Thread: Brian Urlacher rips Soldier Field turf

Originally Posted by soulman

As much as I loved watching games at Lameblow I hated games at Soldier Field. One of our vendors had season tickets around the 15 yard line on the East side and even at 30 rows up or so you were farther from the field than the top row in Lameblow. That flat pitch to the seating area and the space between the stands and the sidelines was terrible.

All the history in the world wasn't worth paying today's prices for that type of seating. Besides, Wrigley Field has as much or more history than Soldier Field anyway.

I bet Notre Dame Stadium doesn't have that good of seats either since it sort of flattens out as it reaches toward the top, am I right DB. It isn't a tiered stadium like, say, most NFL stadiums or stadiums like Beaver Stadium, Ohio Stadium, and Neyland Stadium are at the college level. I don't know what old Soldier Field was like and I only know what it's like through the experiences of you guys here on the forum. That being said, I'll take your word for it and agree that the stadium was not well engineered when it first was built back in the 1920s/30s.

Originally Posted by Dagan81

I bet Notre Dame Stadium doesn't have that good of seats either since it sort of flattens out as it reaches toward the top, am I right DB. It isn't a tiered stadium like, say, most NFL stadiums or stadiums like Beaver Stadium, Ohio Stadium, and Neyland Stadium are at the college level. I don't know what old Soldier Field was like and I only know what it's like through the experiences of you guys here on the forum. That being said, I'll take your word for it and agree that the stadium was not well engineered when it first was built back in the 1920s/30s.

Most of the old stadiums were built as single level bowls where seating sprawled over a large area most of which was a good distance from the field. Soldier Field was no different in that respect and another great example is the LA Colosseum and of course the Rose Bowl. It was built long before pro football dominated sports and college teams were in their hey day. It was also built as a multi-purpose stadium and could originally seat as many as 100,000 spectators.

Over the years it's played host to many high school and college football games, soccer games, championship boxing matches, track and field events, hot rod racing, and rock concerts as well as being the home of the Bears since 1971. When the Bears arrived the seating in the north endzone was cut off and replaced by bleachers that were installed closer to the field so in essence the team played and fans seated in only the south portion of the stadium.

Here's a good place to read about it's history; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldier_Field

I still think there had to have been a way that Soldier Field could have been largely preserved while still upgrading the structure of the end zone seats and the concourses with regards to bathroom and concession facilities. The structure was so beautiful, and I think that the area across from the Greco-Roman columns could have been the site that was upgraded, as well as the end zone seats as I previously mentioned.

Originally Posted by Dagan81

I still think there had to have been a way that Soldier Field could have been largely preserved while still upgrading the structure of the end zone seats and the concourses with regards to bathroom and concession facilities. The structure was so beautiful, and I think that the area across from the Greco-Roman columns could have been the site that was upgraded, as well as the end zone seats as I previously mentioned.

Not and turn it into a modern football stadium with seating, views and ammenties commensurate with what other teams have Dags. To begin with it was a bowl. You entered at the top of the Stadium and the seating and playing field were below you. In order to preserve that they would have had to excavate and build downward, not upward. It would have been a subterranean stadium and I don't think that would have gone over well with the league.

I'm just happy that they were able to preserve some of the old architecture and keep the site. How many other teams besides the Packers can say that? Many other stadiums are built on some suburban site far from the downtown of the city the team represents. That lakefront location is beautiful even though the winds and weather can be treacherous late in the year. I think they did the best they could with what they had to work with and what needed to be done. Now if they could just do the same with the playing surface.

Yeah, the playing surface is deplorable.