77 Hitmen

You win the thread.

People are fans of the Chicago White Sox, not the Chicago Reinsdorfs.

It'd be cool to see Bo Jackson there.

South Side Stand Up! South Side STAND UP!!!1

It's a shame the ignore feature doesn't work on quoted posts. Now people are saying that fans who hate Jerry Reinsdorf should step away and not back this team or franchise. Good Lord......yeah, that'd be a wonderful way to grow this fanbase - apply a Jerry Reinsdorf loyalty test to fans. Absurd.

Interesting discussion with political reporter Paris Schutz on Mully & Haugh. He points out how the Bears really screwed up this entire process. First, by privately meeting with the city while state reps were trying to get this bill done - which derailed any momentum this legislation had - and also by the fact that McCaskey and Warren were nowhere to be seen in Springfield while this legislation was being debated. I thought Warren was hired by the McCaskeys specifically for his skill in getting a stadium deal done. IMO, he's done an incredibly lousy job over the past 3-4 years on the stadium front. McCaskey is so incompetent that it makes we wonder if he could run a frozen banana stand if he weren't a nepo baby.

Welcome aboard! Yeah, the Amtrak site is in a different ward and would avoid her threat (whether real or not) to block a Sox stadium there.

The spring session for the IL legislature has ended without any action for a new Bears stadium. So, what happens now? Do the Bears ink a deal with Indiana soon? I guess we'll find out if they were bluffing about Hammond all along. I doubt they were, but I also think that they would very much prefer to build on the Arlington site. One option is to call a special session, which has been done before on other issues, to get a stadium authority deal passed, but I don't know if that is even being considered at this time.

Updated version of the Crain's article I previously posted on the last-ditch "stadium authority" proposal. The Ishbia Amtrak Sox stadium proposal is mentioned in the article. Lawmakers map a new route to keep Bears in IllinoisIllinois lawmakers are abandoning the Chicago Bears’ long-sought property tax break in favor of a new stadium authority model that could reopen competition between Chicago and Arlington Heights.Excerpts from the article: "The bill creates a structure allowing municipalities in Cook County over 70,000 people to set up their own stadium authority that could take ownership of a stadium site, allowing the location to be exempt from property taxes. The exemption would narrowly apply to the stadium parcels, not a surrounding entertainment district like the Bears have proposed in Arlington Heights." "The public benefit agreement opens up the possibility local taxing districts could push for an annual payment from the Bears." "The bill approved new incentives aimed at Chicago projects, including the long-stalled One Central and Michael Reese developments and future Chicago White Sox owner Justin Ishbia’s plans for Amtrak’s 14th St. railyard."

I think only the Elder Wand would be able to pull off that bit of magic.

Yeah, that's something I'd like to see addressed in the next CBA.

Not that I agree with the owners about the need for a hard cap, but winning May championships hardly "explodes" the competitive balance issue. Those May 31 championship flags don't fly forever. Big market teams have won 17 of the last 20 WS titles. Really it's only been 1 small market team (KC) in the last 20 years. I'd argue that the 2x that the Cardinals won it all 15 and 20 years ago, the economics of the game weren't so broken and they were really a mid-market team at the time with their big fan base and (if I'm not mistaken) $1B local RSN deal. If you agree with Ken Rosenthal, even he acknowledges that there's an obvious competitive balance problem in MLB while calling BS on the push for a hard cap. Again, two things can be true - the owners are greedy, disingenuous bastards AND the economics of the game have gotten too far out of whack. IMO, it's the owners that need to get their own house in order with things like more TV revenue-based revenue sharing - perhaps with strings attached such as the shared money has to go back into payroll. They're just using revenue disparity reality as an excuse to push their hard salary cap dream because that'll further boost franchise valuation.

MLB Pipeline's Jonathan Mayo talks about the options for the Sox #1 pick.

Today is the last day of the IL legislature spring session. It looks like the megaprojects bill, even a scaled down one, has little chance of passing. In an interesting turn of events, lawmakers are scrambling to put together some sort of "stadium authority" to make the Bears stadium publicly owned and exempt from property taxes. Whaaaatttt???? New stadium authority proposal reshapes Bears debateLawmakers are racing to craft an alternative after Senate leaders signal the team's favored tax-break proposal lacks support.from the article: "It’s unclear what would happen to the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, which owns the Chicago White Sox home at Rate Field and issued the bonds to renovate Soldier Field, owned by the Chicago Park District. The ISFA’s bonds are backed by $5 million payments from both the state and Chicago and a 2% tax on hotel stays in Chicago." and: "It’s unclear how that would play out and whether public tax dollars would be involved in subsidizing a stadium, something Gov. JB Pritzker has previously said was a non-starter when the Bears and Chicago rolled out a plan to have ISFA back $900 million in bonds for a $3.2 billion stadium on the lakefront."

We might have to wait until as late as 2034 to find out.