77 Hitmen

Yep, this gives the Sox more options in pursuing a stadium in the South Loop while leaving space for parking and commercial development (aka "ballpark village"). The fact that Isbhia is working on purchasing a huge, 47-acre tract of land right across the river from the 78 sure makes it look like he intends to have the team leave 2nd Rate Field in the not to distant future. It sounds like Amtrak was already wanting to move their railyard to another location. From the Crain's article: "Relocating Amtrak’s maintenance facility to a larger space with modern improvements was previously identified as a necessary step in the broader Chicago Hub Improvement Program, or CHIP, to improve Midwest passenger transit."

The Fire only play 2-3 home games a month and the new MLS schedule will have a summer break from when the playoffs end in May to mid-July. So, many prime summer weeks with no Fire games. I know Mansueto envisions using the Fire stadium for concerts and other events, so it won't sit empty for 7 or 8 weeks, but how many other events can they book there? That's a lot of downtime in the middle of the summer for any entertainment district that they want to build at the site. I know the Alderwoman is against the Sox moving there, but if the city actually roadblocks a $1B privately-financed stadium development on land that's been vacant for over 50 years, then it's another sign that businesses just can't get things done with the city. Use the Rate Field land to build the much-needed housing if the Sox want to move to the South Loop.

I'm trying to visualize whether the Amtrak yard is wide enough to accommodate a stadium. They still need to keep tracks for trains to go through. Also, if you look at the train yard there that is between Canal St. on the west and the river on the east, note that the western half of that yard is Metra's rail yard and Amtrak's yard is on the eastern half of that piece of land. Maybe a stadium would fit there, I don't know. Perhaps it's the 2nd option that @Dick Allen mentioned above - use that land for parking and ballpark village. I'm sure someone with graphic editing tools could take a ballpark shape and superimpose it over that tract of land. Either way, there would need to be a pedestrian bridge over the river to connect the two sites. At any rate, it's a strong indicator that the future Sox owner is serious about moving the team to the South Loop.

I only see the total number of pages in the tread and a link to the last page of the thread.

Yep, it was a perfect s%*# storm for the Sox. Covid hit just as the team started getting good and made the playoffs and just as payroll started going up. Then, just as Covid restrictions lifted, the rebuild fell apart in 2022. Also, the RSN money was drying up at the same time. Add that JR's incompetence as you mentioned with bringing in TLR and with their stadium situation. The best thing Jerry has done for this franchise in years was help line up Ishbia as the next owner and to have him give the franchise some cash infusion now.

How do you change it to dark mode?

The site is still slow to load for me. Often I'll briefly get a site not found message for a few seconds before I get through to the site. Hopefully the site maintenance scheduled for this afternoon will fix this. Thanks, Admins, for all you do to keep this site running!

Every team had to go through Covid, but it's probably when the Twins and Sox amassed their debt. The Sox aren't alone in the loss of broadcasting revenues. It's been a problem for many teams outside of the top 10 or so franchises. But obviously 2025 was the nadir of broadcasting revenues for the Sox.....and no doubt the low point of other revenues too coming off a 121-loss season. Seems to be that these things affect revenues more that franchise valuations. That's why the Sox are last in revenue but #17 in franchise valuation since they are in the 3rd largest market.

I don't know which 9 teams. It's mentioned in the video and I've only heard of the Sox and Twins having debt. They actually do compare the MLB situation to the NBA in the video clip above. They said the NBA gets more revenue from national TV deals, so they don't have the same revenue disparity problem that MLB does.

CNBC's analysis also determined that 9 MLB franchises are losing money. I read the article to say that this was based on their own analysis and not solely based on whatever numbers the owners report. So no accounting loopholes (depreciation, etc.). This is also after revenue sharing as they say that more than half the teams would be losing money without the existing revenue sharing.

It'll be interesting to see what happens with the Padres pending sale. We've already discussed in other threads their somewhat unique situation (no other teams in their market from any of the 4 major sports, top-tier ballpark, near-perfect weather, but market size is somewhat boxed in on all sides). The article says the Rays, who were recently sold for $1.7B, saw a 21% increase in valuation from last year as did Detroit. The Pohlad family seemed to have trouble selling the Twins and now they're keeping the team but bringing in additional investors. Jerry was counting on a tax payer-funded new stadium to boost the Sox valuation. That ain't happening, so the team isn't going to be worth as much if the next owner will need to pay for a new ballpark (if he wants one) in addition to paying for the franchise itself.

