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$480 million donation from the family of Patrick and Shirley Ryan will open new Ryan Field in 2026
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$480 million donation from the family of Patrick and Shirley Ryan will open new Ryan Field in 2026

The Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois (US). Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest chartered university in Illinois. The university has its main campus along the shores of Lake Michigan in the Chicago Metropolitan area.

The 47,130-capacity Ryan Field was a stadium in Central United States located in Evanston, Illinois, a suburb North of Chicago. Near the campus of the Northwestern University, it was primarily used for American football and was the home field of the Northwestern Wildcats of the Big Ten Conference.

The Northwestern Wildcats football team represents the Northwestern University as a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college football team and is a member of the Big Ten Conference based near Chicago in Evanston, Illinois (US). Founded in 1851, the Northwestern began playing football in 1882.

Indianapolis (US)-based the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States and one in Canada. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and helps over 500,000 college student-athletes who compete annually in college sports.

The Big Ten Conference is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1896, it predates the founding of its regulating organization, the NCAA. It is based in the Chicago area in Rosemont, Illinois.

nbcsportschicago.com’ further stated that the new Ryan Field is part of a $480 million donation from the family of Patrick and Shirley Ryan that was the largest in school history. Some of that money is funding academic ventures.

The school has said the stadium would seat 35,000, down more than 12,000 from the old Ryan Field, which opened in 1926. It will feature a canopy designed to keep noise and light focused on the field and will include cutting-edge technology and scoreboards as well as concessions with food from the local restaurants. It will also achieve Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.

The LEED Gold certification is a prestigious level of certification that a building can achieve by meeting strict standards for sustainability and earning at least 60 percent of the available LEED points. These standards include energy use, lighting, water and material use, and sustainable strategies.

The Northwestern is scheduled to play most of its home games next season at its lakefront soccer and lacrosse facility. A temporary structure with a capacity considerably lower than at the old Ryan Field and the new stadium is being built.

The new Ryan Field is scheduled to open in 2026.

he Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Family has given the largest single gift in University history to conclude the record-breaking “We Will” Campaign. The $480 million gift greatly accelerates breakthroughs in biomedical, economics and business research and enable Northwestern to construct a best-in-class athletics venue for the University community.

“Our family has long been committed to supporting areas of strategic importance to Northwestern — from the arts, humanities and sciences to basic research and clinical care,” Pat Ryan says. “Our philanthropy also has focused on helping our undergraduate, graduate and professional school students to reach their full potential regardless of their financial circumstances.”

The gift supports several areas of the Feinberg School of Medicine, including the creation of the Ryan Family Digital Health Fund, which will focus on digital medicine technologies to improve human health. The fund will facilitate the development of an interactive digital application to assist parents in employing sensor programs for measuring neuromotor performance in infants as well as support the curation of a sustainable and accessible library of diverse and unique health datasets.

The gift also will create a new institute that will dramatically advance Northwestern’s distinctive scholarship in the field of neuroscience. Additionally, the Ryan Family Catalyst Fund will facilitate promising medical research by scholars who have the potential to make an important impact on human disease.

Further, the Ryans’ gift also endows the existing Institute for Global Health, to be renamed the Robert J. Havey, MD Institute for Global Health in honor of Robert J. Havey, — the institute’s deputy director and clinical professor of general internal medicine and geriatrics at Feinberg — and establish the Ryan Family Center for Global Primary Care within that institute.

“Northwestern’s world-class scientists and innovative and interdisciplinary approach to research have tremendous potential to advance treatments and tools that can improve the lives of people in the U.S. and globally,” Shirley Ryan says.

In addition to supporting human health, the Ryans’ gift will endow a Center for Applied Microeconomics, solidifying Northwestern’s leadership position in economics while fueling research with the capacity for significant social and policy impact. The gift will benefit the Kellogg School of Management as well.

The Ryans’ gift also includes the lead gift for the redevelopment of Ryan Field to create an enhanced game-day experience for students, alumni, fans and the surrounding community. An important goal of the project is to exceed Americans with Disabilities Act requirements and make the stadium exceptionally accessible and welcoming to all attendees. “Shirley and I believe in the power of sports to develop the whole person — mind, body and soul for all students,” Pat Ryan says.

The Ryans were already the largest benefactors in Northwestern’s history before this new gift. They have made broad and deep philanthropic investments across the University, supporting academic programs, students, research and teaching, and facilities. In addition to Ryan Field, they have made possible campus athletics landmarks such as Ryan Fieldhouse and Welsh-Ryan Arena.

They also have created prominent academic facilities, including Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Hall, the home of the International Institute for Nanotechnology; lab and research space within the Robert H. Lurie Medical Research Center (Chicago campus); and the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Center for the Musical Arts.


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