Soldier Field

Reviews 3

O

O Hernandez

On a business trip to Chicago to catch 3 games at Wrigley Field in 2013, I decided to take the $15 tour of Soldier Field, home of the NFL’s Chicago Bears. At the time I had worked in Major League Baseball for nearly a dozen years and had visited dozens of ballparks and stadiums around the U.S. and Europe. I had, what I thought at the time, was a reasonable expectation of what I might see and learn during my tour. How incredibly wrong I was. The tour begins with a welcome from your tour guide, Tom. Right off the bat he draws the line on what team he supports… the Bears. He tells us that he’s happy to answer any questions during the tour from Bears fans. He instructed fans of any other team, though, to write down all of their questions on a piece of paper during the tour, pass them forward to him, so he deposit them in the trash. He was obviously kidding, but I should have recognized that allegiance to his Bears franchise as a clue of what was to come. Tom started the tour by giving us a brief introduction of Soldier Field and its storied history. Soldier Field is one of the largest memorials in the country honoring U.S. service men who gave their lives during WWI. In fact, there is a statue of a soldier just inside the entrance near Gate 0 which was relocated there and placed in a place of prominence. This particular statue was removed from another spot in Chicago because it had been vandalized. The city kept it in storage until Soldier Field was re-built. One of the neat things he mentioned was that soldiers over the years have donated their service medals to Soldier Field, including Purple Hearts. These medals are all cemented into the interior facade of the original Soldier Field structure. The only part of the original Soldier Field building which remains is a ring of a columns and the exterior facade. There is a thick black line on the floor showing where the original building still stands and where the newly built structure was constructed. After viewing the Memorial statue, we had a brief stop at a collage showing 3 images of George Halas, the great Bears player, coach and owner. Tom shared with us that the Halas family still maintains ownership of the Bears to this day after just an initial investment of $200 to buy the team all those years ago. From there Tom lead us to the field. He mentioned just prior that the field is sacred to the franchise and very well taken care of by the head of grounds. He said, jokingly we thought, that the sharpshooters have been instructed to “shoot-to-kill” anyone who steps onto the field from the surrounding track. Everyone on the tour gave a hearty, yet nervous, laugh. That nervousness vanished completely when we finally stepped foot onto the field. The newly built Soldier Field offered Bears fans the closest seats to the playing field in the entire NFL at the time of my visit. We certainly noticed that as there wasn’t much room to walk without stepping on the grass. While I have visited a number of ballparks and stadiums in my career in sports, the experience of being on the same field as the players never gets old. Experiencing the view of the stands from the field never gets old either. Next time you’re in Chicago, do yourself a favor and take the tour of Soldier Field for an unforgettable experience.

AN

Andrew McNaughton

Everyone should go to a Bears game in their lifetimes. I have had the privilege of going to many games at both the new and old stadiums. I attended the 2007 NFC Championship Game, which is arguably the best game Ill ever see there. I also attended the coldest game on record a few years back (tip- yes Bears tickets are expensive, but no matter how good or bad they are, you can always find face value tix for sale on the secondary market for extremely cold weather games, just make sure you are very well prepared or you will be miserable). That said, I am at a point in my life where Id turn down Bears tickets if offered to me. Some of it is a personal factor of age, but it has always been an incredible pain to get there.... the nearest L stop at Roosevelt is at least a 25 minute walk, parking is outrageously expensive, and good luck finding a cab/Uber/Lyft anywhere near the stadium after a game/event. Security is extremely tight, especially for Bears games, and while it is good that they are vigilant, it is also somewhat intrusive and excessive, creating even longer line jams than before. The concessions are really expensive and the food is pretty lousy. Also the 400 Level is dangerous. What do I mean by that? It takes forever to get out of there, especially in an emergency situation, which I was part of a few years back when a massive thunderstorm with tornadic potential actually caused a delay in the game against Baltimore. We were told to evacuate. Ok, sure. Problem was that you have these massive 30+ row sections that have to trickle out through a narrow set of stairs to exit. After a game, Im not in any rush, but in this case, we were told to quickly leave our seats and were stuck in a standstill line of fans trying to evacuate while this storm tore through and dumped tons of rain on us while waiting what I think was about 25-30 minutes to actually get under the stands. This is no good, especially for a venue that hosts games the NFL feels are a potential target for extremists. It is also extremely steep so if something actually went down and the crowd panicked, youd have people falling over each other. So just keep that in mind if you go and sit in the 400 Level. I saw Guns N Roses there last weekend. The show was great and the experience was tolerable since they are on a very short list of bands Id see who could sell out Soldier Field (the Rolling Stones are another.... thats all I can think of right now). But other than a "Not in this Lifetime" type event, I avoid Soldier Field.

ED

Ed Krause

Clean modern stadium, the seating was decently comfortable, and bathrooms were tolerably clean and there was ONE member of guest services that was kind and helpful that I met before the concert, she was a really great help and someone you could have a nice conversation with. However, thats where the compliments end. The acoustics in Soldier Field are really awful making it impossible to hear someone simply speaking over a microphone to the audience. Fortunately there were no announcements that NEEDED to be heard of the PA system, as if there were no one would have known what was said. Additionally the parking lot is the most poorly thought out parking garage in history. I had parked in 3E, or the lot with the yellow sea turtle. Apparently immediately after an event that section of the parking garage gets locked off. Why? I couldnt tell you and neither could guest services. So my fiance and I walked around the parking garage for 45 minutes trying to find 3E. We asked 6 different members of guest services and building security, along the way, how to get to 3E and none of them knew and they all gave us different directions, "take the east elevators", "take the west elevators". Three members of guest services even asking what level I was parked on after I asked how do I get to 3E, I told them again 3E to which their response was, "There is a 3E on every level" I kid you not, the incompetent members of guest services think there is a 3E on every level and were unwilling to help us find the section of the garage. We finally got fed up looking and walked outside the building, knowing how we originally drove into the garage and walked to the car, seeing as it was actually impossible to walk to the car from inside the stadium since they locked the doors for pedestrians to this section. You would think $50 for parking would get you a decent garage and intelligent staff. Dont waste your money on food here, they serve cold $9 hot dogs and $13 room temperature beer and then they pressure you for gratuity. I will never return to this stadium and I will make sure my friends and family do not waste their money at this facility. -Very disappointed Chicagoan tldr; Nice modern stadium, bad food, incompetent guest services and horrible parking garage.

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