77 Hitmen

I should have switched the choices for the 3rd item around so that your answer was the name of a Swedish pop band.

It does not necessarily mean that. In this case, however, I think both happen to be true. If not "small", at the very least, it's a shrinking fanbase. The incoming owner is going to have to figure out something to change the trajectory of this team's market share. Sure, winning absolutely MUST be part of that, but unless they can rattle off a bunch of pennants in quick succession, they'll still be struggling to make themselves relevant in a city were the Cubs are as dominant as ever.

Did your interest level go back up?

Yeah, things worked about great for Jason!

I'd much rather argue about the following than Matt Shaw's right wing politics: Schriffen vs. Benetti The 78 vs. Rate Field vs. suburban stadium site Ishbia vs. JR Getz vs. Hahn/KW I say options B, A, A, and neither.

The Bears have been trying to get out of Soldier Field for almost as long as they've played there. They moved there in '71 and in 1975, Halas was seriously considering a new stadium at Arlington Park. Of course, they stopped looking to move when the 2002 renovations were done, but that didn't even last 20 years before grumblings about leaving the place surfaced again. The whole "Bears weather" being a huge home field advantage thing is pretty much an urban legend.

I believe he said it was the loudest he's ever heard a game at Soldier Field. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but he did NOT say it was the loudest he's ever heard a football game. He said this was the 31st time he's done a game at Soldier Field and this was the loudest he's ever heard the place.

Follow up: Above is a quote from a Sun-Times article from around the time Ishbia met with the Pope. https://chicago.suntimes.com/pope-leo-xiv/2025/11/19/justin-ishbia-pope-white-sox-stadium

He invited the Pope to throw out the first pitch a new Sox stadium. I don't know if he specifically said anything to the Pope about staying in Chicago, but during that visit to the Vatican he did make a statement that strongly suggested that he's committed to keeping the Sox in Chicago. That may have been to a reporter and I don't think it was to Pope Leo himself. There's probably a quote from Ishbia about this somewhere earlier in this thread.

Good Lord, how the f*** did this thread get derailed about a player that has never been linked to the Sox in any rumor mill as far as I know.....and for whom it would make little sense for the Sox to acquire since they'd have to give up a ton of their existing young talent to get him?

Maybe before Ishbia emerged as the next owner, there may have been a scenario where that could have happened. But, once it was announced that JR would eventually sell to him, that should have put to rest any concerns. Ishbia's comments during his meeting with the Pope in November should have slammed the door on any such talk. I think the only question remaining is whether Ishbia is going to bankroll a new ballpark for the Sox in the South Loop. We'll see, that's a lot of money- even for a billionaire. But I find it hard to believe his plans after spending somewhere close to $2B for the franchise is to keep them at "There's Nothing Wrong With It" Field for the next 35 years.

Pritzker in that video clip is saying they're willing to provide infrastructure toward the project and that the Bears are welcome to negotiate tax abatement with local authorities.....so what's the problem? Isn't that exactly what the Bears want? So, what are Warren and the McCaskeys looking for? On the other hand, it's one thing if state officials and the Bears just can't come to an agreement on numbers, but it sounds like state officials are going out of their way to poke the Bears in the eye by saying they aren't even going to consider any proposals for at least another year. I don't think that's a good way to get things done. Am I missing something? The Bears are offering to pay for the entire cost of the stadium, right? If we're waiting for everyone's cost of living concerns to be resolved before we spend any money on infrastructure, that's never going to happen. Let's say the Bears end up building a stadium complex in NW Indiana. What happens to the Arlington Park site? Just fill it with up with more crappy suburban strip malls and townhomes? Are the tax revenues from that kind of development going to be more than what the Bears would pay even if they get some tax breaks? Is that a "win" for Illinois residents? Also, how much would infrastructure cost to develop that land into something other than a stadium complex? I assume the plan isn't to just let 325 acres of prime real estate to sit vacant forever.

