Evanston Now Takes money for hockey club's Crown Center use, rejects test of professional events at Welch-Ryan. The Crown Center. (Barbara Freeman photo) Evanston aldermen this week voted to accept $1 million from Northwestern University to let the school’s ice hockey club use the new Robert Crown Center for the next five years. But they also effectively revoked an agreement to let the school test generating additional revenue by hosting professional athletic events at its Welch Ryan Arena. During discussion of the Crown Center deal Ald. Tom Suffredin, 6th Ward, complained that a letter sent to the university by the Friends of the Robert Crown Center when the school made the first one-third payment toward the agreement described the money as a donation — rather than a payment for services.