JANUARY 2017 PM NETWORK 5
theEdge
Fans of the Chicago Cubs waited 108 years
for the Major League Baseball team to
win a World Series title. But the colossal celebration to mark the occasion was
arranged in just one day. An estimated 5
million people in Chicago, Illinois, USA
lined streets for a parade and filled a public park for a rally.
A city government project team kept
the crowd safe by leveraging lessons
learned from previous victory celebra-
tions involving the city’s National Hockey
League team and a 2008 election night
rally for President Barack Obama. Public
transportation systems added trains to
and from the city to accommodate fans
and reduce car traffic. The city required
police officers to work overtime and pull
12-hour shifts to ensure security and
crowd control. The city even dyed its
river blue to match the team’s signature
color—hiring the same company that
changes the river to green each year during St. Patrick’s Day holiday celebrations.
Celebration of the Century
PROJECT:
Chicago Cubs victory
celebration
LOCATION:
Chicago, Illinois, USA
ATTENDANCE:
5 million (estimated)
WOW FACTOR:
The seventh-largest
gathering in human history
was coordinated in one day.
“Every time we
do these types
of [victory
celebration]
events, we
learn a little
something extra.
We always build
on to it.”
—Eddie Johnson, Chicago
police chief, Chicago, Illinois,
USA, to WGN TV
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