Unspecified/General

On the Chicago lakefront just south of downtown, Soldier Field is the historic stadium best known as the home of the Chicago Bears football team. Opened in 1924 and dedicated as a memorial to American soldiers, it is the oldest stadium in the National Football League, distinguished by the row of classical Doric colonnades that ring its original structure. The stadium was conceived as a grand civic monument as much as a sports venue, its colonnaded design echoing ancient architecture, and over the decades it hosted far more than football. Enormous crowds gathered there for boxing matches, including a legendary heavyweight bout, for religious gatherings, political rallies and concerts, and it became a landmark of the city's lakefront park system. A dramatic and controversial renovation, completed in 2003, inserted a modern glass-and-steel seating bowl within the historic colonnades, a clash of old and new that cost the stadium its status as a National Historic Landmark but gave it up-to-date facilities. The current configuration seats roughly 61,500, one of the smaller capacities in the league, and the Bears have called it home since the early 1970s. Set within a lakefront park beside the Museum Campus, the stadium enjoys a striking setting against the skyline and the lake. For visitors the stadium is principally an events venue, hosting Bears games, major concerts and soccer matches, with tickets sold by event. Its lakefront location places it beside the Field Museum and the other Museum Campus institutions, easily reached by transit and on foot from downtown, and the surrounding parkland offers open space and skyline views on event days and beyond. The clash between the surviving classical colonnades and the modern bowl dropped inside them remains one of the most debated pieces of architecture in the city, admired and derided in equal measure. On game days a sea of fans fills the lakefront park, and the stadium's long history of boxing bouts, papal masses and stadium concerts means generations of residents carry a memory of some great event held within its walls, well beyond the football for which it is best known.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: 1410 Special Olympics Dr, Chicago, IL, United States

Website: https://www.soldierfield.com

Capacity: 61500

Opening Date: 01/01/1924