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There was only time I ever felt uncomfortable around Wrigley Field and that was at the Taco Bell. I thought shit was about to go down between two guys, so my friend and I just eased our way out the front door. Other than that and nothing even happened that time, it’s been pretty chill hanging around Wrigleyville on game day or game nights. But apparently there’s a lot more shit going on.
Deadspin looked at the number of 911 calls in major cities across the country to see if there were any correlations between those going up or down when certain teams were on the road or playing at home.
It turns out that 911 calls skyrocket in Wrigleyville when the Cubs are playing at home.
Via Deadspin.
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To start with, we gathered public data on the number of 911 calls made in 11 of the biggest U.S. cities over the last few years. This includes incidents that might never prompt a police report, like car accidents or assaults where no one was injured—the type of small emergency common on game day, and often dispersed by police without filing any charges. Then we looked to see if there was an increase in calls on nights or days when a city hosted an NFL, MLB, NHL, or NBA game. (Unfortunately, we could only find 11 major cities that make their 911 call data readily available.) For every city and team combination, we averaged the number of 911 calls made when the team plays at home compared to their road games.
All right, so not the biggest sample size, but we have 11 major cities to work with and the results?
People in Wrigleyville like to do hood rat stuff when the Cubs are playing at home.
Chicago Cubs home games coincide with the biggest increase in the raw number of emergencies of any city/sport combination. And if we zoom in on a map of Chicago’s extra 911 calls, it’s clear that many of the additional emergencies are in the area around Wrigley.
Here’s that graphic showing how 911 calls increase the most around Wrigley Field on game days.
Overall, Cubs home games produce a 3% increase to 911 calls in Chicago when they’re playing at home. Yet, that’s nothing compared to the Bengals.
According to this data set by Deadspin, 911 calls increase by 10% in Cincinnati when the Bengals are playing at home.
You can check out the full story here and find more interesting nuggets from their charts and graphs.
One last interesting note is that during home Blackhawks games, 911 calls drastically decrease in Chicago. Could it be that Blackhawks fans are the ones actually causing all the havoc when they can’t go watch Toews and Kane at the United Center???
