Most of us called the remodel, “When the space ship landed.”

When you rebuild historical building into modern building, it is no longer historical building...

This is all too common. Liverpool, UK, lost it's UNESCO World Heritage status (in part) because of a new football stadium too. But at least Soldier Field could be, in theory, undone. The iconic twin towers of Wembley stadium in London, which hosted two Olympics, a world cup final, and the famous Live Aid concert was just unceremoniously demolished.

I was in Soldier Field only once. When I was a young boy in the 1960s, my dad took me to some type of firefighter competition and demonstration. Local newsman Fahey Flynn was rescued from a burning facade during the program.

The new stadium should have been located elsewhere so the original majestic stadium would remained unmarred. Thanks for presenting this interesting historical content.

Having been a Chicagoan for the first half of my soon to be seventy-year life, I must commend the designers of this new facility for FINALLY accomplishing something which no one has been capable of in multiple generations... TO GET ALL CHICAGOANS TO AGREE ON SOMETHING!!!

I love this Channel. The topics are underrated and not well known. Every video has HOURS of Extensive Research that can only be done by a Team of Profesionnals! Really Top notch Quality! Thank you 😊

The new covered stadium proposal they just unveiled makes me laugh because, like... why didn't y'all propose something like this in the first place before you blew hundreds of millions of dollars to land a toilet bowl inside the stadium???

I think the “New Soldier Field” looks great still, if you were to put this stadium in any other market, people would love it. I get the Chicagoland’s trepidation, that’s like putting that stadium inside of the LA Coliseum, it wouldn’t be a welcoming design.

💛💛💛 Chicagofest was held there. I remember seeing the beach boys play. Circa 82? I went to Bears games in the stinky bathroom phase...yes, they were a nightmare, and COLD. There was nowhere you could go to get out of the cold except leave. The wind would come off the lake and blow through the concrete structure and without the sun's light, it would chill you to the bone. (Late 80's) We sat on stadium seats that had 2 inches of solid ice on them! Someone went out and purchased all the newspapers fron a local stand and passed them out to all in our section!!! Burrr! Fun times! When they built the space ship, it looked like a giant bed pan! It cost way too much money. Nobody liked it. The Bears destroyed Soldier Field. Now, they have destroyed Arligton Park Racetrack too. Now, they want a new stadium in the parking lot next to the old one. Remember Comiski Park? Monsters of the midway indeed..... MONSTERS.

The timing of this video is perfect. There have been discussions of rebuilding and relocating Cleveland Browns Stadium. Preliminary renderings were released just yesterday. The crazy part is the current stadium was completed only 25 years ago in 1999 which replaced the old Municipal Stadium built in 1931. Right after the original stadium closed, I remember seeing people carrying whole rows of seating out to their vehicles to keep for memorabilia. Just like in the video, there are a lot of different opinions of what should be done. I just hope the new stadium does Cleveland history justice.

The only time I was inside the stadium was during the world cup in 1994, I worked as a laborer for illiana fence installing temporary gates for the event. Love the look of that grand old structure. Not so much now unfortunately. Great video as always Mr Socash.❤️💯👍

You should do a video on the Chicago Bucket Boys! Everyone who grew up in Chicago would love the history of the Bucket boys as they have always been a classical Chicago staple.

They should make the owners of the Bears restore Soldier Field back to it's beautiful, pre-spaceship, self. They made it ugly. Now they should fix it!

The Bears played in Wrigley into the 70's. Soldier Field was almost abandoned. They used to run stock car races there in the 50's & early 60's. We saw Pink Floyd there in 1977 along with 100,00 of our closest friends. It is hideous. Great video Ryan.

As a life long, die hard Bears fan(not from Chicago) I really enjoyed this video you did a great job! thank you!

I vividly remember seeing the band Chicago playing (during the Taste of Chicago some year in the early 80s) in the old "back arena" section. Unlike the main stadium, this was an area with old rotting wooden bleachers, clearly not used for many events. The story I heard was they made the stadium too long originally, so at some point they built a new set of seating which enclosed the back area... whose seating was on the original stadium tiers.

First time I saw the current remodel, it was ugly. I drove by and then had a chance to walk around the exterior. Close up it was just as unattractive and clear that a landmark had been vandalized with the renovation. Years later, when I've visited Chicago, the stadium is still hideous. With that said, I'm sure the interior is very nice, and the facilities are as well. That exterior is a backhanded compliment to the classical facade left in place.

Great presentation. You answered questions I have had for decades. Thank you.

What a loss that the structure was not constructed as originally designed.

We in Chicago say it looks as though they landed a toilet bowl inside 'Soldier Field'. Bravo to the announcer for not saying...."Soldier's Field"..............

