Column: Tips for helping Chicago Bears fans get in and out of Soldier Field so they don’t miss a Justin Fields down — or miss a photo op with George McCaskey

The first Chicago Bears game with fans since 2019 went relatively smoothly Saturday afternoon at Soldier Field.

The Bears beat the Miami Dolphins, Justin Fields’ debut was a smash hit and those of us who got there early and left early were spared a few headaches.

But if you’re heading to next Saturday’s preseason game against the Buffalo Bills, here are some things you might want to know:

Transportation to Bears games is always a hassle if you don’t have parking. And who has parking? The buses at the Roosevelt Avenue station are always too crowded and move slowly through traffic, so you’re usually better off taking the 0.8-mile walk to the stadium if you have the energy.

Fortunately, we did it the old-fashioned way — “Uber in/ L out”— avoiding the inconvenience of waiting in long lines for our tickets to be scanned on our phones. The fans sitting next to us arrived in the second quarter because of traffic on DuSable Lake Shore Drive but saw most of Justin Fields and didn’t seem to mind missing the start of the Andy Dalton experience.

The rideshare and taxi dropoff is south of Soldier Field, about a 10-minute walk. But the pickup is at Balbo and Columbus, north of the stadium. According to a Bears security guard, the rideshare drivers aren’t allowed into the pickup zone until an hour after the game ends in order to ease traffic congestion leaving Soldier Field. That makes no sense.

If you really want to ease congestion, have a rideshare zone that allows fans to leave immediately after the game instead of making them hang out while surge pricing goes into effect. Instead, we made the 0.8-mile hike to the Red Line stop at Roosevelt, ignoring the pedicab drivers who charge an arm and a leg, and then crammed into a train full of mostly mask-wearing riders. Once again, load your Ventra card before the game, not after.

If you are thirsty and don’t want to pay $12 or more for a beer, a better (though outrageously priced) option is a $7 bottle of water. It has a Bears logo on it, so apparently it’s considered a souvenir. We bought a couple with the idea of refilling them at a nearby water fountain when they were empty. Unfortunately, the water fountains were turned off, apparently for COVID-19-related reasons.

One concessionaire took the caps off the bottles for us, and when we asked to keep them, she told us no. “COVID-related?” I asked. No. She said the Bears don’t allow them to give buyers caps to prevent fans from throwing full water bottles on the field. But another stand let us keep the caps. And, no, we did not throw any water bottles on the field.

If you accidentally lose your mask on the way to the stadium, you can purchase one in the Bears Pro Shop near the south end zone entrance for $15 (plus tax). We ran into Bears Chairman George McCaskey in the concourse and saw he was wearing a Bears mask, so we asked if they sold those masks anywhere in Soldier Field. He didn’t know but said it was a good idea. Nice guy and likes to take selfies with fans.

You don’t have to wear masks in the stadium but are supposed to wear them on the CTA trains and buses and in your Uber or Lyft. Though we are fully vaccinated, no one asked us to prove it while entering Soldier Field.

Ear plugs were not available in the Bears Pro Shop, though we wished they were after listening to the blaring bass lines from the nonstop music played between plays, not to mention the always-irritating Bear Raid siren. Like the Cubs owners, the Bears don’t want a moment to pass without loud noises being emitted. If you want to have a conversation with your friend about that touchdown run by Fields, you better save it for the postgame ride home.

Everyone in our seating area was justifiably thrilled by the debut of Fields and enjoyed booing Nick Foles as well. The Fields-versus-Mitch Trubisky storyline Saturday will be one to savor, even if it’s preseason. The Bears apparently underestimated the popularity of their new quarterback. The poor guys in the Bears Pro Shop were constantly forced to tell fans they had no Fields jerseys or T-shirts to sell. Get on it, George.

While a sign at the concession stand said cashless payments were “recommended,” many fans still paid with cash. One reminder for those who haven’t attended a sporting event since before the pandemic — when paying with a credit or debit card, you will be asked if you want to tip the concessionaire who handed you a hot dog and pop. The lines already were so long at halftime Saturday that many fans missed much of the third quarter. Trying to figure out a tip on a credit card reader only makes the waits longer.

If you want to know who all the new Bears players are, good luck. There were no programs available in any of the places near our section, and though the rosters are available on the Bears app, it was too bright to read the phone on a cloudless afternoon.

But we all knew who Justin Fields was, and in the end, I suppose that’s all that really matters.

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