The Worst Day at a Bears Game

Out of all the years I have worked in stadiums or events in the city, the Bears game yesterday was the worst day I have ever worked to date. Everything just got worse as the day went on. There were moments where things seemed to get better but the next bad thing would just be worse than the last one. Everything was just so unpredictable. No one saw anything coming.

The day started out better than most. My dad and I got to the stadium at about 11:30 and checked in fairly quick as usual. We got inside and got settled. Got ready for our meeting which started a little late (big surprise). During the meeting, I was told that there would be a VIP coming to the game. One of President Obama's cabinet members and his father. After our supervisor meeting, which was short, we all went to our meeting places. The special service meeting went fairly quick. There was nothing new and no adjustments that we had make. Once the gates opened, everything started smoothly. No problems, only a couple ticket issues but nothing major.

About 2 hours after the game opened, I got a call to pick someone up in the first aid station at gate 17 and bring them to their seats. The person I picked up was not drunk. What happened was that this guest required a wheelchair and as he was being pushed, the front small wheels got caught in a rubber strip that are in the ground. Those wheels stopped moving but the rest of the chair didn't. The guest ended up falling out of the chair and hitting his head on the ground. When I was bringing him up to his seat, I made sure to avoid all of the rubber strips as to be sure that the guest would not fall out of the chair a second time.

The next injury was easily worse. Mostly because there was a lot of blood. A quest was walking into the stadium tripped over a rubber "speed  bump" that line certain areas of the stadium. They are really random and im not quite sure what they are there for. When this guy tripped he had a fight with the ground and his face. The ground won obviously but the guy was ok in the end. He just had one really bad bloody nose.

The event that capped the night happened during half time. It's all over the news and you have probably heard about it already. During half time, someone committed suicide. I didn't see the guy jump. All I saw was people running over to the railing and looking over and all of the monterrey security in the area running over and pushing everyone back. I quickly ran over to where all the commotion was and looked over after one of the monterrey security guards told me what happened. When I found out what happened I was shocked. I didn't know what to do but I knew I had to do something. So I asked one of the monterrey supervisors what needed to be done. I was told to get all of the fans off of the colonnade platform and not to let anyone up. That is exactly what I did and I had almost all of the people in special services come up to the 400 level colonnades to assist. I had to call our dispatch and ask for extra people to come help assist a few times. After about 20 minutes, I had all of the special service people that were up there helping and a few of the bears fan service employees helping each take a stair case and not let anyone up onto the platform. It was a bit of a challenge at first because a couple of the guys that I had posted at a stair case kept going over to the railing to look and I had to keep telling them to get back to their spots. We were all tied up at the colonnades for a while. We were not allowed to leave until we got the ok to and they blocked the area off with crime scene tape. Everyone in special services, including myself, could've gotten stuck there for the entire night. It would've been really bad if we al got stuck there because our group was understaffed and we had a lot of pick-ups to do. Thankfully, myself and another supervisor in our group thought on our toes. We went up to the 400 grandstands and pulled ushers from the seating area and switched them out with the people in special services that were standing at the staircases.

The whole suicide experience for me had a bit of an impact on me. The rest of the day I was just in shock. I could not believe that I was right next to someone who just committed suicide. I mean, I know people that committed suicide before but this is different. I was actually in the area when the person did it. I had no idea what to do or say after I left the game. It was and has been on my mind. Today has been better but every time I think about it I get the same feeling like oh my gosh. Did that really happen? I think this might stay with me for a very very long time.

