Northwestern is finally set to play at Ryan Field, their new football stadium. From the outside, looking in, the stadium is nice, but the inside tells a completely different story.
The $875 million project is set to open on Friday, after setbacks from weather and inflation. While it is the most expensive stadium in college football, some fans don’t feel as if the money was spread evenly throughout the stadium.
Many fans took to X to bash how poorly the visitors’ locker room was made. One fan said, “It looks like a middle school storage closet,” and another one said, “$875 million, and this is the visiting locker room? Northwestern has some serious explaining to do.”
“No class. Doormat of the Big 10. Screw them,” one other fan said.
In most stadiums, visiting locker rooms are not luxurious or five stars because they are meant to make the opponent feel uncomfortable. Ryan Field does just that and even has the decency to provide actual lockers.
There was some rebuttal, with other fans mentioning how visiting locker rooms is not meant to feel like a kickback at the beach. One fan replied, “What else does it need? A barbershop? A water slide?” Another fan responded, “How’s it unacceptable? It’s a visitors locker room not the Weston’s Suites…I’ve seen worst so that’s pretty nice. When you come to play [Northwestern], they want you to be mentally uncomfortable from the time you get off that bus.”
With only a 35,000 seating capacity, the smallest in the Big Ten, a highly decorated visitors’ locker room was not on the priority list. Even some of the nation’s biggest stadiums are not exactly known for their visitors’ locker rooms. It’s a universal thing that most football fans know get the slightest effort.
Northwestern’s debut game at Ryan Field is Friday, October 2 (8 p.m. ET) against Penn State.
