So it seems the Ryan family has been engaging in a media tour after the additional information on the new Ryan Field came out yesterday. This article caught my attention, as I simply cannot believe the spin that the Ryan family is putting on this. https://www.sportico.com/business/real-estate/2024/northwestern-ryan-field-plan-cost-financing-850-million-1234810753/

Some choice quotes:

"Northwestern will wholly-own the venue, with no revenue from its operations flowing back to the Ryans. The arrangement is part real estate development, part philanthropy."

Ah yes, philanthropy! Notable philanthropic endeavors including building homes for the homeless, feeding the hungry, providing scholarships for low-income students, and building $800 million dollar college football stadiums.

"That allows us to do things that we couldn’t do in the old stadium. To give you an example, a seat in the end zone in our old stadium was $50. Well, if you’re a custodian at Evanston High School, you’re not spending $250 to take your family to a college football game … But we can take that 10% and have them generate the revenue that allows us to create a great experience for everybody, and do a subsidized ticket program for the community … In the old stadium we were subsidizing the rich."

The old Ryan Field was subsidizing the rich! Oh yes, that was definitely happening! Sporting event tickets work as supply and demand, where when demand outstrips supply, prices go up. With 12,000 less seats in a stadium, supply will be less, causing ticket prices to be more, especially for in-demand games like Ohio State and Michigan. There's no fucking way that prices in the old Ryan Field will be lower than the new one. That's not how this works! Which is fine, but don't sit here and spew some Bernie Sanders bullshit!

The hubris of these people is amazing to me. You want to spend $800 million dollars of your family fortune to build a monument to yourself that also will host 6 college football games per year? Have it, its not my money. But don't sit here and tell me you are doing a service to the community and put out some PR nonsense about how wonderful you are, like come on.