Northwestern playing ACTUAL football games on PRACTICE field?

OLD Ryan Field [Music] here's Brody Brazil if there was ever a competition for the most unique environment surrounding a college football game I'm pretty sure this year it would go to Northwestern and I know what you're thinking wait that's just plain old Ryan Field home of the Wildcats for a very long time that's true but that's not where they're playing this season because since this photo was taken whenever it was all of that has been demolished that's right ryanfield that stadium that venue it flat out doesn't exist anymore it was located on the campus of Northwestern it opened all the way back in October of 1926 it was last renovated in 1996 it seated just shy of 50,000 at 47130 they closed it down after northwestern's final game of last season back in November of 23 and a couple months later like January of this year it was entirely demolished and if you don't believe me wow there's proof and isn't it always interesting when a stadium gets torn down kind of the cross-section here of just it just looks so fragile it looks so thin I mean I guess we all think of a stadium kind of being v-shaped but it just it doesn't seem like there's much to it here in these archways underneath the the stands and the steel girds holding everything up and look how high that that Press Box and how lonely that Press Box feels right now when there's literally nothing else surrounding it anymore but I digress the stadium has since been demolished and for good reason they've got great plans they want NEW Ryan Field to build a new ryanfield they are going to build a new ryanfield on the campus of Northwestern University and it looks beautiful I don't know if there's just something about purple in this rendering or whatever it is but I like the way they've done this here with some luxury suites up top looks like they've got like a a premium area I'm sure for alumni at the 50 yard line I like what they've done here with the zone I'm sure that's kind of a student section over there I don't know what this is beer garden another premium space whatever it is and all the stands are covered by that roof that's that's not really a dome but it covers the stand so I look I like I like the idea but where will they The TEMPORARY Stadium play until then wait a second it says temporary Stadium up there but there's no Stadium here and wait isn't that Lake Michigan isn't that northwestern's practice field like they couldn't play all their games there for the next two years could they or will they no that's exactly what Northwestern is about to do they're about to do this as in build some stands on the south side and the north side that's where the majority of the fans are going to sit and then really thin sections because they can't fit much on the east and west sides of the field again that's Lake Michigan right here this is the old football practice field this was a soccer field right here they're converting it into a brand new football field but there you go and I imagine and I don't see it here there were lights for the soccer field that was here looks like they're taking those down I don't know if they're they're not going to play any night games for two years if these are all day home games because I don't even know if you could put up a lighting structure that would be good for TV oh yeah TV how about that like don't you need a giant structure here for the the cameras of the 50 yard line and all the different angles that you can't get from the corners I mean none of this exists for television but maybe they don't care about that anyway big stands on the South Side on the North side those look as plain and basic as could be it does look like there are some type of uh premium seats up there at the top and I don't know what these are those look like modu modular uh containers but maybe there're some type of sweets I really don't know what they're doing here but this is what Northwestern is going to do for two seasons this is how it looks now again there's this football field there's that soccer pitch they're literally going to do it an orange here they're literally going to put a new field like right in the middle of that and build on the South Side build on the North side put some stands there and there and call it a day for two years I mean good for them they're keeping it on campus they had some options to play at different venues in the Chicagoland area but they're all 20 to 30 Mi away it just it wouldn't feel right for two years and a handful of games each year to go play them way off campus and they still are playing two games at Wrigley Field even this upcoming season so that kind of takes a little bit of the weight off of what they have to do here but what a hall this is another satellite image and view to kind of give you here just to just to show you yeah football field in the middle stands here stands here what is this going to be like almost like watching High School football and and how many football stadiums have you ever been to where the majority of the seats are on the end zones right I guess I I I should have done that in a color that stands out better like how common is that it's not super rare no Stadium ever has that usually you know the stands are on the sidelines that's just always the way it's been but for this and to fit it in and to have it literally yeah look at the look at the rocky Shoreline there of Lake Michigan Chicago was down that way by the way pretty crazy right that they're going to attempt this that they're going to pull it off here's what the the seating diagram looks like they got the north side they got the South Side got some seats on the east and west but man it is going to be slim and if Construction Photos you don't believe me that this is happening no I mean like here's photos of construction here it is going up and so I do I do see those lighting structures here so I'm I'm wondering if they are going to keep those but I'm also wondering if you know if that was for a practice soccer field the lighting um how should I say this the lighting quality is going to have to be much higher if you want to play a college football game at night versus you know a soccer practice in the evening hours but that's that's what's going on at Northwestern they are putting it up as we speak I thought to be honest I thought the bleachers on that side the north side looks like I thought they were going to go up much higher than what was what the the renderings depicted versus what's actually gone up here but does it seat like 15,000 I think so something in that range so I mean to go from 47 down to 15 ultimately I think they want to build their Stadium out to be 30 plus so they'll double this but it's this is going to be an interesting 15,000 yeah there it is and so it's going to be Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium called Northwestern Medicine field at Martin Stadium their first game by the way as I record this oh less than 2 weeks away that'll take place on the 31st of August 15,000 capacity I almost said 15,000 seat capacity most of it looks like bleacher seating which is also going to be super uncomfortable when it gets cold and there's no back rest and you're ooh wow uh it's going to feature sweets in a beer garden and a tailgating section they're doing the best they can literally but they're building a stadium on top of a practice field they'll play five home games here this season obviously next season's schedule is not not set yet uh but did I see that they were going to try and play USC next year at that field at that Northwestern Medicine field at Martin Stadium that's crazy five home games this year we don't have next year planned out yet uh the two biggest games two of them at least are going to be played at Wrigley Field so again a more traditional even though that's super unconventional more of a real actual full purpose Stadium they'll get to play uh two games there so seven total home games this will be used for this year as well as 2025 uh again I had never seen anything like that before I can't wait to see the visuals of this you know what I give Northwestern credit uh they didn't have a lot of other options they wanted to start from scratch you didn't really want to rebuild ryanfield you wanted a a fresh slate and you wanted to keep your football team on campus so they're doing the best they can so long as they have a plan so long as this is really only a two-year thing and then they'll get to move on with that beautiful brand new new Ryan Stadium no problem and you'll always remember these two years I do feel a little bit bad for the what like Juniors of this year seniors of next year or even seniors of this year that they don't really get to go out and play in a traditional typical Stadium but this might be cool there might be something about this maybe they can harness it maybe they can make it their home field advantage make it special I don't know but in terms of how it looks and when we see photos of it it's going to look number one either super weird and awkward and not right or they might pull it off and it might look super cool let me know what you think about that in the comment section below also while you're down there thumbs up since you made it here to the end of this video I would appreciate that it helps me this video and this channel I would like it but I would also love this if you take one second right now go down there make sure you you're subscribed to this channel hit that button that way I definitely get to see you back here next time