they have to switch from basketball to hockey.
 
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RUTGERS95

RUTGERS95

Heisman
Sep 28, 2005
25,382
33,833
113
no college team wants to play in a NFL stadium

you ever watch a Pitt game at Heinz Filed? You want to talk about empty!!!!!!!!!!
 
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vkj91

Heisman
Feb 7, 2007
187,970
48,776
98
I was on NW soccer field last fall. Turf was a disaster. Will have to add new turf with football Lines and soccer lines. The rip it up in November
 
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