Imagine

The announced attendance for last night’s Bears-Patriots’ game at Soldier Field was 60,520, which looked to be full house to me. Fans wore their Mike Ditka tribute outfits and/or mustaches and had plenty to cheer about in a 30-24 Bears’ win. Long story short, they’re a good team if Caleb Williams is under center. I wonder what the McCaskeys were thinking when TV cameras showed the crowd. Correct me if I’m wrong, but there were also plenty of shots of the nearby Chicago skyline. Talk about picture-perfect. Does any of that happen with a Bears’ stadium in Arlington Heights or, perish the thought, Hammond? It would be nice to know how many traffic accidents are the result of Bears’ games. Consider what tailgating plus three hours of drinking inside Soldier Field will do to a person. I would like to see projections for the number of accidents with a stadium in Arlington or Hammond vs. Chicago. If the Bears have those numbers, they’re not sharing them, and they should. My guess is either alternative site will have more accidents because access to public transportation will be lower. Right now, fans can either walk from Soldier Field or take an Uber downtown; from there, they can take the subway or Metra home. Arlington and Hammond might each have one rail line, but that’s about it. All those fans who made it home last night, would they driving from Hammond (oh, what skyline shots there would have been, of the steel mills and refineries)? My experience driving home from Valparaiso University after visits to Clare was white-knuckling it until we crossed over into Illinois. Interstate 80 or 90? Pick your poison, and I don’t drink. What did Jonie Mitchell sing, that you don’t know what you got till it’s gone? Last night, Soldier Field looked as close to paradise as Bears’ fans will ever get.