Wilmette formalizes opposition to Chicago Stars’ Ryan Field hopes

Wilmette officials are once again urging their neighbors to the south to boot a pitch that involves the state’s largest private university.

Village President Senta Plunkett during the Wilmette Village Board’s Tuesday, Feb. 24 meeting read a fiercely worded rebuke to a pending application that would let a professional soccer team use Northwestern University’s Ryan Field as its temporary home.

The Chicago Stars are currently pursuing a permit with the City of Evanston that would allow the women’s soccer club to play at Northwestern’s new stadium starting in 2027 and lasting for up to five years, as first reported by the Evanston Roundtable, The Record’s partner publication.

If approved, the permit — which in Evanston is a “unique use,” a classification officials said is typically reserved for “unusual one-of-a-kind” uses — would allow up to an additional 17 sporting events at the new Ryan Field.

Evanston officials in 2023 approved zoning changes that ultimately permitted up to 10 outdoor music concerts, as well as other uses, at the university’s new main athletics facility.

Plunkett said in her letter, which was addressed to Evanston’s City Council, land use committee and Mayor Daniel Biss, that the new proposal “will create additional adverse impacts to our residents and your neighbors.”

“This increase to the already controversial and impactful use, requires the Village to be steadfast in its opposition to the increasing number of permitted events at the athletic campus, particularly before the new stadium is even operating,” Plunkett said.

“Northwestern has asked a lot from its neighbors in Wilmette and Evanston, and to ask for more while the extent of the adverse impacts of the already approved events remains unknown is unfortunate timing.”

Contention surrounding Northwestern’s plans for Ryan Field has boiled in Wilmette for years, and the Village on several occasions has clashed with both the city and the university.

The university’s plans were met with strong criticism from many south Wilmette residents when they were first introduced in 2022, and from there, concerns only heightened in the following months and years as additional details about the school’s vision were revealed.

As previously reported by The Record, Northwestern first brought forward an $800 million plan in the fall of 2022 that cut stadium capacity by approximately 12,000 (from 47,000 to 35,000) but created more communal areas and enabled multiple revenue-generating concerts each year.

Wilmette trustees in August of 2023 passed a formal objection to Northwestern’s rezoning request, arguing that “commercializing an educational facility’s athletic campus in (the proposed) manner — in a residential neighborhood to drive profits — is wholly unacceptable.”

Then, after Evanston approved the school’s plan, Wilmette officials devoted months of discussion, much of which occurred primarily in closed session, to potential avenues to further object to the changes at Ryan Field.

Despite an initial consideration of legal action and months of public pleas from residents to pursue litigation against Northwestern, Wilmette struck an intergovernmental agreement with Evanston in 2024 that at the time settled tensions.

Wilmette leaders are now arguing that the Evanston institution is already moving the goalposts on its intentions.

“When Evanston approved the new Ryan Field stadium, including the 28,500-person outdoor concert venue, there was reasonable concern amongst Wilmette residents (and Evanston residents) that NU would continue to push for additional events over time,” Plunkett said. “Before Ryan Field has even opened its doors, this proposal clearly validated that concern.

“To now add more uncertainty and potential impact to the already impacted area is imprudent at best, and unneighborly at worst.”

Wilmette officials, according to Plunkett’s letter, are requesting that the city deny the unique-use application “at least until such time that we can all understand and appreciate the impacts of Ryan Field’s events on the adjacent neighbors.”

Additionally, the village is asking Evanston, if it’s “determined to approve the application,” to also implement a corresponding reduction in events of a similar size for the duration that the Chicago Stars would use Ryan Field.

The Roundtable reported last month that zoning hearings for the Stars’ proposal were scheduled to begin this month.

The Record is a nonprofit, nonpartisan community newsroom that relies on reader support to fuel its independent local journalism.

Become a member of The Record to fund responsible news coverage for your community.

Already a member? You can make a tax-deductible donation at any time.