This morning, the Chicago Bears canceled the “open” part of practice due to inclement weather, and fans were sent home. It was raining, and there was lightning in the area, so they began practice indoors at the Walter Payton Center. The decision wasn’t made until well after many fans had already gathered at Hawthorn Mall, boarded buses to Lake Forest, unloaded, and lined up at the gates at Halas Hall.
Today’s theme was Kids Day, and the Bears had plenty of kid-friendly activities, entertainment, and experiences
planned around the facility. It’s unfortunate, especially for fans who traveled a long way, but the Walter Payton Center isn’t equipped to accommodate fans.
Weather-related issues have seemingly arisen every year the Bears have held training camp at Halas Hall due to the limited availability of the free tickets. It’s also why attendance numbers are nowhere near what they were when camp was at Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Illinois.
Back then, there was no cap on the number of free tickets you could get for camp, but Halas Hall has a much smaller footprint than a college. Fans want to go, but they just can’t.
Fans were pissed about being sent away today, and some turned to social media to express that, but what are the Bears supposed to do?
They can’t just let in a few dozen to watch from the viewing area above the indoor field.
They aren’t going to have fans wandering around the practice fields in the rain with nothing going on.
The Bears did give fans who couldn’t make it today a 15% discout on merchandise, so there’s that.
Yay.
My two tips for traveling to Bears camp. One: have a backup plan, because weather-related issues will happen. There are plenty of other things to do in the Chicagoland area, so make a day out of the trip. Two: never buy the free tickets from the scalping scum who scoop them up to make a quick buck because they aren’t giving refunds on free.
I was fortunate to get tickets for the first several years the camp was at Halas Hall, but the last two years, I was completely shut out by Ticketmaster. It’s an awful system for getting tickets, and I hope the Bears are having internal discussions on how to improve it.
The Bears are off tomorrow, Monday’s practice is a private community day, and then they have three open practices in a row. The pads will be on, so we’ll learn more about the trenches next week.
The Bears’ offense had the edge the first week of training camp, so if you’re buying the hype, our partners at FanDuel Sportsbook have Caleb Williams with the ninth-best odds for league MVP at +1500.
