… We had the roof going over there and we called those tennis courts. “Our scheme had a roof that slid over to … the extra amount of space at Soldier Field on the north side. That was a requirement of McCaskey,” Smith said. It could be covered when games were played in bad weather … and let sun in during times when they were growing grass.
“We presented a plan to preserve the architecture of Soldier Field and cover the seating and the field with a movable roof. Smith submitted his own plan to renovate Soldier Field before then-Bears President Michael McCaskey chose Boston’s Ben Wood to quarterback the stadium renovation in partnership with Lohan. If you put a roof on it, you would have three different structures,” Lohan has said. And then, we have a modern seating shell surrounding the playing field. The old classical building with colonnades. “It’s already a mixture of two buildings. Lohan has acknowledged “anything is possible for money,” but it won’t “come easy.” Soldier Field is simply “not laid out to receive a roof.” A retractable roof would be difficult, requiring a new support structure. Two architects who worked on the 2002-03 renovation and a structural engineer familiar with the project also have told the Sun-Times the mayor’s hands may be tied by the constraints of the existing structure.Ĭhicago architects Dirk Lohan and Adrian Smith said the current 61,500 capacity - the NFL’s smallest - can be expanded only a little, and only in the end zones. He has argued only a new, preferably domed, stadium - either in parking lots next to Soldier Field or in place of McCormick Place East - will keep the Bears in Chicago.
Sports marketing expert Marc Ganis has advised numerous NFL teams on stadium financing. “Beyond naming rights for the stadium itself, there are many other potential ancillary naming opportunities that should be considered to help offset the cost of renovations.” Nevertheless, the report notes, “even relatively modest modifications” to Soldier Field would “incur significant costs” and that a “large portion of these updates” could be bankrolled by selling naming rights in a respectful way.Ĭiting, among other examples, VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla., the report notes: “A similar arrangement in Chicago would allow a sponsorship agreement to be pursued in a way that respects Soldier Field’s legacy as a war memorial by keeping Soldier in the name of the facility,” the report states. Pat Quinn, mulling a race for mayor, championed the opposition to a naming rights deal. Changing the Soldier Field name is anathema to veterans groups.
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