Nov. 20--The clock malfunctions at Soldier Field that marred Sunday's game between the Chicago Bears and the Minnesota Vikings appear to be fixed.
According to Luca Serra, a Soldier Field spokesman, all the glitches that caused the game clocks on each of the stadium's video boards to stop working properly for large portions of last weekend's game have been rectified by Daktronics, the company which operates the scoreboard and supplies the software and hardware for the timing and scoring system.
The expectation, Serra said, is for everything to be working as usual when the Bears host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this weekend. So consider last weekend's breakdown an anomaly.
"That was a first," Serra told the Tribune, "and we'd like to say a last. But the (clocks) are ready for Sunday."
According to Serra, a team from Daktronics spent the early parts of this week identifying what exactly went wrong during the Vikings game. And while Serra wouldn't specify exactly the technical difficulties were diagnosed as, he has been given assurance that the problem has been rectified.
Daktronics ran game simulations on the Soldier Field scoreboard clocks on both Tuesday and Wednesday and will continue to test the clocks' operation heading for Sunday. There is no anticipation that any glitches will resurface.
"We're making sure that they've spent the time that's needed examining the problems to ensure both us as well as the Bears that everything is going to be 100 percent for this Sunday and moving forward," Serra said.
