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unbelievable news, drew dalman let bears know he is retiring according to schefty

I'm gonna call up hawk. You think they aren't learning how to win? They are!

We are in spring training threads, no more talk about how it don't matter. This is life and death baby.

Esp with their legit lineup

At first I thought we were a World Series caliber team. Then we lost one, but then we won and now we lost again. i don’t know what to think 😕

It's just the wrapped upper deck, basically. If they bring that back, we'll miss the integrated skyline views of some stadiums. ALways be trading on nostalgia, but you do have to get to the nostalgia age.

yeah that stadium is a snoozer. Sox park though, you never know. Maybe people do a bunch of dumb crap with stadiums over the next 3 decades and in 2070 everyone loves 'the rate' named after a time when companies brokered mortgage deals for 'houses'. All very charming.

I always wonder about how many years would have to go by until the rate comes out the other side as charming and antiquated - or if it’d always be boring as hell. If they could have somehow retrofit more suites into old comiskey and renovated, wonder what changes with two classic parks in Chicago.

They do, it's not a ton, but I think it's silly the NFL doesn't own the stadiums and lease to the teams, among other things to have more control over the markets - rather than serving the individual owners.

This is true! Not saying Illinois is well managed. But I really truly hate how these leagues treat their markets as if their is no consideration aside from their individual owner. Is the NBA a better league in OKC over Seattle? NFL is better in LA than STL, but is the way they treated Oakland/SD/STL necessary? They spit out these markets like trash and it works until it doesn't and you have to rebuild your brand.

And I'm actually someone that broadly supports investing in entertainment districts and sports stadiums. That was lonely just 2 years ago, now apparently it's popular. I think are many civic benefits to sports teams. I just think it's also crazy that the very profitable 'league' doesn't participate much in the securing and funding of the stadiums their league plays in, and instead just threatens and cajoles for tax payer money. This is working well on a group of fans that grew up where sports were accessible and owned the discourse, I do wonder at what point the leagues will regret treating their main markets like pawns.

Extorting money from the bears in a transaction where the state pays money to the bears for their other stadium? And the extortion is to payoff what the city built for them just 23 years ago that is still usable and available?

I disagree. This article is helpful on part of why it shouldn't be surprising the bears screwed up a lot: https://www.windycitygridiron.com/chicago-bears-rumors/110905/chicago-bears-rumors-stadium-chatter-from-super-bowl-week The original sin that set things back was the bears purchasing Arlington Race Track without securing tax certainty before hand. They just bought it, when any others would have arranged for the gradual changes through build phase. That meant their first fight wasn't 'get illinois on board for infrastructure', it was 'pit chicago and AH against each other' to get the certainty back. Except IL is also the one that would be providing the funding, and yeah, 'hey we want even more funding to move a chicago thing to different chicago place' isn't the best IL state politics. They work that out and then want the state to go when the bears snap, and it didn't happen. Let's also talk about why there are a lot better incentives for IN to be aggressive vs IL. There is no credible case that this would actually bring numerous IL jobs outside of the short construction burst. It's moving sales tax and other spend from what municipality to another, but still in the same county. MAYBE it brings more bears fans from milwaukee down. But for Indiana, it would bring a bunch of spending that would normally occur across the border into IN. Now, IL does have to face losing the game day revenue and 'entertainment district' of AH, and that is worth the spur of activity. But it's still a place that largely will fill in with some other activity. Wolf Lake isn't going to fill in with anything like it. So yeah, it would be great if the Ted and George weren't idiots, and then IL politicians jumped when the bears asked. But it's also just extremely sleazy to me, the family that the city had to constantly create playing spaces for because they were idiots and talentless, threatening to leave a lease 10 years early for a different state if their fans didn't lace their pockets even more.

I get why you guys say this, but I will always roll my eyes at the analogy. Not saying the bears don’t have a national presence, but their market is local and it’s the very people they are trying to extort out of money. you know where the bears could have probably gotten way more money? Saudi Arabia. Coulda had a dome there! Money is important and the only thing to judge acts by, so seems like the perfect opportunity. Definitely not sleazy to prey on the social and communal bonds this particular business creates to enrich a bunch of billionaire failsons over, I unno, more deserving uses of money.

Given the point on crochet… that first year post draft seems like a great opportunity to mature their bodies for the load (rather than pure pitch count). for HS draftees I’m guessing their bodies aren’t quite yet at point they get same benefit?