Northwestern's new Ryan Field won't open until Oct. 2 against Penn State: exclusive

Northwestern’s promised “premium for everyone” fan experience at the new Ryan Field, the $862 million stadium project under construction since mid-2024, will have to wait until October, the Sun-Times has learned.

The stadium will not be ready for the season opener against South Dakota State on Sept. 5 or for the next home game, against Colorado on Sept. 19. Both games will be played at the temporary lakefront stadium used for football the last two seasons, athletic director Mark Jackson confirmed.

That makes home game No. 3, the Big Ten home opener against Penn State, the one to watch in Evanston. An announcement by Northwestern of a Friday, Oct. 2 opening of new Ryan Field came Tuesday afternoon, confirming this report.

“We’re going to open new Ryan Field on Friday night, Oct. 2, on a national platform with Fox,” Jackson told the Sun-Times.

It’s not official, but the game between the Wildcats and the Nittany Lions likely will start at 7 p.m. And — coincidentally — it will take place on the 100th anniversary of the first game at the first Ryan Field, which opened as Dyche Stadium on Oct. 2, 1926.

“Not that that drove the decision,” Jackson acknowledged.

A hundred years ago, the Wildcats blanked South Dakota 34-0 in their stadium debut and were so stingy on defense throughout a 7-1 season, they allowed a total of 16 points in six home games. At least this season, they’re guaranteed to make it through September without allowing a point in their new digs.

But being unready to kick things off in style — in September weather that might make fans more likely to spend maximum time in and around Ryan Field — wasn’t on anybody’s wish list. An FCS matchup against South Dakota State at the pop-up venue isn’t going to be moving many needles. A game there against high-profile Colorado and celebrity coach Deion Sanders already feels like a letdown.

“Look,” Jackson said, “the lakefront has been an attractive draw for everybody the last couple of years.”

But Sanders raving about the state-of-the-art new place — the first new Big Ten football stadium since Minnesota’s Huntington Stadium in 2009 — would’ve been gold.

According to Pat Ryan Jr., CEO of Ryan Sports Development, which has overseen the new stadium’s design and construction, the stadium is expected to be completed by mid-September, leaving only a couple of weeks for job training and everything else that comes with handing over the keys. Though he still characterizes the construction as being “on time,” he cited a stormwater permitting delay and severe winter weather as having set back the privately funded project, which had an original price tag of $800 million.

Ryan also said an “extended government approval process” set back the demolition of old Ryan Field — “the worst stadium in the Big Ten by a lot,” he called it — about 10 weeks.

“In a world in which nobody’s on time or on budget, I give a lot of credit to our team,” Ryan told the Sun-Times.

Ryan, whose billionaire father is a Northwestern alum and its most prolific (and eponymous) benefactor — the family donated nearly $500 million in 2021 alone — doesn’t anticipate any major problems with opening for a game on Oct. 2.

“We wouldn’t schedule the game and announce it if we didn’t feel confident,” he said.

Stadium building has come a long way since 1926, when a Tribune headline dated April 8 of that year read, “Northwestern Starts Work on New $1,000,000 Stadium.”

The new place will have only 35,000 seats and promises pristine sight lines thanks to proximity to the playing field that isn’t available anywhere else in major college football. It’s likely to draw rave reviews given how rare new stadiums are in the college game; Rutgers’ (1994) and Oregon’s (1967) are the Big Ten’s next-youngest after Minnesota’s.

When Jackson envisions the Penn State game, he sees “the whole place packed in purple in what I believe is going to be the nation’s best venue for football that’s ever been built.”

But he knows there will be some disappointment at having to wait.

“Maybe once we announce this, there might be,” he said, “but I think what we’re putting together is in the best interest of everybody.”

As for the pop-up stadium — the brainchild of former football coach Pat Fitzgerald — Jackson isn’t sure how much longer it will stand. Whenever it’s pulled down, he said, the expectation is to build a permanent structure that can accommodate women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s soccer, football practices and potentially other teams.

Northwestern football has undeniable momentum after two bowl wins in three years under coach David Braun. The 2024 hiring of Jackson was highly touted. Braun’s recent staff additions — most notably offensive coordinator Chip Kelly — heading into 2026 have turned heads. Last year’s House vs. NCAA settlement did away with the amateur model and leveled the playing field to some degree, which a university as well-heeled as Northwestern sees as a giant opportunity. Add a nearly billion-dollar stadium to all that, and it’s exciting.

A late start to the party, though, is going to be a bit anticlimactic. There’s no getting around that.