O’Donnell: How quickly would Ryans have Bears at Arlington Park?
IMAGINE A NEW STADIUM PLAN with crisp vision, all necessary resources and civic approvals in hand and a focused, unwavering path toward deadline fulfillment.
That's exactly what Pat Ryan Jr. unveiled Monday as his family's firm determination to deliver a new $850 million state-of-the-art football field to Northwestern University reached critical ascent.
Ryan and NU released renderings of the new Ryan Field. It's designed to be a boutique-like 35,000-seat building on the site of the old Ryan Field in north Evanston. Targeted opening is 2026. Anyone familiar with the must-do business passions of the Ryan family has it on the board at 1-to-5 that the projected inaugural date will be met.
“We want 'experience' when we go to events and there are four keys to that about the new stadium,” Ryan told media. “Premium experience for everybody. Everybody not in a suite has a seat on a bench with a back. Everybody is protected from the weather by a canopy. And everybody in attendance will have a much more fulfilling shared experience than watching on TV.”
CHECK, CHECK, CHECK and reported huge check from the Ryans as Northwestern administrators continue to try and get past their horribly bungled handling of allegations of hazing in Pat Fitzgerald's football program 16 months ago.
That the Ryans also own close to 20% of the Bears isn't lost on anyone who has been using schmock-schmock GPS to follow that NFL team's fractious path toward a new stadium.
Way back in September 2022, the Bears were dead-set on the 326 acres they purchased at Arlington Park. That stalled and then last spring, comic focus shifted to Warren's Folly on the Chicago lakefront.
IN MORE RECENT WEEKS, the floundering franchise let it be known that the abandoned site of the old Michael Reese Hospital, south of Soldier Field, might indeed suffice. That represented a 180 spin from a previous management stance.
The wavering would challenge the most astute air traffic controller at O'Hare.
And it also begs the very fundamental Q.:
What if the Ryan family — most notably Pats Sr. and Jr. — were put in charge of the project to get the Bears a new palace of ping?
IF REASON AND CONVICTION PREVAILED, there would be shovels in the ground at Arlington Park no later than next year.
If not, let the blocked field goals roll on.
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WITH SELECTION SUNDAY for the first 12-team CFP now 18 days away — Dec. 8 — two games command the top of the tote board Saturday.
And most savvy L-Vegan oddsmakers say neither should be very close.
No. 2 Ohio State (9-1) is a 13-point home favorite over the transfer-portal upstarts of No. 5 Indiana (10-0). No. 6 Notre Dame (9-and-Northern Illinois) is a 14 1/2-point chalk over the groundhogs of No. 18 Army (9-0) at Yankee Stadium.
The Buckeyes-Hoosiers go first (11 a.m., Fox). Ryan Day is coaching for his future in Columbus. IU's fresh Curt Cignetti has a new 8-year, $70M contract in pocket and all the worries of John Mellencamp busking outside of the Memorial Union in Bloomington.
NOTRE DAME-ARMY IS a nighter (6 p.m., NBC). Like Day, Marcus Freeman almost certainly needs a Bronx boon plus at least a profile moment in the CFP to be retained. His real killer comes a week from Saturday when the Irish end a bicoastal Thanksgiving week at USC.
As for Jeff Monken and the Black Knights, the whole truth is that they could lob a perfect game vs. king-sized ND and still not win. Battering ram Bryson Daily only masquerades as starting QB as an excuse to get the football. Army passes about as often as Kim Jong Un has done stand-up at West Point.
Two locals in the frame for the cadets: Starting right guard Paolo Gennarelli (St. Charles North) and long snapper Owen Walter, not too long ago a star do-everything back at Prospect High.
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BOB LOVE WAS THE LAST of the classic Dick Motta starting five that brought the Bulls from post-expansion day care to serious contention in the NBA.
He teamed with Norm Van Lier, Jerry Sloan, Tom Boerwinkle and Chet Walker to help keep the franchise in Chicago and grow a generation of fans that has never really wanted to turn their backs on the team (no matter how many Zach LaVines get suffocating, dumb-nut contracts).
Love died of cancer Monday at age 81. For many years, he and wife Rachel Dixon-Love tried to sell a movie concept about his life, a tale of basketball resilience and personal dignity that included overcoming a cruel stuttering problem.
THE BULLS OF 2024-25 are an outfit on a permanent horizontal hold. They're going nowhere despite future Naismith Hall of Famer Billy Donovan as a realist at the throttle.
The Motta-Love warriors were incapable of accepting such dormancy. Every game from 1969-75 was an event, every trip up or down a basketball floor a possible rendezvous with blood and tumbles.
They thrilled. They entertained. They broke hearts every spring.
But what an era to be a wide-eyed young Bulls fan.
Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Wednesday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.