Chicago Sports
With entries in every major professional sports league and several universities in the area, Chicago sports fans have a lot to keep them occupied. The Chicago Bears play football at Soldier Field in the Near South from warm September to frigid January. Since the baseball teams split the city in half, nothing seizes the Chicago sports consciousness like a playoff run from the Bears, who dominated the 2006 season before losing in the Super Bowl. Aspiring fans will be expected to be able to quote a minimum of two verses of the Super Bowl Shuffle from memory, tear up at the mention of Walter Payton, and provide arguments as to how Butkus, Singletary, and Urlacher represent the premier linebackers of their respective eras, with supporting evidence in the form of grunts, yells, and fists slammed on tables.
On the West Side, the Chicago Bulls play basketball at the United Center. After a few miserable years, the Bulls are in playoff form again, and while ticket prices may never reach Jordan-era mania, they're still an exciting team to watch, even if the United Center doesn't hold in noise like the old Chicago Stadium did. The Chicago Blackhawks share a building with the Bulls. As one of the "Original Six" teams in professional hockey, they have a long history in their sport, but they've been awful for years, and it's taken a toll on attendance. However, that does at least mean that visitors can pick up tickets at face value on short notice, unlike Bears and Cubs games. Both the Bulls and the Blackhawks play from the end of October to the beginning of April.
It's baseball, though, in which the tribal fury of Chicago sports is best expressed. The Chicago Cubs play at Wrigley Field on the North Side, in Lakeview, and the Chicago White Sox play at U.S. Cellular Field (Comiskey Park, underneath the corporate naming rights) on the South Side, in Bridgeport. Both stadiums are open-air, and both franchises have more than a century's worth of history. Everything else is a matter of fiercely held opinion. Both teams play 82 home games from April to the beginning of October. The two series when the teams play each other are the hottest sports tickets in Chicago during any given year. If someone offers you tickets to a game, pounce.
There are plenty of smaller leagues in the city as well, although some play their games in the suburbs. The Chicago Fire play soccer in the suburb of Bridgeview, the Chicago Rush play the more frenetic Arena version of football in Rosemont, and the Chicago Sky play women's professional basketball at the UIC Pavilion on the West Side. Minor league baseball teams dot the suburbs as well.
College graduates move to Chicago from all over the nation, so there's no real consensus on which teams are favored in town. Michigan fans are among the most plentiful, but there are bars dedicated to other schools like Penn State across the city. Locally, Northwestern football (in Evanston) and DePaul basketball (on the North Side) show occasional signs of life, and the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana is usually competitive. The University of Illinois at Chicago on the West Side tends to have one of the best college hockey teams in the country. If you find yourself in Hyde Park, ask someone how the University of Chicago football team is doing - it's a surefire conversation starter.