Limited seating at Stanley Cup rally venue upsets Blackhawks fans

Chicago Blackhawks fans are not exactly thrilled with the decision to hold the team's Stanley Cup rally at Soldier Field.

That’s because it’ll be next to impossible for many to actually attend according to a story in the Chicago Tribune.

Fans swamped Ticketmaster on Wednesday for free tickets to the Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup celebration at Soldier Field, creating "higher traffic than usual" and wait times of up to 30 minutes.

The tickets were made available to the public for free at noon, but the relatively modest size of the venue — one of the smallest football stadiums in the NFL — meant many fans most likely would be denied tickets. 

The decision to hold the rally at Soldier Field confused many team supporters. The Cup parade in 2010 drew a reported 2 million people. The 2013 parade apparently had a slightly higher attendance.

The 2010 parade finished with a rally on the Chicago River. The rally for the 2013 parade was held in Chicago’s Grant Park.

Both weren't possible per CBS Chicago:

However, several blocks of Washington Street downtown are under heavy construction, so it would seem likely some changes will be needed for the parade.

With all the rain on Monday, Grant Park wasn’t a good option for the rally, as the grass, would be too water-logged to allow that many people to trample the lawns Thursday.

Soldier Field holds just 61,500 people and has negative Jay Cutler-related memories. When I think of the newly renovated Soldier Field, Cutler’s mopey face suddenly appears in my brain.

Anyway this has also created a haven for scalpers per the Tribune.

Within five minutes of tickets going on sale, scalpers were offering rally tickets on Craigslist for up to $100 apiece. One user wrote "I have 4 tickets for the Blackhawks Rally at Soldier Field tomorrow. Best Offer by 4:00 pm takes them." Tickets were not immediately available on StubHub or eBay.

Hawks fans should at very least be used to ticket policies preventing them from getting into sporting events. But not with their own team.

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UPDATE: It appears this issue has caused some changes to the parade plan, via ABC 7:

The city has doubled the length of the Blackhawks parade route and added TVs outside Soldier Field after free tickets to the rally at Soldier Field sold out and scalpers began selling the tickets online.

And said Mayor Rahm Emanuel in the piece:

"We've extended the parade so that more people can be along the parade route. We've found a venue and also the screens that we're going to have so that people both in and out can appreciate the event."

If Rahm says it can be done, it will be done. Woohoo, now more fans can partake in the fun rather than just those who were lucky enough to get a ticket.

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper

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