You Shouda Made the Trip!

[Section 310]

If you have never been to an away game make it a priority to get to one! It is great to see other die hard Bengal fans at tailgate parties and cheering in the stands. There were a couple of busloads of people we ran into near the aquarium.

Yesterday there were probably a thousand or so in the stadium. It is great to cheer for your team while getting pelted by peanuts. Most of the Bears fans were good natured...only a couple with big, obnoxious mouths. The guys we sat next to were very complimentary of the team and shocked by the performance of the defense.

Near the end of the game the fans congregated at the visitors tunnel. Palmer, Myles, CJ, and others gave high fives and tossed gloves, etc. to kids in the stands.

After the game we hit a sports bar north of the river. There were a bunch of other fans there as well.

Even on the flight home, there were 10-12 fans, all with smiles on their faces...WHO DEY?!?

[ShulaSteakhouse]

Yeah I was up there and Bengals' fans were everywhere, on the way home, on the way up, at the hotel, and at the stadium.

Now Chicago fans know we have our own little language (Who Dey) and are probably wondering what the hell is wrong with us.

The Bears' fans around us were very cool and were very tolerant of our cheering. They knew this was our year and what we have been through, so I think opposing fans get a kick out of it. I felt sorry for them as it was so wet and miserable half the time and their team were never really in the game. And when they did finally score and got excited, Palmer shut them up with a CJ bomb to seal things a few minutes later....that was classic to hear a whole sold out stadium go silent.

Chicago's a fun city, love going up there.

[Bengalbob]

I was there too and it really was awesome! I was shocked to see the Bengal numbers in the stands and around the stadium. It felt like one out of four people were in orange and black. By the end of the game I think we had them out numbered and the stadium and surrounding areas rang with chants of Who Dey!

My biggest impression of the experience there was that their game experience kind of sucked. No cheerleaders, bad music, stupid drum band, terrible graphics on their Jumbotrons, and almost no updates on other games. Also, because the new stadium is built within the confines of the old stadium, the upper decks (where I sat) were extremely steep and the concourses under the stands were really narrow. The other goofy thing was that the cans were all the way down on the bottom level. All around much less satisfying experience compared to PBS.

Thoughts from others in attendance?

[Section 310]

Funny you should mention the bathrooms....we were absolutely shocked to see that there was only one bathroom for the entire 200 level of the endzone...better yet, the bathroom had only 18 or so pissers. The line at halftime was about 150 deep.

We also laughed because some of the schedule magnets you could get at the stadium had us listed as the Cincinatti Bengals....don't you think somebody would use spellcheck before running 50,000 magnets??

Overall I thought the stadium was pretty cool, but the lack of updates was a definite problem.

One other thing I thought was funny involved a crowd chant. Anytime the announcer said "timeout" there was a brief pause in which the crowd would yell "where?" followed by the announcer saying "on the field." Goofy, but unique to Soldier Field.

[Stripes]

Sounds like a good time. I've never been to a road game before, I'd love to try as soon as next year. Something close, like Cleveland maybe...

[DC_Bengals_Fan]

We also laughed because some of the schedule magnets you could get at the stadium had us listed as the Cincinatti Bengals....don't you think somebody would use spellcheck before running 50,000 magnets??

That's funny, I recall Tom Browning wearing a jersey one time spelled the same way. Can't remember why his was different than everyone else's, must have trashed all his or something.