2<\/p>\n Snow games will be a thing of the past when the Bears move into a domeCredit: Getty<\/p>\n Ryan is a trustee at Northwestern, with both the Wildcats’ current home, Ryan Field, and future stadium<\/a> named after him.<\/p>\n The Ryan family is also a minority owner of the NFL<\/a>‘s Chicago Bears<\/a> and holds a stake in the English Premier League<\/a> club AFC Bournemouth<\/a>.<\/p>\n All three teams Ryan is involved in have a state-of-the-art new home in the works.<\/p>\n The Wildcats have nearly completed an $862 million arena<\/a>, although delays mean it will not be ready for the start of the 2026 season.<\/a><\/p>\n MORE ON NFLLook Inside college football\u2019s most expensive stadium ever as state-of-the-art arena replaces 100-year home<\/p>\n The CEO of Ryan Sports Development told Front Office Sports that the 35,000-seat stadium had already been revised before they broke ground after demolition delays.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we originally had the plan, we hoped to have the stadium done for the first week of the season,\u201d he said. “We had an extended political process to get approvals, and so by the time we got approvals, the original demolition date, December 6, [2023], was already past.<\/p>\n “And so when we started demolition on February 14, [2024], the delivery date, the target delivery date, was mid-September [2026].\u201d<\/p>\n An October 2 clash with Penn State — the Wildcats\u2019 first home Big Ten showdown — is now being targeted.<\/p>\n It will be the smallest in the Big Ten with a 35,000-capacity.<\/p>\n Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor and Ohio Stadium in Ohio are all in college football<\/a>‘s 100,000 club.<\/p>\n 2<\/p>\n The new Ryan Field will focus on quality over quantity<\/p>\n No expense has been spared on fan experience, however, with notes taken on stunning stadiums across the NFL and Premier League.<\/p>\n What will Northwestern’s new stadium look like?<\/p>\n The seating uses the same architectural innovation as the $2 billion Intuit Dome, with one seating area starting just 90 feet away from the field.<\/p>\n Ryan’s family donated $480 million to the funding of the new stadium, with the rest coming through other private backers.<\/p>\n \u201cOur worst seat in this stadium is 100 feet closer to the field than the most expensive seat at the Big House (Michigan Stadium),” he explained. \u201cYou\u2019re building things up and cantilevering them over instead of going out.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s structurally much more challenging from an engineering perspective, but you\u2019ve got to create better-than-TV sightlines.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people look at first-of-its-kind and say, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s just a mini NFL stadium,\u2019 but it\u2019s really something specific for college.<\/p>\n NFL Stadium Status<\/p>\n \u201cEvery college we\u2019ve seen has said, \u2018We know we need to think about doing something like this, but somebody needed to go first.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody else is saying, \u2018We\u2019re going to watch closely, and if it works, we\u2019ll come see it.\u201d<\/p>\n Chicago Bears abandoning NFL’s oldest stadium<\/p>\n The Bears aren’t as far down the line, but hope to have a new home by 2029.<\/p>\n A relocation from Soldier Field is expected<\/a> with a $3.2 billion stadium proposed as part of a $5 billion development on the site of the former Arlington International Racecourse.<\/p>\n The NFL franchise planned to cover the cost of the stadium, but expected local lawmakers to cover infrastructure.<\/p>\n Illinois lawmakers are set to vote on funding<\/a> when the legislature returns in April with a decision expected soon.<\/p>\n “We’re in an excellent position,” CEO Kevin Warren said Wednesday at the NFL’s league meetings. “I recently said that the target is to make sure that we have a decision made by springtime here soon. Late spring, early summer would be that from a target.”<\/p>\n Chairman George H. McCaskey added: “I’ve said to our family, ‘We need to be patient and let the deal come to us.<\/p>\n “We think a deal will materialize somewhere. We’re comfortable with either site. We have people at the Bears working with public servants in both Indiana and Illinois trying to get this done.”<\/p>\n Bournemouth stadium takes huge leap forward<\/p>\n Planning permission has been granted for a $120 million project to almost double Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium<\/a>‘s capacity from 11,300 seats to over 20,000.<\/p>\n Currently the smallest arena in Premier League history, the increased capacity will help the club compete against the giants of English football.<\/p>\n The permission has been described as an ‘important milestone in the club\u2019s long-term vision for redevelopment and future expansion.’<\/p>\n Approved works will deliver improvements to the stadium\u2019s infrastructure and match day experience, with the installation of a new perimeter fence and turnstiles, as well as revisions to pedestrian and cycle routes around the ground.<\/p>\n Read More on talkSPORT<\/p>\n Bournemouth added that they are now ‘laying the groundwork’ for future phases of the club\u2019s ‘ambitious’ redevelopment plans.<\/p>\n Stay up to date with the latest from the NFL across all platforms – follow our dedicated talkSPORT USA Facebook page<\/a> and subscribe to our talkSPORT USA YouTube channel <\/a>for news, exclusive interviews and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Having the most expensive stadium in the history of college football on your resume would be enough for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[22365,265,26601,116802,10655,82933,116801,116800,391,331,27027,7,1806,49,48,6,835,20974,84,3261,116798,8243,30830,3372,3373,4555,12536,22139,116799],"class_list":{"0":"post-855047","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-afc-bournemouth","9":"tag-american-football","10":"tag-bears-news","11":"tag-bears-owners","12":"tag-bears-stadium","13":"tag-big-10","14":"tag-bournemouth-new-stadium","15":"tag-bournemouth-owners","16":"tag-chicago-bears","17":"tag-college-football","18":"tag-college-football-news","19":"tag-football","20":"tag-football-news","21":"tag-ncaa","22":"tag-ncaa-football","23":"tag-nfl","24":"tag-nfl-news","25":"tag-nfl-owners","26":"tag-nfl-playoffs","27":"tag-northwestern-football","28":"tag-northwestern-stadium","29":"tag-northwestern-wildcats","30":"tag-pat-ryan","31":"tag-premier-league","32":"tag-soccer","33":"tag-stadium-news","34":"tag-us-sports","35":"tag-us-stadiums","36":"tag-wildcats-new-stadium"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Snow](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/general-interior-view-soldier-field-1058190614.jpg\")
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