If a company or agency is making major capital improvements on a property, they make plans ahead of time for where occupants and/or activities associated with the facility will be during renovations. If they need alternative commercial space or residential space, they are basically doing a market assessment of alternatives ahead of time to support business continuity during the capital project. This renovation was not some unforeseen disaster that should prompt a scramble to find place to hold football games or other events. If they knew there was a possibility that University Library would have to be shut down for 2 years, I'm sure they would find an alternative to keep library resources accessible.
While it is interesting to see possibilities of where the Wildcats might play in Fall 2024, it it is actually embarrassing to be caught off guard without contingency plans, especially where it not only affects the team, but fans and supporters of Northwestern and the opposing teams who might have or are planning to come to the games and other thing that are pegged off football like Homecoming. Somewhere between Athletics and Facilities, somebody or some group of people in Administration dropped the ball.
I suppose if they have to go to Lambeau or Lucas Stadium or Ohio Stadium or whatever, then that's how it will have to be at this point but really, the contingency plans should have already been in place (for ideally close-to-home solutions) and it should have been a matter of executing the contracts once it was clear the demolition was moving forth.
