Farewell to my old friend Ryan Field; hello to the new reality of college football
Northwestern got its way, protesters be damned, because big money talks.
chicago.suntimes.com
Telander on Ryan Field demolition
- Thread starter phatcat
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chicago.suntimes.com
What's his point?Farewell to my old friend Ryan Field; hello to the new reality of college football
Northwestern got its way, protesters be damned, because big money talks.
Northwestern is hardly the new reality of college football, although hopefully NU will be a positive part of that new reality. This old goat needed to go, in spite of our fond memories of so many amazing games there. Dyche was decrepit, outdated, uncomfortable, not user friendly, and ready for release from the pain of old age. She will live well in our memories.
As if Northwestern is the “big money” of college football. The infrastructure was inadequate to continue putting $$$ into the stadium. The price tag of the new stadium is shocking to me, yes, but more reflective of the costs of doing construction in a residential neighborhood in Chicago/Evanston as opposed to extravagant excess.
Odds he lives near the stadium and is mad about the concerts and construction but wants to make it seem like he cares about the history?
Honestly thought you meant Telander
Hard to understand the lament here.
I can understand potential complaints about noise from concerts (though I'm firmly supportive of the new RF generating extra income sources in a world where players are being paid and the AD needs to maximize revenue to compete and fund all the other D1 sports).
But what exactly is the defense of old RF here, it needed a rebuild badly.
As late as the 00s, it might have been passable, but people have way higher expectations for gameday experience now (and most importantly every game is televised).
Anybody can stay home and watch every CFB game on the couch on a 4K TV. That's pretty comfortable.
That's what you're competing with, you don't have a captive audience anymore.
I can understand potential complaints about noise from concerts (though I'm firmly supportive of the new RF generating extra income sources in a world where players are being paid and the AD needs to maximize revenue to compete and fund all the other D1 sports).
But what exactly is the defense of old RF here, it needed a rebuild badly.
As late as the 00s, it might have been passable, but people have way higher expectations for gameday experience now (and most importantly every game is televised).
Anybody can stay home and watch every CFB game on the couch on a 4K TV. That's pretty comfortable.
That's what you're competing with, you don't have a captive audience anymore.
I actually was surprised to see him write the column. Didn't he swear himself off all things NU after the Wheeler tragedy?
The cost of the new stadium is shocking but somehow the cost to renovate would be less. See Wrigley Field which was literally falling down. Telander is more than a bit cranky but he’s right that college football has changed and it’s changing so fast that NU’s role in it will be significantly diminished before the new extravaganza is complete. Maybe that’s why is will seat MAC-sized crowds?
Wrigley field is a globally recognized icon of Americana that is worth preserving and they have even much less room to work with there. And no way would the Cubs ever move to the suburbs or something to build a new stadium. It seems like now is the time for NU to build because the stadium needs either massive renovations, or replacement. There is a lot of $ available through Pat Ryan. In the future his heirs may not want to give $ to NU, who knows?
In the new era, the B1G will be harder (near impossible) to win but the playoffs will be easier to make, so NU could still be very relevant with some NIL $.
Change happens all the time. Our role in college football is not hugely significant anyway, and this "new extravaganza" will actually improve our game day atmosphere, which was pretty lousy, and improve the experience for the fans. Think of it as the football equivalent of the new Welsh Ryan arena, which rocks. Adapt or perish. Let's pack it with purple and make some playoff runs.
Farewell to my old friend Ryan Field; hello to the new reality of college football
Northwestern got its way, protesters be damned, because big money talks.
That was the most pointless, rambling piece I’ve read in quite a while.
Telander has said he's donating his brain to science.
After reading this column, I'm wondering whether he already has.
After reading this column, I'm wondering whether he already has.
Worth noting that Pat Ryan Jr basically took his father's spot among the active Board of Trustees and is on the Executive Committee (and a bunch of other boards at the school) and presumably can speak on behalf of his father.
Ryan Family will have deep ties to NU into the future.
Science called and said "no thanks, we don't accept small donations"......
They should install his "auto-icon" at the entrance to the new stadium so that people walk by him as they enter.
Link: Auto-Icon
Ryan is giving $480MM to build a $1B stadium. The Wrigley renovation was a near rebuild itself and cost $500MM.
So NU is coming up with $500MM from its endowment, sales of 300 used purple seat backs, luxury box sales and higher season ticket prices (likely with required university donations in a PSL-like scheme).
I would much prefer if Ryan had renovated his namesake stadium and preserved outdoor football, natural grass turf and tradition. As did the Cubs by renovating Wrigley.
Except that the Welsh-Ryan rebuild is what I preferred for Ryan Field. Imagine tearing down W-R and building from scratch. More costly, unnecessary, environmentally unfriendly.
Instead, renovate and, as you say, rock.
NU will be ineligible for the top-tier, souped-up, NFL-associated college minor league playoffs shortly after the new stadium opens for business. New Ryan will host great concerts, though, which enable promoters and talent to avoid Chicago fees and union costs.
And that will be its primary purpose.
I am not a fan of Arena Football, for one.
Can list a few others but we could start with general aesthetics.
