I finally made the trek to the brand spankin new Soldier Field on Friday. I got tickets to opening day against the Packers last year and, much to the disbelief of many of my male friends, gave the tickets to my dad and little brother who were shut out of the ticket sale. I watched from my couch. It SUCKED, but it was what a good daughter and sister would do. I think. The jury is still out on whether or not this was a great, selfless decision or if I am a big stupid sucker.
Regardless, my old roommate CP got 4 free tickets for Fridays preseason game against the Saints. We had a wedding to go to in Graylake at 6, and kickoff was at 7:30. We sat through the ceremony, gave a round of hellos, got a drink, got some food, gave a round of goodbyes, and were back on the road. We made it to the stadium by halftime.
The outside is just downright ugly. The weird combination of old and new looks clumsy. But the inside of the stadium is amazing. The sound is amazing. There is not a bad seat in the house. We were down by the north goal post and could see totally clearly. Since we got the tickets from a company that has season tickets, we were surrounded by season ticket holders who were all trying to get to know each other. We had some great people behind us we kept refering to CP as “Hefner” since he was flanked by my sister and I. They yelled at people trying to start the wave, saying “This is Chicago, not LA. We don’t do no stinkin’ wave here!” (sorry, blogging.la). It was a very “Chicago” experience. I just wish tickets were cheaper. I would go all the time.
So, I’ve been pursuaded. I still think it’s ugly, but is pretty deep down inside. But that wasn’t enough to bring the Bears a win. They still lost. But it was totally on the fault of the refs and a bad call. The Saints SO did not deserve that last touchdown. That was a load of crap.