According to CNBC. Yankees, Dodgers, and Cubs are the top 3 with the Cubs just a bit ahead of Boston. The Sox are middle of the pack at 17th. As far as revenue goes, Dodgers are #1 at nearly $1B. The Sox are 30th in revenue at about 1/4th of the Dodgers amount and are well behind the 29th ranked team (Rays). Four teams made 25% of MLB's revenue. Revenue numbers are apparently based CNBC's analysis and not just the accounting tricks that owners use to depress their reported revenues. https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/03/13/cnbcas-official-mlb-team-valuations-2026-hereas-how-the-30-franchises-stack-up.html https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/13/cnbcs-official-mlb-team-valuations-2026-how-30-franchises-stack-up.html

How many teams would this eliminate from the WBC, though, because there wouldn't be enough players to field a competitive team for many of the nations? And "I don't care" isn't a sufficient answer since the whole point of the tournament is to broaden an interest in baseball more globally beyond the places it already is dominant.

He became our first president in 1789.

We can only hope........though at this point, it may as well wait until the end of the upcoming labor impasse.

There is a two-word answer to this that explains it in an articulate and persuasive way: LAUGH EMOJI!

Ron sure knows how to stir the pot here!

The officials at the groundbreaking had to be airlifted in and out. The site is totally inaccessible. They were also wearing hazmat suits.

The Twins apparently went from ~$55M in RSN revenue to ~$5M. Meanwhile, the Dodgers are getting over $300M annually from their RSN deal. The Cardinals have gone from $75M in TV revenue to $20M: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ijf4lkGd98&t=138s

and none of those teams can break through against the big market teams except for the Royals winning one WS title 11 seasons ago. Milwaukee is perhaps a text book example of how to run a small market team in MLB very well....and they still have no pennants to show for it. Their payroll is less that the Dodgers' luxury tax. Cleveland is a well-run organization that has to perpetually tear down and rebuild every few years. That isn't exactly a good model for the sport. Baltimore hasn't won a pennant in more than 40 years. Last year, they lost 87 games and within the last 8 years they've had 115, 110, and 108-loss seasons. I wouldn't exactly point to them as an example of how MLB's system is working. The A's are homeless and playing in a minor league stadium for another two seasons after abandoning Oakland after 56 years. Are they an MLB success story? San Diego's days of big payrolls are probably over as the team is for sale. The Tigers 26-man payroll has gone up to $203M this year, but they haven't been "running $230M+ payrolls." We'll see if they can keep Skubal when he becomes a FA. Are you seriously arguing that there's no competitive balance issue in MLB with teams like the A's and Orioles as examples?

.....and this is EXACTLY what's wrong with MLB. I don't hear people moaning about revenue and ratings when Kansas City or Green Bay make the Super Bowl. Where was the outcry that people want big market teams to be in the NBA finals when OKC and Indiana were in it? I don't recall the NHL saying that they want/need only NY/Chicago/LA/Boston to be in the Stanley Cup. I don't care who will die on what hill or what accounting tricks are being used, MLB simply cannot go on as a league where the top 12 markets are almost a lock to at least make the WS if not win it. If that means a long lockout, then so be it. If they can solve this problem without any semblance of a salary cap, wonderful. The only time in the last 20 years a top 12 team didn't win it all was when Washington, KC, and St. Louis won it. The Nats are perhaps one of those mid-market teams and are a total mess right now. St. Louis has slid from one of the most successful franchises over many decades to a small-market also-ran. At one time, the Cardinals had a $1B RSN deal, but that has totally imploded and now they're one of the teams that is going under the MLB umbrella for local broadcast distribution. The last time a top 12 market team wasn't in the World Series was 2006 when it was St. Louis vs. Detroit. If that's not a "lock" for them to be in the World Series, I don't know what is.

Site work begins for the new Cleveland Browns indoor stadium in Brook Park, Ohio.

I didn't see a more recent thread about the upcoming CBA expiration and expected work stoppage. So, my apologies if this has been posted elsewhere or should go in another thread. The Athletic has conducted a fan survey and 68% of respondents are in favor of a salary cap and floor system. 77% expect some games to be missed in 2027. What do fans say about a lockout affecting their fandom: 20% say Significantly, 47% say Somewhat, and 33% say Not At All. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7073638/2026/03/02/mlb-salary-cap-fan-survey-2026/

Right? What did people expect Brooks to say in an interview - "yeah, we tried to give Nancy a hint that it was time for her to go"? I don't want to get this thread totally sidetracked about the Nancy Faust situation since there's a lot more speculation involved there, but it's totally reflective of how this organization has driven away talented individuals who aren't total loyalists for 4+ decades now. This shitshow isn't going to end for us until there is a change in ownership.