Soldier Field
Soldier Field is a multi-purpose stadium on the Near South Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1924, the stadium has served as the home of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League since 1971, as well as Chicago Fire FC of Major League Soccer since 2020. It also regularly hosts stadium concerts and other large crowd events. The stadium has a football capacity of 62,500, making it the smallest stadium in the NFL. Soldier Field is also the oldest stadium in the NFL and MLS.
The stadium's interior was rebuilt as part of a major renovation project in 2002 and 2003, which modernized the facility but lowered its seating capacity, eventually causing it to be delisted as a National Historic Landmark in 2006. Soldier Field has served as the home venue for a number of other sports teams in its history, including the Chicago Cardinals of the NFL and University of Notre Dame football. It hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup, and multiple CONCACAF Gold Cup championships. In 1968, it hosted the inaugural World Games of the Special Olympics, as well as its second World Games in 1970. Other historic events have included large rallies with speeches, including by Amelia Earhart, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King Jr.
History
On December 3, 1919, Chicago-based architectural firm Holabird & Roche was chosen to design the stadium, which broke ground on August 11, 1922. The stadium cost $13 million to construct, a large sum for a sporting venue at that time. On October 9, 1924, the 53rd anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire, the stadium was officially dedicated as "Grant Park Stadium", although it had hosted a few events before then, including a field day for Chicago police officers on September 6, and the stadium's first football game, between Louisville Male High School and Austin Community Academy High School, on October 4. On November 22, the stadium hosted its first college football game, in which Notre Dame defeated Northwestern University 13–6.On November 11, 1925, the stadium's name was changed to Soldier Field, in dedication to U.S. soldiers who had died in combat during World War I. Its formal rededication as Soldier Field was held during the 29th annual playing of the Army–Navy Game on November 27, 1926. Several months earlier, in June 1926, the stadium hosted several events during the 28th International Eucharistic Congress, the first held in the United States. During the Century of Progress World's Fair in 1933, it served as the main stage.
The stadium's design is in the Neoclassical style, with Doric columns rising above the East and West entrances. In its earliest configuration, Soldier Field was capable of seating 74,280 spectators, and was in the shape of a U. Additional seating could be added along the interior field, upper promenades, and on the large, open field and terrace beyond the north endzone, bringing the seating capacity to over 100,000. It was estimated that 123,000 fans saw Notre Dame defeat USC 13–12 on November 16, 1929.
Chicago Bears move in
Before they moved into the stadium, the Chicago Bears had played select charity games at Soldier Field as early as, when they played their former crosstown rivals, the Chicago Cardinals. The Cardinals also used the stadium as their home field for their final season in the city in 1959.In, the Bears moved into Soldier Field full-time, originally with a three-year commitment. The team previously played home games at Wrigley Field, the home stadium of the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball, but were forced to move to a larger venue due to post-AFL–NFL merger policies requiring that stadium capacities seat at least 50,000 spectators as well as lighting for potential night games. The Bears had initially intended to build a stadium in Arlington Heights, but the property did not fit the league's specifications.
On September 19, 1971, the Bears played their first home game at Soldier Field, in which they defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 17–15. In 1978, the Bears and the Chicago Park District agreed to a 20-year lease and renovation of the stadium; both parties pooled their resources for the renovation. The playing surface was AstroTurf from 1971 until 1987, and was replaced with natural grass in 1988. On February 27, 1987, Soldier Field was designated a National Historic Landmark.
