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Is it time to change the way Boston celebrates championships?

BOSTON — Victory parades are nothing new to Boston, but have the celebrations become too large and chaotic?

The Patriots sixth Super Bowl celebration was a lot of fun, but getting there was not. One-and-a-half million people in the city Tuesday put a huge strain on Mass. transit.  A derailment on the Green Line caused big delays and the Commuter Rail was pushed to its limit.

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"I had to work in here yesterday, it was chaos, it was bumper-to-bumper on the Commuter Rail and on the Red Line, too," said Rob Traynham of Randolph.

It was an expensive day for Boston, too. Numbers are still coming in, but in 2017, Boston Police spent more than a million dollars on the Super Bowl parade, half of that was for overtime.

That's just part of the picture and has some wondering if the time has come to change things up.

Boston's Super Bowl celebration has already undergone one big change, there was no rally at City Hall Plaza on Tuesday like in past years, but there could be other changes.

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Boston 25 News reached out to Mayor Marty Walsh to find out.

"I'm not going to say that. When our teams win, people want a celebration. I don't know what the other option is right now," Walsh said.

One opinion people talked about is holding championship rallies on weekends.

"We tried it my first year as mayor, we looked at that, having it on the weekend. And what we found out was if we moved it to Saturday or Sunday, I think we were going to lose Tom Brady, Gronk in that first Super Bowl we had because they had plans with their families," he said.

So for now, if another team wins it all, expect another big Boston parade. A tradition in a city steeped in tradition.

>> IMAGES: Huge crowd turns out to cheer Patriots' 6th Super Bowl win

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Boston 25 News Special | Patriots Championship Parade

Posted by Boston 25 News on Tuesday, February 5, 2019

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