Chicago Bears

Location

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Capacity

62,500

Opened

1924

Time zone

UTC -06:00 Central Standard Time (CST)

Soldier Field is an American football and soccer stadium located in the Near South Side of Chicago, Illinois, near Downtown Chicago. It opened in 1924 and is the home field of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL), who moved there in 1971, and Chicago Fire FC of Major League Soccer (MLS). It has a football capacity of 61,500, and it is the oldest stadium in the NFL. The stadium's interior was rebuilt as part of a major renovation project in 2002, which modernized the facility but lowered seating capacity, while also causing it to be delisted as a National Historic Landmark. Soldier Field has served as the home venue for a number of other sports teams in its history, including the Chicago Cardinals of the NFL, University of Notre Dame football, as well as games from the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup, and multiple CONCACAF Gold Cup championships. In 1968, it hosted the first Games of the Special Olympics. Other historic events have included large rallies with speeches, including by Amelia Earhart, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King Jr.