I love that you covered this great stadium. It's a stadium that I've wanted to visit for a long time. The trough urinals...yeah. it's best left in the past. I remember the old Winnipeg Arena had them and...ugh.

I know I was told about my parents attending a football game at Soldier Field when they were first married, which would be the mid-50s, and I could swear they told me the Bears were playing, so it's always a bit jarring for me to get reminded that they didn't move in until 1971. I can't ask them now, they're both gone, but I wonder if it was a Cardinals game? There was a thick fog and they couldn't see the playing field. As for the current iteration, it's less of an icon and more of an eyesore. Why could they not have at least tried to match or find an architectural exterior style that went with what was there already?

Us Chicago taxpayers are still paying for that 2002 renovation and the bears are out here begging us to finance another stadium for them 🤬

I went to a Blackhawks game at Chicago Stadium in the early 80s. During one intermission when we went to the restroom, there were men, more than one at a time, urinating in the sinks. Disgusting

A big part of the problem is footprint. Most modern stadiums could fit the old Soldier field inside their lower bowl. Trying to put one on a plot of land that size was never going to go well. On top of that, most of the stadiums built during that era have not aged well and need major renovations already.

I agree I couldn't believe the look when it first started to rise out of the ruins. And they want to replace it just 20 years later!!

I wouldn’t say ugly - but that flying saucer thing on top is a bit ridiculous! The one good thing is that the older parts were not demolished as so many other buildings of great antiquity are! I do think there could have been a much better design!

I would agree with one of the statements made in the video. The difference between the 2 style of the 2 designs is jarring, they are just too different to go to together! It blows my mind that these things can happen.

They should have just continued columns around the outside of the bowl so it wouldn't look as awkward.

The "PITCH"? I didn't know Chicago was in Dorset or Cornwall. My goodness, when did the city secede and rejoin the UK?

It's a shame that they didn't blend the modern features of a new stadium with the architecture of Soldier Field's historic design. When the University of Michigan added luxury suites to Michigan Stadium they designed the additions using the Intramural Sports Building and Yost Ice Arena as models. You can say the same thing about Yankee Stadium in New York City. The new Yankee Stadium looks a lot like the old one.

I agree, the 'remodel' should not have been done that way.

The Soldier Field renovation is the epitome of the old adage of “When you try to please everyone, you wind up pleasing no one.”

I hate the way it looks now. I worked the traffic detail during the summer. I was stationed at the traffic light at LSD and McFetridge. Sorry if you got stuck in traffic during the early 2000’s.

Definitely understand people who were used to the old stadium why people including you wouldn't like this. Personally my first time visiting Chicago I walked around the outside of soldier field and thought it was really cool and unique. It had a nice mix of old and new. The area around it is really nice too where most NFL stadiums I've been to just sit the middle of a massive parking lot.

It has always looked like they landed a spaceship on Soldier Field.

I'd love to see a collaboration between Ryan and Stewart Hicks on the subject of Soldier Field.

Wrigley field managed to go through a redesign and renovation without losing any of its original look or charm. They could've easily gutted the interior and made the endzone seating look like the roman coliseum and it wouldnt have hurt its historical status

What is up with the blurred out word on the solider field picture thing. "Dedicated to the defenders of our ____?" The last word is censored for some reason.

They should have done a less destructive remodel, lived with lower capacity until somewhere like the proposed site in Arlington Heights was available, moved the Bears there, and kept Soldier Field for lower capacity events. I've never been there, but I'm considering going to the Metallica show this summer. You could say I'd get the full Bears fan experience-seeing a group-at Soldier Field-that was better in the 1980s.

"We don't have enough toilets and concession stands? What's the answer?" "We could perhaps extend the existing building to create space for the... "UFO! BOOYAH!"

I feel like they did it backwards... The attractive side faces the lake. The ugly side faces the masses.

Would love to hear about some other big parks and fields we had/have in Chicago. Like Normal Park, the Amphitheater, OG Comiskey, and Chicago Stadium

I would carefully remove the 2000s structure and restore the former pre-bear's shape I would have 10 rows and have parking underneath with event space up top. If a New Bear's stadium is built near Soldier Field fan experience and some parking. If a site outside this area gets built make a ADA compliant venue that can hold event's and get back on the National Register of Historic Places. have seating of 18k to 30k for high school football, and youth soccer along with concerts, boxing and other events.

Great video 👏🙏

There no such a thing like historical things when comes to stadium. For example the Wembley stadium in London one of the most iconic sports venues in the world was torn down, and they built a new modern stadium in the same place.

I have seen the latest structure and I love it.

