It was completed in 2018. And wait for it.....it's named Ryan Fieldhouse. The gift for that is separate from the $480 mil they just gave to renovate Ryan Field. I don't know what the Ryans do for a living, but whatever I'm doing, I'm in the wrong business. The views and location are amazing. The rest of the complex isn't quite as nice as the Gophers (although I'm heavily biased), but you can't beat the setting. The two rubs against their new facility is that 1. it's too low to punt in, which was a requirement of the U's when designing their new facility, and 2. it's shared with all of athletics. You can argue (and justifiably) that football doesn't need it's own exclusive massive indoor practice facility, but that's the athletics world we live in.The Ryan family is donating $480 million to NW towards the new stadium and athletic complex. I thought I saw some renderings posted here before of the new athletic facility overlooking Lake Michigan with fantastic vistas.
Northwestern announces $480 million gift, plans to redevelop Ryan Field - Evanston RoundTable
Northwestern University has received a $480 million donation, the largest single gift in its history, from the Patrick and Shirley Ryan family. Theevanstonroundtable.com
Thank you for the links and the clarification.
If true on point 1, that's just silly. I can't imagine the costs would've been that much more to move even just the area in the has marks up high enough for punting? Wonder if it was an architectural and/or FAA type of thing? Spitballin'
I think almost every university is going that way to some extent.
Pat Ryan is the founder of AON Corporation, which is the largest reinsurance broker in the world, with a current market cap of more than $60B. He has a personal net worth of $7.6B. He and his wife both attended Northwestern so they have a special affinity for the university, having donated almost three-quarters of a billion dollars.
Point 1- the Gophers Indoor Football Practice Field has 90' clear to the center peak. You can get away with about 85' or so, but not much lower than that (assuming you have a sloped structure). If you don't need to punt, you can be down at about 55-60' clear at the highest point. Add up 30' tall of building materials all the way around a 100,000+sf building, and it's a substantial cost. It's merely a cost vs. benefit issue, nothing more.
It all makes too much sense, doesn't it?
Maybe they could buy it and move it?
Northwestern had an indoor football practice field next to Welsh-Ryan arena. It was about an 80 yard field. It is now used by baseball and softball. I toured the new lakefront facility and it’s amazing(but slightly too low a ceiling). I think football shares it with lacrosse, field hockey, & soccer.