Strange Day

Today's Bears game was probably one of the strangest games I have ever worked. Most of the day was a good day but thing that made it strange was an interaction I had with a Bears fan. As I was walking around the stadium looking for people smoking, this one lady came up to me and stopped me. She started asking me questions about our smoking policy and if there was a place to smoke. This lady's husband made a comment questioning my abstinence. I promptly said that I am saving myself for marriage. The lady who started talking to me and her husband were surprised. In fact, this lady, was intrigued by my abstinence. She, evidently thought, that I would be a perfect match for her sister. I was the around the right age and had the same beliefs. I don't know how she figured that all of my beliefs were the same as her sisters. I think she was a little intoxicated. She went on for 20 minutes trying to get my number so she could give it to her sister in the hopes that one day I would come out to where they live and go on one date with her. It was a really nice thought by her to try to do this but there are a few things that would not work out. 1. she lived about an hour north east of my house. 2. and probably the most important. I don't think I'm ready for a relationship. This lady just kept trying for about 20 minutes to hook me up with her sister randomly. It was absolutely the strangest day I've had at soldier field.

Chicago Bears game 1-6

Some of you know, perhaps many of you, but for those who don't know. I work with the Chicago Bears. To answer your question, no I can not get you tickets at discounted price or for free. I can't get tickets at a discount price for myself. I work for a company call S3 (Safety Service Systems). They are a security company that provides fan security/ushering for sporting events, fan security for concerts and other events in the city and in some of the suburbs, i.e. Naperville Rib Fest. During the Bears games, I work in a special unit that pushes wheelchairs around the stadium. As a supervisor in the unit, I tend to be very busy and am very lucky to see any of the game. The first game of the season was a very long frustrating game. There are about, on average, 17 new people that I have to train. I have to train the how to use the wheelchairs, the proper way to push someone through a door, in and out of an elevator, down a ramp how to get from a gate to any seat in the stadium, and how to work the raios, and when to begin to talk. I have to train around 17 people how to do all those things and more in about 15 minutes which is no easy task. Yet, somehow, I manage to do it, not perfectly, but I get the job done.

The first few games of the season, I pretty much spend most of my time going around to everyone in my group, and check up on them. Making sure they're doing what they are supposed to be. Making sure they know how to get to certain sections from a particular gate, they know how to work the radios, they are being polite and proactive. After making sure that everyone is doing ok, I have some down time so I go around and issue what we call, "smoking tickets." They are not actual tickets but are warnings. What they mean is, that if the person gets caught smoking a second time they will be asked to leave the stadium. Almost every game I work, I have at least one ejection because someone either has been caught smoking a second time or because they won't give me their ticket. In any stadium, if you are asked for your ticket, you are required to show it. Anyways, in the Special Services Unit, the group im a part of, we have a little game that we like to play sometimes. It's pretty simple but the basic idea is to get the most smoking tickets. 85% of the time I win but not always by much. The experienced people in Special Services are very good at what they do. I give them all a lot of credit.

2 home games ago, a guest, who I believe was under the influence of most likely alcohol, got extremely upset. I was walking around doing smoking tickets when I saw this guest yelling at a couple of the guys in my people. I went over to check out what was going on and it turned out that he got caught smoking and was trying to get his ticket back. Unfortunately for him, and everyone else who gets caught, we are supposed to pocket their ticket and give them the smoking ticket. We put their seat location on the smoking ticket so they can get back to their seats. Anyways, I went over to the guest to try to calm him down. I calmly asked him to calm down and told him that we cannot give him the ticket back because of the stadium policy set by George McCaskey. This guest started going ballistic. He started yelling at him and I kept asking him to calm down. Then it all broke down. He got real close to my face and said, "you'll be lucky if I dont find you outside after the game."

Thankfully for me, a couple Monterey Security guards were walking by. I called out to them and waved them over. I told him that the guest needed to be taken out of the stadium immediately. A few of the bears staff were walking by and saw what was going on. They stopped by to help out. So I had about 6 people surrounding this guest. During all this, the guest wanted to ask me something. He asked me if he could ask me a question and I promptly responded "No. Absolutely not." and then I told monterey to take the guest out. I should've told them to arrest him and that I wanted to press charges against him but it was already bad enough for him that he was going to be leaving the game early so I left it at that. Finally, after of a half hour of dealing with this guest and monterey, the guest was taken out of the stadium and I went back to work.

That night just ended roughly. There was just a lot of drama and annoyances from new people using the radio. I just wanted to go home as soon as that game was over and go to bed which is exactly what I did that night. haha.