When I went to the field Museum for the first time, I loved the building's classical look. The Shedd Aquarium looked great, too. Oh, look! What's that classical building over th---!!!!?!?! OMG!!!! There ARE Aliens! Then a local told me that was Soldier Field, home of the Bears... REALLY? That hideous thing? I am glad I wasn't the only one who thought aliens crashed into Soldier Field. The Bears can move, leave the original Soldier Field and turn it into a Museum or something. Or revert to its original purpose. Bears deserve a better field, maybe they will win more. Heck, I'd bet Wrigley would take them back for a few years.

The more I look at it, the more I don't understand it. The seating doesn't make sense, it reminds Me of Candlestick park. No balance, or continuity

The question now is how long the stadium will survive, with it having the smallest capacity in the NFL it becomes harder to justify keeping it around each year

My dad was fortunate to go to a game back in the early 90s before they entirely desicrated the stadium. I wish I got to go, but I had school that day and my parents never thought that I could play hooky for an afternoon. Perfect attendance or something 🤷🏼‍♀️

Hmmmmm At 12:07 what event had all the old cars driving around the field ??????

Disgraced? Maybe. Chicago as a whole is a disgrace.

Honestly never knew about the Roman artifact that was at the park. I’ll need to see it next time I go to a Fire game.

Soldiers field should have been torn down and rebuilt years ago. Unfortunately 100 years ago some politician or businessman named it soldiers field and dedicated it to the soldiers of WW1. because of this it made it onto the national landmarks list ( removed since remodeled into a spaceship) which prevented an old, outdated stadium from being torn down and rebuilt. Just tear it down and start new somewhere

I'm down for saving old historic buildings and sites, but if it's completely useless and in such disrepair, it should be upgraded. At least they saved some of the o.g. structure.

Wonder what the next complete stadium remodel will look like?

Sad some cities are broken, but many puzzles for historians to solve!

Was there any alternative designs to renovate Soldier Field? If so, where are they?

With this new proposal by the Bears to build a new stadium on the lake front what happens to Soldier Field? Do the leave the saucer in in the middle or do they remove and try to restore some of the magnificence to the structure, or will it remain the Mistake by the Lake?

Close encounters of the third kind is what my friends and i refer to it as, when we go there.

I worked events there from 2006 to 2011. It was beautiful inside. And still had gravitas. But it did not do justice to the original. They could have harmonized the new and old better

Why did the old newspaper call it "Soldiers' Field" when describing the Bears-Packers game? Was that an original accepted name?

The Fog Bowl game!

You never mentioned auto racing at soldier Field

They are currently planning a new stadium where the parking lot is now and demolishing soldier field except for the historic Pillars, Collums and exterior and making it look like a memorial park.

I’m a building engineer and big fan of architecture. I wish they did it the right way like how Notre Dame renovated there football stadium or even how University of Michigan renovated the Big House. The way the Yankees renovated old Yankee Stadium or Cubs renovating Wrigley Field. Yes, baseball stadium are held to different standards compared to football stadiums. Solider’s Field should have been held to that standard because of why it was built as memorial to all the solider’s that served in any branch of arm services. Look what the Packers did with Lambeau Field. It’s a shame that they ruined such a historical landmark. Now with new stadium proposal they try to make it look like the ruins of Roman Coliseum which is nice. Done the right way the first time the Bears wouldn’t need a new stadium

I'm not a fan of the spaceship.

Mike Ditka’s Flying Saucer

Why was the huge monument not built at the rounded end?

It may be a marvel of engineering, but I think that the addition looks tasteless and tacky.

For a city that prides itself based on its architecture Soldiers Field renovation is a disgraceful eyesore.

I moved to the other side of the train when passing by on Amtrak seeing it made me sick, I bet the original designers and builders would be against the design

I’d love to see the white Sox build a stadium with columns like soldier field. They can put it right where comiskey was and turn the other one into a parking lot.

I heard that Bears were looking to relocate to the suburbs if the Park District contract didn't give them everything they wanted.

So how come they didn't build it with the obelisk like the original design?

I honestly don't think The Bears will be able to build New Soldier Field on the parking lot next to Old Soldier Field because of the law of having no industry and buildings east of Lake Shore Drive and Friends Of The Park. It'll be the exact same situation that The Lucas Museum had when that happened and we all know what happened with that potential project. Unless the city can convince Friends Of The Park to not interfere and mind their own business I can guarantee that this won't happen. And funny thing is that within 2 miles west of Soldier Field is a great place for The Bears to build their new Stadium at but they would have to work with The White Sox to determine how to do it. There's other cities that have their football and baseball stadiums next to each other. Seattle has their football and baseball stadiums right next to each other and Arlington Texas has AT&T Park and Globe Life Field across from each other so it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for two different spots teams to build their stadiums next to each other they just need to work together. Or The Bears should respect what Arlington Heights wants and agree with what they want. I honestly don't think they'll be able to build New Soldier Field on the parking lot next to Old Soldier Field unless Friends Of The Park can be held at bay because they will do everything in their power to protect the park.

