Blackhawks Fans Swarm Loop Ahead Of Parade And Rally
By Rachel Cromidas in News on Jun 18, 2015 3:00PM
Blackhawks fans who managed to score tickets to the Stanley Cup victory rally in Soldier Field this morning are already beginning to gather there ahead of the 10 a.m. parade. Meanwhile, hundreds of fans are swarming the Loop preparing to do what we apparently do every victory year— celebrate the hell out of a hard-earned win, get drunk on a weekday morning, trash the city center and chant incomprehensibly.
The latest of the ever-changing chants, heard from a window overlooking Madison Street at our downtown outpost of Chicagoist as the crowd heads east from the Loop CTA stations, is "U.S.A., U.S.A."—patriotic, but not really appropriate unless Tampa is seceding from the union in shame?
If the crowd has a good time today, they'll have David Kennedy to thank. According to DNAinfo, Kennedy was in charge of planning the celebration, from Monday night to now, and scrambled to find a new rally venue when Grant Park got rained out:
“I hate to say that it was the perfect storm, but …” Kennedy said, pausing for dramatic effect, “Soldier Field was in transition from the electronic music concert over the weekend and a soccer match next month. So, we had to make a pretty quick decision.”After all, this party has a short expiration date.
“I wish I had a couple weeks. It’s just an incredible time crunch and a lot of pressure to pull it off quickly,” Kennedy said. “The players want to get home to their families. I think [Brent] Seabrook’s wife has a C-section planned for Friday. The Cup stays in town for only so long and then it goes. … It’s not a fun rally without the Cup.”