The new Ryan Field is done. And on Friday, July 31, Pat Ryan Jr. walked reporters onto the turf to prove it.

Two years of construction and an $875 million price tag later, the 35,000-seat stadium on Evanston's north side is now functionally complete on the inside. Purple seats stretch across every section. Goal posts stand in each end zone. The field is ready for football.

"We could play a game here today," Ryan, CEO of Ryan Sports Development, said during the media tour.

The stadium will reach "substantial completion" by Friday, Sept. 11, according to the Evanston Roundtable, with soft-opening events planned throughout September to let the community see the venue and allow staff to rehearse game-day operations. The official inaugural game is set for Friday, Oct. 2, when Northwestern hosts Penn State. That date marks exactly 100 years since the original Ryan Field opened on Oct. 2, 1926.

What's inside

The field sits 21 feet below street level, making the new stadium more than 20 feet shorter than its predecessor while pulling every seat closer to the action. A 300,000-square-foot canopy, designed in the style of European soccer venues, covers the seating bowl for weather protection and channels crowd noise toward the field.

The most distinctive feature may be the "Wildcat Wall," a 2,000-person safe-standing student section behind the south end zone. There are no seats. Metal railings separate steep rows angled at 33 degrees, one degree below the 34-degree safety maximum. Ryan told The Athletic the design was inspired by European soccer supporter sections and is believed to be the first of its kind in college football.

Students who prefer a seat can request stools from ushers or sit in two traditional sections near the video board. Beneath the Wildcat Wall, a "Student Hall" offers a $5 concession menu, a DJ, a hype tunnel, and Northwestern memorabilia. Ryan said the standing section can fit 2,000 students in an area that might not normally hold half that number with traditional seats.

Cost and construction

The final bill climbed from an initial $850 million estimate to roughly $875 million, according to Evanston Now. Ryan attributed the increase to hiring hundreds of additional workers to meet the Oct. 2 deadline after more than 50 days of weather delays and a delayed groundbreaking. Part of the overrun came from recruiting electricians out of state because Illinois data-center construction has driven up demand for electrical labor.

The stadium also features 194% of the ADA-accessible seating required by law. Ryan called it the "most accessible stadium ever built" and cited his brother's use of mobility aids as personal motivation.

What Evanston gets

Despite holding 12,500 fewer fans than the old 47,500-seat stadium, the new venue's ticketed footprint, including surrounding plazas, is 520,000 square feet larger. About 200,000 square feet of festival grounds wrapping the building will be open to the public as a park on non-game days, with plans for holiday and autumn festivals during the off-season.

A pop-up local restaurant program called "Evanston and North Shore Favorites" will bring neighborhood restaurants inside the stadium on game days. And as we reported July 9, the ETHS vs. New Trier rivalry game is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 16, rent-free.

Ryan said the project also included flood-prevention infrastructure: permeable pavers over rocks and cisterns beneath the site to manage stormwater. Heavy storms the week of July 27 tested the system, and the site did not flood.

Northwestern head coach David Braun, in a July 25 radio interview with Spiegs and Holmes, called the new venue "an experience for our fans and our student-athletes that is unparalleled in college football."

Northwestern's first two non-conference games of the 2026 season will be played at Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium before Ryan Field officially opens Oct. 2.