Wrigley Field hosted hundreds of football games between 1920, when the NFL first used it, and 1970, when the Chicago Bears moved to Soldier Field. Now some folks in Chicago are proposing that football return to the Friendly Confines.
Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune reports that the Cubs and Northwestern are looking into a proposal that would put Northwestern's 2010 home game against Illinois at Wrigley. It appears that the school and the Cubs are both on board, as long as two questions can be answered: Does it make sense financially? And is there enough space for a football field?
All indications are that the answer to the first question is a big yes. The novelty of seeing football at Wrigley would make it easy to sell 45,000 tickets to the game, probably at prices significantly higher than Northwestern usually charges. The last two times Northwestern hosted Illinois, it drew less than 35,000 paying customers.
The second question is tougher. Wrigley has been renovated since the Bears left, and there's now barely enough room for a 360-foot by 160-foot rectangle. As currently conceived, the field wouldn't be safe because the playing field would be dangerously close to Wrigley's brick walls.
From my own perspective, as an Illinois graduate who lives a 10-minute walk away from Wrigley Field, I say they've got to find a way to make it happen, even if it means temporarily taking down some of those walls. A Northwestern-Illinois game at Wrigley would be great for both schools, and for college football.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Breaking down walls in Chicago? Yes, we can.
Why is a CA flag hanging in front? Is it because they were against the Dodgers and they do that for whatever team is in town or what...