If I were NBC, I wouldn't put the Sox on Sunday Night Baseball, either. Maybe in a few years if they can build around some of their existing talent and the upcoming #1 pick and start to spend some Ishbia money on quality free agents. Until then, they just aren't a big draw outside the Sox fan base.

Thank you! The Bears have spent most of the last 3 decades fielding very mediocre and frequently getting embarrassed by their arch rivals. This is only their 7th playoff appearance in 30 years. ...and yet, fans in Chicago are as rabid about the Bears as ever (even before this year's resurgence). Let's get real. While they'd much prefer ending up in Arlington Heights, having a stadium in Gary/Hammond isn't going to slow their popularity.

Kansas City is one of the smallest markets in MLB. Nashville is about the same size and booming. They can probably support a team just as well as KC. The thing about Nashville, though is that the city/state just spent an insane amount of money for the new Titans stadium, so public funding for a MLB park there is questionable. On the other hand, Portland's metro area is bigger than KC's and the state of Oregon has committed $800M in public money toward an MLB stadium. Is it probable that the Royals will move? No. But I don't think the idea is laughable either - especially when there's $800M in public money sitting there. Portland is probably going to miss out on a western expansion team to Salt Lake City, so they'd be more than happy to get an existing team to move there. In the end, I think they'll get a deal done with Missouri. They were already going to offer spending 50% of the stadium costs for both the Royals AND Chiefs. Now that the Chiefs are leaving, more of that money can be directed toward getting a deal done with the Royals. No matter what, I'll be very surprised if the Royals are still playing at Kauffman Stadium after 2031. I just don't see that happening.

The Niners' new stadium is something like 50 miles and a 1 hour drive away from San Francisco and is practically in San Jose. Seems like their brand is surviving just fine.

You could mention a few trigger words if you want to breathe new life into this thread.

It looks like North Kansas City/Clay County, Missouri has closed the book on negotiations for a possible new Royals stadium. That would leave the city of KC, MO as the only viable option for a new ballpark, which is what the team probably ultimately wants anyway. https://fox4kc.com/sports/royals/nkc-royals-ballpark-negotiations-a-closed-chapter-county-commissioner/

The only problem I had with Benetti was too many corny "dad" jokes. Otherwise, he was great - a home-grown "voice of the Sox" announcer who could have been here for decades while getting some national broadcasts too. But, we're Sox fans and can't have good things. At least he didn't jump ship to the Cubs - which would have been yet another PR win for the North Siders as they know how to promote their on-air talent. I wonder how well liked he is in Detroit? Some talk radio blowhard ripping on him doesn't tell me what the fanbase in general thinks of him. Schriffen is simply not watchable. He doesn't belong in a MLB broadcast booth. But Uncle Jerry wants someone there who will tell us we're eating prime rib when in reality they're serving us a s%*# sandwich.

JR driving him away and replacing him with someone who is highly unqualified doesn't impact the play on the field, but it sure typifies how he has run this organization over the last two decades. At least when the decade is out, our team should be under new ownership. When Pope Leo throws out the first pitch at the new ballpark, I don't expect Schriffen to be there unless he bought a ticket to the game.

The Kansas House Speaker confirms that the state is no longer pursuing the Royals. https://www.ksnt.com/news/local-news/kansas-officials-no-longer-pursuing-new-royals-stadium-in-the-sunflower-state/

....and it's reportedly only about $48-50M still owed by ISFA on the stadium as of about a year ago. The debt on Soldier Field is somewhere around half a billion dollars.

I don't disagree with your overall point, but what is owed on New Comiskey is a fraction of what the state still owes for the Soldier Field renovations. Lumping them together is akin to saying the Dodgers owe a total of $765M for the combined contracts of Shohei Ohtani and Teoscar Hernandez.

A new Red Line stop at 15th and Clark was not part of the Fire stadium plan that was approved by the city.