Looks like the demolition of Ryan Field may start the week of January 29th and take about 4 months. No word yet on where the Cats will play in 2024 or 2025.
At least it won’t be the Rosemont.
Jeff
Apparently nothing is officially scheduled for Wrigley Field in 2024 yet, and Soldier Field is about the only other option in the metro area. (There are some HS stadiums, but surely the NCAA and our opponents would object to those.) They could probably flip some non-conference series that are home-home series to be away games, and maybe even some conference games but playing most of their games on the road is not a great formula for a successful season. Would they consider playing in DeKalb?
The Bears and the Cubs used to share Wrigley for the month of September, maybe that’s the plan and the details are still being negotiated with MLB and the Cubs?
Seatgeek Stadium is another option. It seats 28K.
Shawn
One would think Soldier Field would be at the top of the list since they play football there ,; no worry about converting the field,or scheduling overlap in September ( or October!) with the Cubs Then again a good deal with the cubs would keep it quite a bit closer to home and El-able
Harry
28K is for concerts, 20K is their soccer capacity. That stadium has hosted a few college football games, so it is certainly a possibility (aside from scheduling issues). It’d be further than Soldier Field for students and I don’t think it can be reached by train, only by bus. NU would probably need to run shuttle busses for students.
Just curious. Has football ever been played at Guaranteed Rate Field, the White Sox home?
Paul H. Levinson
It is possible. Here’s a link to an article about a MAC game in 2016.
https://www.mlb.com/news/guaranteed-rate-field-hosts-football-game-c208585482
The challenge is the same challenge that they have with games at Wrigley, baseball season ends September 29th (assuming neither the Cubs or the Sox qualify for postseason play).
And football tends to tear up natural turf fields, particularly later in the season. There are some dimensional issues too.
But bottom line, is that the last stadium to regularly host pro football and baseball was in Oakland. At the end of the 2024 season both teams will have moved to Las Vegas. The Raiders already share a football stadium with the UNLV. The A’s will get their own purpose built baseball stadium.
Jeff
Yes, Northern Illinois played a game there against Toledo in 2016.
Back in the day, the Chicago Cardinals played at old Comiskey Park
https://www.winsipedia.com/games/northwestern
Out of curiosity I looked through our history of neutral(non-Evanston, not opponents home stadium and not bowl game) games. It looks like we’ve played 34 out of 1,311 games at a neutral site.
25 in Chicago mostly long ago or vs. ND or Illinois.
5 in Milwaukee vs. the Badgers
The others are Cleveland($$$ game) vs. tOSU, Detroit vs. Eastern Michigan, Rockford vs. Beloit College, and St. Louis vs. Missouri
All 3 non-conference games in 2024 (Miami/Ohio, Duke, E. Ill) are currently set as home games.
I only see one non-conference opponent so far in 2025, a road game at Tulane, and just 2 in 2026 (S. Dakota State and Colorado, both at home.)
Old Comisky had a mammoth outfield. 420 to straight away center and 360 down the lines. Would have been no problem fitting a football field in there.
Jeff
Comisky had the reputation of having bad sight lines from every seat in the house. (It wasn’t quite true.)
A post was merged into an existing topic: MBB polls this week
Article on the plans and precautions NU is taking during the demolition of Ryan Field, which is supposed to start soon, possibly today. No wrecking ball, no explosives.