Did the owners con the city into paying for their private stadium back then too?

No mention of the most important sporting event in Chicago history? The 2010 NFC Championship game. Interesting. Of course it might have something to do with who won the game.

It might look jarring, but the views of the field are the best in nfl. The cantilevered seats and lack of luxury seats on west and east stands mean that everyone on the upper decks is about 10 meters closer to the pitch than they are in any other modern nfl stadium. Theyre even closer than in many smaller stadiums. They overhand the lower bowl by quite a bit. Its my favorite large stadium to watch fifa/football/soccer matches in the usa for that reason.

If you reference your own video on the Chicago tunnel system, you'll realize that the site of Solider Field wasn't a prairie, but an ash dump.

for the longest time following the rebuilding. the "New" Soldier Field was known more as the Tidy Bowl given it's appearance of a gigantic Toilet jammed into place inside the classical original building. given the amount of Taxpayer money used to construct it, one can understandably see the reasoning behind the uproar.

The top of the soldier field is ugly. The lower part is absolutely gorgeous! I am sad they will destroy it because of the failure of the top.

Hope for new stadium

i live in chicago and kinda hate soilder field because it is such low capacity

Before I watch: Chicago's Soldier Field is like a person wearing the skin of a corpse. It's an abomination.

I'm an EAGLES fan (GO BIRDS). Okay, Chicago is known for great architecture. Chicago deserves to have a sports facility that honors that heritage.

as of a few weeks ago ( may 2024) Chicago Park Dist is still paying on the bonds they sold for this project so it has not been paid off yet

I think Soldier Field blends the old with the modern in the best possible manner. There's no real significance to being on the national historic register. They have other structures that are old and will remain old looking forever. A modern public venue that accommodates tens of thousands of people should not be tied to a historical designation. If they want it to be historic, make it a museum.

If the Bears get their new stadium, this newer abomination should be torn down and a replica of the original field restored.

IMO the lake side with the box seats is okay, but the cantilevered bleachers looming over the iconic columns is an architectural abomination.

I would say that half of it is ugly. The side with the glass and probably suites looks awesome and it doesn't take away from the old structure. But the other side, the west end is the issue. It "overwhelms" the original structure. That should have never been acceptable.

Had they at least made it symmetrical it could look decent (though not exactly good)

20:03 Ugh, I hate those trough urinals. I remember seeing it in Wrigley Field, and I decided to wait on a regular toilet.

Looks like a UFO fell on top of a Greek temple. What a crappy remodel

Wow. KZfaq really doesn't want me to post on this topic, lol... Probably because I have nothing good to say about it...

The McCaskey’s who forced the city to build this onto an existing landmark historical landmark should have to pay to put it back the way it was, and then kick the fucking Bears out of the city and the insanity

I guess it could have been worse? They could have tried to put on a retracting roof and built it higher for more capacity.

If ya want to see how a renovation should be done, then look no further than Lambeau Field. Everything that was done to that stadium showed a continuity that had a reverence to the stadiums original architecture. Everything blends together as it should, and it's a lot bigger than Soldier Field at roughly 80,000 seats... Some Bears fans will have an emotional problem with what I just said about Green Bay's Lambeau Field, and to them I say grow up. Your stadium in Chicago is forgettable and terrible. Own it and move on. Other examples of superior stadium renovations can be visually appreciated in South Bend, Indiana regarding Notre Dame Stadium, and Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. Soldier Field's renovation displays zero regard for its original architecture which is why the "UFO" comments have endured for over 20 years. Also, it's the smallest NFL stadium at 61,500 seats, which is rather disgraceful when Lambeau Field seats almost 20,000 more fans in a small town in Green Bay Wisconsin, as compared to the NFL's third largest market in Chicago, Illinois. Hence, the level of stupidity regarding the renovated Soldier Field regarding those who designed and approved this project is amazing. And as pointed out, Soldier Field lost its Landmark status in early 2006. That was brilliant because it still takes brains to be this grossly incompetent, and the standards of what not to do has been established in this renovation project, which cost roughly 580 million dollars of taxpayer monies.....special thank you's should be extended to the always-brilliant McCaskey family and the City of Chicago for money well-spent. Hopefully a new Bears stadium will see life in the next 4-6 years, and without taxpayers being on the hook this time. I look forward to seeing Soldier Field demolished because what has been there since 2004 is something Chicago is much better off without. Chicago has some of the finest architecture in the USA. Soldier Field 2004 is not a part of that club, but that's just me.