Skip to main content

Loft Club at the new Ryan Field channels Wrigley bleacher’s energy, while embracing Wildcat football history

Tickets now available for premium seating designed for young alumni and long-time season ticket holders
March 12, 2026 | By Northwestern Now Staff
loft club
The Loft Club channels the energy of the Wrigley Field bleachers. Groups of alumni can arrange their own seating box and watch together, while individual fans have equally great options throughout the club.

Work crews are installing the first seats inside the new Ryan Field. And now that the first home game has been set for Friday, Oct. 2, it’s time to start thinking about purchasing tickets.

Northwestern recently unveiled plans for the Loft Club, a premium space for the heart of the Northwestern fan base: the alumni and season ticket holders who show up every year ready to cheer on the Wildcats.

Ryan Field will offer a wide array of seating options, which will be announced in the coming months.

“The Loft Club combines the sightlines of some of Soldier Field’s best club seats with the energy of the bleachers at Wrigley Field,” said Pat Ryan Jr. “And the club space, with a massive, nearly 10,000-square-foot glass wall overlooking a new park and the surrounding community, is decorated with vintage Northwestern football memorabilia, making it the ultimate location for the most passionate Wildcat fans.”

Bleacher energy

The Loft Club channels the energy of the Wrigley Field bleachers. Groups of alumni can arrange their own seating box and watch together, while individual fans have equally great options throughout the club. Every seat is padded with cupholders, and many also include convenient side tables.

A 30-foot-high glass wall opens sweeping, unobstructed views of Ryan Field’s new park and the tree-lined streets of Evanston. The club features premium concessions and a bar, all pay-as-you-go, in a weather-protected space.

Priced for young alumni

Special pricing is structured to reward long-time season ticket holders for their loyalty and to give young alumni a discounted entry point into the season ticket experience.

“The Loft Club is a natural home for many of our most passionate fans, the people who have shown up year after year to support Northwestern Football,” said Mark Jackson, Combe Family Vice President for Athletics and Recreation. “Long-time season ticket holders will receive significant loyalty discounts on the capital gift as a way of recognizing that commitment. We are also launching our new Wildcats in the Last Decade (WILD) program, which creates an entry point for young alumni to get into the season ticket experience. Our goal is simple: bring generations of Wildcats together in this space and pack it in purple.”

Closer to the action than ever

Designed so every fan can be as close to the action as possible, the new Ryan Field will have several different seating levels. The Field Club offers an opportunity to watch the game from the field. And the East Club will be a welcoming space for the Chicago business community.

No matter where your seat is, the emphasis is on unrivaled sight lines and a premium experience for every fan — not capacity. Ryan Field will have a capacity of 35,000, including free endzone seating for 2,000 students, about a quarter of Northwestern’s undergraduate enrollment.

Only 48 feet separate the lower bowl stands from the playing field, and the farthest seat in the upper deck is only 136 feet away, much closer than most major stadiums around the country.

Loft Club seat proximity and sightlines in the new Ryan Field as compared to historic Ryan Field and Soldier Field.

Leaning into Wildcat history

In the Loft Club, fans will also be able to relive Northwestern football history through the years. The space will be adorned with classic “Willie the Wildcat” artwork and original program covers from the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, thanks to a collaboration with University Historian Kevin Leonard, who culled visual elements from University Archives.

Though not the first sport to be played by Northwestern students, football, once established at the University, quickly became its most popular and most publicly supported athletic endeavor, according to Leonard.

“Northwestern’s football history is a venerable one,” he said. “Given its traditional place on the calendar — at the beginning of the academic year each fall — football has been the spectacle around which students and alumni coalesce and bond with Northwestern as an institution and with each other as a community.”

Over more than a century, the program has produced many outstanding, nationally acclaimed players and coaches. In 1924, Leonard noted, it was Chicago Tribune sportswriter Wallace Abbey who likened the play of Northwestern football to wildcats.

Working with the designers of Ryan Field’s public spaces, Leonard searched archival holdings for visually engaging materials that reflect Northwestern’s history and heritage.

Together, they consulted hundreds of photos, vintage lithographs, posters, old stadium signage, football program covers and tickets. They viewed football uniforms, helmets and other equipment found within the University’s collection.
Working with the designers of Ryan Field’s public spaces, University Historian Kevin Leonard searched archival holdings for visually engaging materials that reflect Northwestern’s heritage.

They also examined football playbooks, trading cards, trophies, the evolving looks of the Northwestern mascot, as well as the personal papers of past players and coaches.

“Ryan Field will be a magnificent, pathbreaking venue for fans,” Leonard said. “It also promises to be a gallery for some of the most vivid and entertaining reflections of Northwestern’s past.”

Fans interested in purchasing tickets for the Loft Club are encouraged to complete a form to indicate interest. A sales representative will follow up directly with options, prices and availability.

Editor’s Picks

.StoryImageAltText.ATT

Related Stories

evanston