[HopHead Ram]

Just drove past there last Saturday as I was heading to Normal Heights to adopt a rescue. I spent a lot of time at that Stadium. As an Aztec, as a Padres Fan, To watch NFL games, Holiday Bowls and countless other events. Saw Pink Floyd there, Saw Rolling Stones there.

Kinda surreal to see it come down. It was a shithole but it was my shithole for over a decade when I lived in San Diego (Shout out to OB!) from 1988 to 2000.

[Elvis]

I saw the Rams play the Chargers there in a 2001 preseason game, pretty sure that's the only time i've been...

[St. Loser Fan]

Just drove past there last Saturday as I was heading to Normal Heights to adopt a rescue. I spent a lot of time at that Stadium. As an Aztec, as a Padres Fan, To watch NFL games, Holiday Bowls and countless other events. Saw Pink Floyd there, Saw Rolling Stones there.

Kinda surreal to see it come down. It was a shithole but it was my shithole for over a decade when I lived in San Diego (Shout out to OB!) from 1988 to 2000.

I saw Pink Floyd at the RCA Dome in 1987. Had nosebleed seats and because of the air supported roof, the place was one giant hot box.

[RedAlice]

Just drove past there last Saturday as I was heading to Normal Heights to adopt a rescue. I spent a lot of time at that Stadium. As an Aztec, as a Padres Fan, To watch NFL games, Holiday Bowls and countless other events. Saw Pink Floyd there, Saw Rolling Stones there.

Kinda surreal to see it come down. It was a shithole but it was my shithole for over a decade when I lived in San Diego (Shout out to OB!) from 1988 to 2000.

I was an Aztec too. Spent a lot of time at that stadium as well. I liked going to Charger games, even tho only saw the Rams play there once.

I also moved there in 1988. Left in 2019.

[St. Loser Fan]

Rumblings that Arsenal might be for sale

https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/ ... e-19895852

[snackdaddy]

I'll take who gives a rats ass for $200.00 Alex.

This. Soccer is the most boring sport I've ever attempted to watch. I've equated soccer to being married. A whole lot of work and not much scoring.

[Rams1PlateSince1976]

That's about right snack (imo). Watching soccer makes watching golf exciting.

[PARAM]

A look down the list and you'll find Soldier Field, not that it's always been an NFL venue, is currently the oldest NFL venue in terms of when it was built and opened. It's been refurbished a time or two. As a long time NFL fan, I'm embarrassed to admit, I thought the Bears always played there. It opened in 1924 and cost 13 million, compared to the L.A. Coliseum (1 mil in 1923) but the Bears didn't move there until 1971. The next oldest venue is Lambeau Field and though it's old, it's Green Bay and not the city of Chicago, the 3rd largest city in the U.S..

From Wikipedia:

Soldier Field was used as a site for many sporting events and exhibitions. The Chicago Cardinals used it as their home field for their final season in Chicago in 1959. Almost two decades later in September 1971, the Chicago Bears moved in, originally with a three-year commitment. They previously played at Wrigley Field, best known as the home of the Chicago Cubs baseball team, but were forced to move to a larger venue due to post-AFL–NFL merger policies requiring that stadium capacities seat over 50,000 spectators. They had intended to build a stadium in Arlington Heights. 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 through 1987, replaced with natural grass in 1988.

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, Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley proposed that the Bears share Comiskey Park with the Chicago White Sox.

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 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, 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 at the expense of seating capacity. The goal of this renovation was to move the fans closer to the field. The front row 50-yard line seats were then now only 55 feet (17 m) away from the sidelines, the shortest distance of all NFL stadiums, until MetLife Stadium opened in 2010, with a distance of 46 feet (14 m).

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 the Boston-based architecture firm Wood + Zapata. Stadium grounds were reconfigured by Chicago-based architecture firm of Lohan Associate, led by architect Dirk Lohan, the grandson of architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The stadium's interior would be demolished and reconstructed while the exterior would be preserved. This is an example of facadism. A similar endeavor of constructing a new stadium within the confines of an historic stadium's exterior was completed in Leipzig, Germany's Red Bull Arena, which similarly built a modern stadium while preserving the exterior of the original Zentralstadion. Fans and radio hosts such as WSCR's Mike North criticized the small seating capacity of the new venue, and fans for years have criticized the Park District's lack of care to the field surface after the first seasonal freeze and a refusal to consider a new-generation artificial surface, leaving the team to play on dead grass.

On January 19, 2002, the night of the Bears' playoff loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, demolition was begun as tailgate fires still burned in the trash cans in the parking lots. 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 glory seasons, especially 1985, along with some retired players picked up their seats in the South Parking lot.

The foremen on the job were Grant Wedding, who himself installed the seats in 1979, and Mark Wretschko, who was an executive for the factory who made the new seats.

Dozens of articles by writers and columnists attacked the project as an aesthetic, political, and financial nightmare. The project received mixed reviews within the architecture community, including criticism by civic and preservation groups. Prominent American architect and Chicagoan Stanley Tigerman called it "a fiasco". The Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin dubbed it the "Eyesore on the Lake Shore". The renovation was described by some as "a spaceship landed on the stadium". Lohan responded,

"I would never say that Soldier Field is an architectural landmark. Nobody has copied it; nobody has learned from it. People like it for nostalgic reasons. They remember the games and parades and tractor pulls and veterans' affairs they've seen there over the years. I wouldn't do this if it were the Parthenon. But this isn't the Parthenon."

Proponents argued the renovation was direly needed citing aging and cramped facilities. The New York Times ranked the renovated Soldier Field as 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.

On September 23, 2004, as a result of the 2003 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, architectural historian at the National Park Service's Midwest Regional Office in Omaha, Nebraska. Ahlgren was quoted in Preservation Online as stating that "if we had let this stand, I believe it would have lowered the standard of National Historic Landmarks throughout the country", and, "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.

Here's an article by Adam Hoge of NBC Sports Chicago about Arlington Park Racetrack being put up for sale and how it could serve as a "Sofi-like" complex for the Bears.

[St. Loser Fan]

There’s already a thread down the page with pretty much the same title and subject.

viewtopic.php?t=11180&start=80

But I’d gently dispute calling Soldier Field old as what’s there is an almost entirely new stadium. All they kept was the outer walls and built an entirely new stadium inside the old facade. The only time you touch the old Soldier Field is entering and leaving the stadium through the gates.

[St. Loser Fan]

That's about right snack (imo). Watching soccer makes watching golf exciting.

Maybe Stan figured that out.