I liked old Ryan Field. It was big enough, had great sightlines and was a wonderful place to watch college football. Apparently Telander did, too. After all, he played there. He's allowed some space for nostalgia. I liked Comiskey Park, too. But I'm not mad at Reinsdorf or NU. Time marches on.
I loved old Ryan Field and preferred a simple reno vs rebuild. And save the rest for NIL
Not mad at Reinsdorf for extorting the city for a replacement of a THIRTY year old stadium? He can go kick rocks.
Perhaps it’s because I’ve been sitting on the east side for nearly 30 years but I view the legacy stadium as an open-air facility. The images of the new stadium with that presumably sound-containing feature that arcs up over the seats make me feel like I won’t be getting the left side of my face nice and tan like used to happen on September Saturdays.
It’s going to feel enclosed and compressed rather than open. Arena Ball rather than Bowl Game.
Sounds like it’s been a while since you’ve read Telander.
If it turns out anything like the stadium in Dublin, sign me up.
You mean where we win every game and get free beer?
Sorry, to be more clear, spend around 200M on the stadium, get what you can and be done with it. Then, as it is clear that NCAA isn't able to enforce any NIL rules, you could encourage large donors to find a non-building thing to which they could donate. Something that would better help us compete in CFB. Something not a building. What could it be...hmm
Wink wink nudge nudge
I just meant when it’s Pat Ryan’s money, he gets to decide. The guy likes buildings for better or worse (and I’m one of the most pro NIL people on this board). When you have someone offering that kind of money i think you have to take it.
The stadium that NU is building will be what Camden Yards was for baseball 30 years ago. (Nostalgia is played out. But everyone wanted their version.)
It will be a design slam dunk. In a world where universities — which (excepting DePaul) can’t threaten to go elsewhere for bigger tax breaks (or whatever DePaul’s incentive was) — NU’s facility will change the way people think about stadiums in college football. Everyone will want one, but nobody will have the donor cash or boldness to get one.
The renderings are beautiful. They’re design-forward. The stadium is smaller, a better fit in a residential neighborhood. Still tall, but in a functional, not towering way. (Nobody knows what the point of those towers is/was, do they?) It’s built to provide a home field advantage just like the building 50 yards North has.
College football stadiums are largely the same. Penn State is uglier and Michigan is more of a pit and Notre Dame Stadium has a 20-year-old shell around a 100-year-old stadium, but the set dimensions and age of facilities and the goals when they were built — cram as many in as possible, and fill the seats — left little room for variation. Renovations generally mean improved weight rooms or more donor suites and premium seating — but on that same basic shell.
What NU is doing is deciding that NU deserves better than what everyone else has. Having seen what Welsh-Ryan has done for people’s perception of NU, I’m excited that they’re trying to do it again.
I don’t know where college football is going. I think expansion is dumb, and I’d rather play Washington in January or not at all. But where we are not headed is to a 30-team league — there are too many TV deals for that to happen. If college football does condense to a 64-team format, NU’s connection to the B1G and the rewards from this facility commitment will ensure that NU stays there.
It will be a design slam dunk. In a world where universities — which (excepting DePaul) can’t threaten to go elsewhere for bigger tax breaks (or whatever DePaul’s incentive was) — NU’s facility will change the way people think about stadiums in college football. Everyone will want one, but nobody will have the donor cash or boldness to get one.
The renderings are beautiful. They’re design-forward. The stadium is smaller, a better fit in a residential neighborhood. Still tall, but in a functional, not towering way. (Nobody knows what the point of those towers is/was, do they?) It’s built to provide a home field advantage just like the building 50 yards North has.
College football stadiums are largely the same. Penn State is uglier and Michigan is more of a pit and Notre Dame Stadium has a 20-year-old shell around a 100-year-old stadium, but the set dimensions and age of facilities and the goals when they were built — cram as many in as possible, and fill the seats — left little room for variation. Renovations generally mean improved weight rooms or more donor suites and premium seating — but on that same basic shell.
What NU is doing is deciding that NU deserves better than what everyone else has. Having seen what Welsh-Ryan has done for people’s perception of NU, I’m excited that they’re trying to do it again.
I don’t know where college football is going. I think expansion is dumb, and I’d rather play Washington in January or not at all. But where we are not headed is to a 30-team league — there are too many TV deals for that to happen. If college football does condense to a 64-team format, NU’s connection to the B1G and the rewards from this facility commitment will ensure that NU stays there.
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I disagree on many counts but let’s start with the most critical. The endpoint won’t be a 30-team league but more likely 36 with NFL expansion. Each of the 36 survivors pair with an NFL team and serve as a de facto farm team.
Picture the excitement had the Broncos not started Jarrett Stidham their last two games of the season but, instead, called up Shadeur Sanders from Colorado. That’s the future, making every game more interesting even when teams are out of the playoff chase.
As NU is left out of this scheme for obvious reasons, it remains with others who reconstitute a student-athlete conference (call it the Big Ten?) that plays before much smaller crowds. Hence NU’s plan for a small stadium better suited for concerts.
What the Iowas, Purdues and like school will do to maintain their big, increasingly empty stadiums I do not know. They will probably end up wishing they had something like our old Ryan Field. Perhaps those places will host NFL preseason games someday or other events on the periphery of the NFL minor league circuit.
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