Good morning, Bears fans!
We’re less than three weeks out from the start of training camp and hopefully you were able to secure some tickets during Wednesday’s release.
If you didn’t, this edition of the newsletter should particularly resonate with you.
Fixing The Camp Problem
(Kevin Kaduk/Bears By 7)
For the second straight year, I was lucky enough to get training camp tickets.
As far as I can tell, the secret to securing a set is:
Be on time. This is far from a guarantee, but even being a minute or two late can seal your fate.
Don’t use multiple devices. Ticketmaster tells you not to and I believe our monopolistic overlord. A few people posted on Twitter they were logged into 10 devices and still got shut out. I’m not saying that was the sole problem, but …
Pick a weekday. The farther into camp, the better. I recognize not everyone has the luxury of getting those days off, but it seems getting in a queue for the early weekend practices is a recipe for even more disappointment.
That’s how I secured a set of tickets for Thursday, August 6 … and yet I have to think there was still a lot of luck involved. I got hit with an “error loading page” four times and thought I was cooked before the confirmation somehow loaded on the fifth try.
That luck is the only thing separating me from being one of the many lamenting being shut out on social media. Bottom line: There are too many Bears fans who want to attend training camp and not enough room around the Halas Hall practice fields. It’s been an issue since they moved the practices back to Lake Forest from Bourbonnais in 2021 and it’ll only get worse if the Bears continue being contenders.
It’s a problem the Bears should care about.
Training camp is the only way a large portion of the fanbase can get access to our favorite team. Soldier Field is the smallest stadium in the NFL and even if you can get tickets, taking a family to just one game can equal a mortgage payment … or more.
It’s not an expense many can afford and one of the great things about the Bears is that a trip to Platteville or Bourbonnais and now Lake Forest has always been free.
And it’s a truly great experience! Hope runs high, you get closer to the players than you do sitting high above Lake Shore Drive and it’s a more family-friendly atmosphere than a regular game.
The Bears also never lose.
I credit last year’s trip as the visit that truly unlocked my daughters’ fandom (though the ensuing season certainly helped). They loved the kids activities in the Walter Payton Center, saw Caleb Williams up close and collected a half-dozen autographs after practice. We got home and they immediately asked when they could go again.
Training camp is an experience that makes new Bears fans and keeps the fire alive in old ones, no matter the previous year’s result. My aunt and uncle had a running list of the players that were great to them during their visits to Bourbonnais. (Shoutout to Roberto Garza, Danieal Manning, Cedric Benson and Robbie Gould.)
I know the Bears see the value of training camp because they do a great job with it, even if the scale has been reduced at Halas. They hand out quality giveaways, George McCaskey often welcomes fans to practice and they even have the shuttles to and from the mall down to a science.
The only problem is that fewer fans get to experience it than before.
Training camp was held at Olivet Nazarene in Bourbonnais from 2002 to 2019 and about the only thing keeping fans from attending each practice was a longish trip down I-57 and a severe lack of shade. When you see our friends suggest a return to Bourbonnais, it’s not because they miss visiting Ben Zobrist’s alma mater or drinking at Brickstone Brewery … it’s because they miss the easy access to the team.
They also miss not tearing their hair out because of Ticketmaster in early July.
A return to Bourbonnais is a non-starter after the multi-million dollar renovation of Halas Hall. Good luck getting the players to return sleeping in a college dorm, too.
So what can the team do?
I think there are two fixes here.
The new stadium development should include a practice facility capable of holding training camp. Obviously not a fix that’s happening anytime soon. And getting players down to Hammond for a fortnight-plus might be an issue. But if Arlington Heights happens, this 100 percent should happen. The racetrack land features more than enough room to do it right and the team is going to need reasons to draw fans to the development outside of the 9-10 games per year.
Start an annual Bears convention: This doesn’t do anything for the crowd that wants to see Ben Johnson coaching the latest iteration of the team. But for the crowd that wants an annual touch point with coaches, players, alumni and other fans, it makes so much sense. The Cubs have been doing it every year since 1985 and the Blackhawks had a good run with it until COVID and poor play took it out. You can’t tell me a Bears version held during a weekend when the players are in town for OTAs wouldn’t draw well. This might also have to wait until there’s a new stadium in place, but you can’t tell me the team wouldn’t welcome all the additional revenue opportunities that would come with it.
Neither of these solutions immediately fixes the fact that a lot fewer people get to see Bears training camp this year than, say, 10 years ago.
But if both were instituted, it’d not only increase camp attendance but create another way to connect with fans during the preseason.
What do you think?
Season Preview
Worth Your Time
• Courtney Cronin on why Year 2 of Ben Johnson has a different vibe with the Bears. (ESPN)
• The title of Brandon Perna’s latest video: “The Regression Police Are Here For The Bears” (That’s Good Sports)
• The Bears wouldn’t be the first NFL team in Hammond. (Defector)
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