I don't have a problem. I'm not even GOING to the games on Saturday...yes, a rare miss for the General, on the day that the hallowed Real Madrid comes to town. I was merely pointing out as a public service to those who were going that traffic WITHIN the museum campus was going to be a mess. I've been to enough Fire home games (I've probably missed less than 10 in their existence) and lived in this town long enough to know what traffic downtown is like. My point is not that traffic was going to be bad on LSD...traffic is ALWAYS bad on LSD in the summer. My point is that traffic was going to be a mess on Museum Campus Drive and Waldron and all the other fancy named streets in the complex, because during Fire games, it's 98% Fire traffic and, using your example, during Bears games, it's 100% Bears traffic. Saturday night it will not be the case...there will be concert traffic coming in while soccer fans are going out, and it's a poor setup for two-way traffic, particularly with a lot of fans coming to the game who may not normally go to Soldier Field. And, for what it's worth, if I have to go to Wrigley, I have a parking pass at my disposal which puts me right next to the stadium, so, no, in fact, I'm not that guy. But all in all I'd rather go to the Cell.
My ticketmaster tooling says about 30-35k sold. Should be a gigantic walkup. But, I'm guessing it's doesn't reach 50k.
Good plan - but if you plan to exit the stadium to the north be aware that there is a human gridlock jam (no I'm not making this up) for people walking out of the northern gates. They funnel all of the people through one stupid gate in the fencing out onto McCormick Drive. After ManU v. Bayern last year I was in the herd of creeping bodies for 15-20 minutes trying to escape. It really sucks. My advice? Either leave a little early or exit the stadium to the south and walk over the train station footbridge at 18th street (I think) and then walk north either to Roosevelt subway station (12th st.) or just hike Mich ave back into the loop.
That's a long walk man. I did that a couple times, and I used to cross that bridge for every game. I'd probably take my chances exiting on the north side, but I haven't done it at a game with 50,000 people.
There is another way. Crush happens at the NW corner where they try to send all the walkers. Instead, head for the NE corner of the stadium on level 1. Enter the attached indoor parking lot like you are going to your mythical car. Past the elevators, enter the staircase on the right, go down, and you can exit to the walkway on the east side of the stadium, near the north end. From there, you can head north and avoid the crush.
Also, turns out my worrying was for naught. Heard on 780 today that they won't allow concert parking at SF and they're going to direct those people to the Monroe Garage. So that additional headache has been avoided....mercifully.
I did a ticketmaster.com thing and there are plenty of good seats available. In the lower bowl (100) and the 300 sections. So, I would guess an attendance of about 37,500. If that's true, it would be very disappointing. To see Madrid with their great stars play Chivas with the pub in today's Trib. If you're a soccer fan and you're not there, something is very wrong. I know the ticket prices are high, but what are soccer fans? A bunch of impoverished yahoos?
Maybe they have been burned too many times by high profile teams not playing their high profile stars. But what the heck, I'll give them my money again.
I have done ticketmaster.com thing few minutes ago and if you choose: - Additional: Real Madrid fans Then, there aren't available tickets between 40$-55$ and you only can buy 75$-125$ ticket in the 300 sections. It means that half of the stadium (Real madrid fans sections) will be close to the sold out. On the contrary, if you choose: - Additional: Chivas fans You still can buy tickets of any price and section. So, i think that around 70-80% of the tickets of the game will be sold. And the game can be close to sold out, if Real Madrid fans that can't buy tickets in their section begins to buy tickets in chivas section, and if chivas fans buy a lot of tickets in stadium tickets offices today.
Well, there were about 4,000 people at Soldier Field for the Real practice. Oh, and I happen to catch Real as they were exiting City Hall. There were about 150+ waiting for them as they left the press conference. Maybe three or four cops to help with crowd control. All were extremely nice, particularily Beckham. He took extra time for pictures and autographs.