Replacement talks
In 1989, Soldier Field's future was in jeopardy after a proposal was created for a "McDome", which was intended to be a domed stadium for the Bears, but was rejected by the Illinois Legislature in 1990. Because of this, Bears president Michael McCaskey considered relocation as a possible factor for a new stadium. The Bears had also purchased options in Hoffman Estates, Elk Grove Village and Aurora. In 1995, McCaskey announced that he and Northwest Indiana developers agreed to construction of an entertainment complex called "Planet Park", which would also include a new stadium. However, the plan was rejected by the Lake County Council, and in 1998, then-Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley proposed that the Bears share Comiskey Park with the Chicago White Sox.Renovations
Beginning in 1978, the plank seating was replaced by individual seats with backs and armrests. In 1982, a new press box, as well as 60 skyboxes, were added to the stadium, boosting its capacity to 66,030. In 1988, 56 more skyboxes were added, increasing capacity to 66,946. Capacity was slightly increased to 66,950 in 1992. By 1994, however, capacity was slightly reduced to 66,944. During the renovation, seating capacity was reduced to 55,701 by building a grandstand in the open end of the U shape. This moved the field closer to both ends in order to move the fans closer to the field, at the expense of seating capacity. The front row 50-yard line seats were only away from the sidelines, the shortest distance of all NFL stadiums until MetLife Stadium opened in 2010 with a distance of.2002–03 renovation and landmark delisting
In 2001, the Chicago Park District, which owns the structure, faced substantial criticism when it announced plans to alter the stadium with a design by Benjamin T. Wood and Carlos Zapata of Boston-based architecture firm Wood + Zapata. The stadium grounds were reconfigured by the Chicago architecture firm, Lohan Associates, led by architect Dirk Lohan, grandson of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The stadium's interior would be demolished, with a new seating bowl built within the existing walls in an example of facadism. Alice Hoffman of Hoffman Management Partners was hired by the Bears just after completion of Ravens Stadium at Camden Yards, and was responsible for bringing together the project team. Her company was the developer's representative for the Bears, and held the contracts for the architects, demolition, and construction companies.On January 19, 2002, the night of the Bears' playoff loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, demolition began as tailgate fires still burned in trash cans in the parking lots. The removal of 24,000 stadium seats in 36 hours by Archer Seating Clearinghouse, a speed record never exceeded since, was the first step in building the new Soldier Field. Nostalgic Bears fans recalling the team's glory seasons, as well as some retired players, picked up their seats in the South parking lot. The foremen on the job were Grant Wedding, who installed the seats himself in 1979, and Mark Wretschko, an executive for the factory who made the new seats. As Soldier Field underwent renovation, the Bears spent the 2002 NFL season playing their home games at Memorial Stadium at the University of Illinois. On September 29,, the Bears played their first game at the renovated Soldier Field, in which they were defeated by the Green Bay Packers, 38–23. The total funding for the renovation cost $632 million; taxpayers were responsible for $432 million, while the Bears and the NFL contributed $200 million.
Several writers and columnists lambasted the Soldier Field renovation project as an aesthetic, political, and financial nightmare. The project received mixed reviews within the architecture community, with criticism from civic and preservation groups. Prominent architect and native Chicagoan Stanley Tigerman called it "a fiasco." Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin dubbed it the "Eyesore on the Lake Shore," while others called it "Monstrosity on the Midway" or "Mistake by the Lake". The renovation was described by some as if "a spaceship landed on the stadium". Lohan responded:
"It's going to be an ultramodern stadium within the walls of the traditional structure, Why is that so bad? Why does that upset people? … We brainstormed this whole thing and decided to do a contemporary stadium that has all the features and qualities of a new stadium but retains the old façade and colonnades. The fact that the seating bowl is so high and reaches over the colonnades is something that is the direct result of the geometry of the sightlines that are now required for stadiums. That makes the slope of the seating shell the way it is."
Proponents of the renovation argued that it was badly needed because of the stadium's aging and cramped facilities. The New York Times named the renovated Soldier Field one of the five best new buildings of 2003. Soldier Field was given an award in design excellence by the American Institute of Architects in 2004. The stadium received many awards after completion, including project of the year by Midwest Construction Magazine, the Best Open Space Project Award by The Friends of Downtown, and the 2004 Excellence in Structural Engineering Award for "Best Structure" by The Structural Engineers Association of Illinois.
On September 23, 2004, as a result of the renovation, a 10-member federal advisory committee unanimously recommended that Soldier Field be delisted as a National Historic Landmark. The recommendation to delist was prepared by Carol Ahlgren, an architectural historian at the National Park Service's Midwest Regional Office in Omaha, Nebraska, who was quoted in Preservation Online stating, "if we had let this stand, I believe it would have lowered the standard of National Historic Landmarks throughout the country.... If we want to keep the integrity of the program, let alone the landmarks, we really had no other recourse." The stadium lost the landmark designation on February 17, 2006.