Northwestern University’s $862 million Ryan Field in Evanston likely won’t be hosting just the Wildcats.
On Friday, the Chicago Stars soccer team announced they had applied for a unique use permit from Evanston, because they would need special permission from the city to host professional soccer games, in upcoming seasons, at Ryan Field.
If City of Evanston officials sign off on the Stars’ proposal, the National Women’s Soccer League team would call the rebuilt football stadium home for five years.
In fact, the team, which plans to host 15 home games every year at Ryan Field, would play several more games there than the ’Cats.
The Stars — already set to move from Bridgeview’s SeatGeek Stadium and play their 2026 season at Northwestern’s lakeside Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium field — don’t plan to call Evanston their forever home just yet.
The relocation to Ryan Field relocation would serve as a “lifeline” while the team explores building a permanent home, Stars Director of Community Noelle Schmitt said.
“We really like Evanston,” Schmitt told Pioneer Press.
Deepening its ties with Evanston and the north suburbs will complement the team’s plans to develop a training facility in Bannockburn. Announced earlier in January, the facility’s placement in the Lake County village appealed because of its north suburban proximity to Evanston, Schmitt added.
So for now, the Stars will follow the Wildcats from the temporarily spruced-up Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium to Ryan Field in northern Evanston. Ryan Field is set to open in fall 2026.
The Stars attracted more than 10,000 fans to a preview game in September 2025 at Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium. However, the team ended the season last in the NWSL standings.
A Stars attempt to move to Ryan Field could face opposition from the neighborhood similar to what Northwestern experienced, however.
The Stars’ application for the unique use permit from the City of Evanston will likely appear before the Land Use Commission in February and lead to the City Council for a final decision.
That opens up the Stars’ proposal to the type of criticism from Evanston and Wilmette residential neighbors that the proposal for Ryan Field received when it was introduced.
In 2023, Northwestern presented its plans for rebuilding Ryan Field and hosting commercial concerts there. Some neighbors fulminated against the university, arguing that the extra events would bring more noise and traffic, and that the property tax-exempt institution would not pay its fair share.
The debate grew louder over a series of tense city meetings. Those tensions escalated after Mayor Daniel Biss broke a tie in the City Council’s initial vote on Northwestern’s commercial plans.
Soon afterward, Parielle Davis, an opponent of Northwestern’s vision, created a political committee called “Better than Biss” that inveighed against the mayor and sought to topple him in the next election. Evanston voters reelected Biss in 2025, but 7th Ward residents chose Davis as their next councilmember.
Though Northwestern made a benefits pact with the city, opponents kept up their fight. A group called the Most Livable City Association brought a legal challenge.
The Stars, meanwhile, plan to be good neighbors, Schmitt said. Polling commissioned by the team found that 82% of Evanston residents would approve of the Stars’ relocation. And the expected 6,000-person attendance for Stars games would be more akin to Northwestern basketball games at the adjacent Welsh-Ryan Arena. Ryan Field will have 35,000 seats.
The games would also bring more spending to Evanston, and the economic impact would grow over the course of the Stars’ five years at Ryan Field, Schmitt added.
The dueling arguments would come before a City Council whose members have sharply split on smaller but similar debates on development and growth. In November the council voted 5-4 in favor of a proposal to build a downtown apartment tower that would become Evanston’s tallest building.