Football at Wrigley Field? Those of us old enough can remember the Chicago Bears playing next to the winter-dead ivy, with Gale Sayers romping for touchdowns next to the outfield bleachers. And in 2010, a college game between Northwestern and Illinois took place, but the teams could only rush toward one end zone because the full field didn’t quite fit.
But now thanks to some recent stadium renovations that included making the Cubs’ dugout and some third-base seats moveable, football can fit comfortably again in the Friendly Confines.
Stadium Tech Report field scout Lisa Farrell was on hand last weekend with some family and friends, watching the Northwestern Wildcats take on the Purdue Boilermakers in a Big Ten matchup at Wrigley Field. Here are some notes from Farrell’s visit to the game, which she said used concessions operations from the Cubs instead of trying to bring in a temporary operation. Ticketing was through the MLB Ballpark app.
For entry, Farrell said the Cubs’ use of the new Evolv weapons detector systems made getting into the park a much faster process than previous Cubs games.
“A few years ago when [the Cubs] started the digital ticket process, access to the internet either through Wi-Fi or cell service was pretty awful and held up the entry process,” Farrell said. “But they have improved connectivity [near the gates] and now entering the park is a breeze. Works very well since they no longer require fans to empty their pockets of keys and phone. Just walk right through.”
According to Farrell the stadium still has walk-around concessions vendors, but they now use handheld credit-card readers to bypass having to handle cash. And while the stadium (like many others) bills itself as “cash-free,” Farrell said “when my son went for a hot chocolate, they very gladly took his cash at the concession stand. No surprise there!”
Wrigley’s iconic manual scoreboard, Farrell said, didn’t have any problems adjusting to football. “The scoreboard was pretty interesting. They had the other Big Ten games on the board and updated scores. Like baseball, you had to do the math across the quarters to get the score. That got a little challenging with the Ohio State game.”
Though Northwestern lost the game to Purdue, and there were some complaints from players about field conditions, overall Farrell said it was a great time for fans. And Farrell also said the stadium entertainment crew didn’t forget where they were. “At the end of the third quarter, we had the third quarter stretch,” Farrell said “The organist was there and played Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
