IlliniKrush

Caulfield, you say there's nothing they can do. There is something they can do, and it's really easy - lower prices. We covered this last year, but the tickets prices are insane for a series that has basically no hype around it anymore and 2 rebuilding teams. $79 to sit in the bleachers? When Friday vs Arizona it's $23. LOL.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ May 7, 2014 -> 05:26 PM) Krush, if that guy was wearing a black sweater, would you consider hunting him down and b**** slapping him? Just curious. He probably deserves it for the song There's nothing wrong with the old black sweater - the ones identical to the current reds and whites - I have one. Or the WC alternate from years ago. What I have a problem with is the stupid grayish accent midnight electric one or whatever the f*** it's called, that isn't a real jersey. And, I hate the WC one from this year because the logo looks awful due to the NHL chromifying everything. Or he could have worn a green one like a complete idiot as well. Also not a real jersey. But yeah, Steve deserves to get b**** slapped regardless.

Haven't seen Steve posting a lot lately, was about to ask him what was going on. Then I figured it out.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ May 7, 2014 -> 01:49 PM) How many really intelligent people are calling into radio talk shows though? Dan Bernstein is obsessed with telling people what they have to do and how they have to watch when it comes to sports. I like watching college basketball more than pro as well as college football over pro. In the world of Dan Bernstein that makes me a moron because pro is inherently better than college. In reality I like watching my kids succeed in sports more than I do any athlete on the plant. Oh I disagree with his take on that 100%. I enjoy both college games more as well. QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ May 7, 2014 -> 01:51 PM) Terry Boers should never be included on any discussion of high level sports discussion. The guy is a lapdog with no actual opinion of his own. That's from someone who listens everyday. There isn't high level discussion because there is 0 discourse on the show. Well Bernstein carries the discussion on that show when it's there. Problem is that it doesn't happen as much as it used to. But, again, I enjoy B and B more now for their hilariousness when talking non-sports stuff than anything else. Anyone who can't get some laughs out of some of the Friday Fun stuff doesn't have a pulse.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ May 7, 2014 -> 12:56 PM) I listen to B&B pretty much everyday because I want my sports fix, and they do have good content, but even you have to admit that Bernsteins arrogance and dismissive nature towards anyone with a contradictory opinion has really skyrocketed in the last 5 or so years. You either call in and agree with him, or he screams at you and hangs up, then makes fun of you for the rest of the show for daring to have a different opinion. Even his coworkers have been calling him out on it. The score puts through a lot of dumb callers for sure, but there are people with good things to say and he simply does not let them. What Bernstein needs is to be rid of Boers, because he needs a strong voice on the other side that will keep him in check. I agree, and I wish they'd filter through to put more "smart" fans on the air. They do get the idiots on there, and most of them deserve to be blasted. When B and B actually talk hard core sports, they talk it at a very high level. They know how to watch a game. Their highest level of sports talk is above anyone else in this town that is on the air. Although some of the best B and B is when they aren't talking sports, it's hilarious radio. You're right in that not having Boers would probably keep him more in check, and he's probably gotten worse in the last 5 years. I get his point on this article, and I think he was also emphasizing Dunn's season so far even though more people are jumping into the Rizzo stuff because there was more ink about it. His last 2 paragraphs are really what you need to see, just take a step back sometimes to evaluate what's going on, the numbers, and not jump to ignorant conclusions about it.

I guess I shouldn't be shocked at the replies coming from a Sox message board, or people that can't look at numbers/something objectively instead of their hate for Bernstein. The article was pretty simple. Talked about how Abreu is good, Rizzo is good, and hell, even Dunn has been good this year. But that only Abreu is getting any attention.

Yes, the tournament is only relevant to OSU fans and the distance they need to travel.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ May 6, 2014 -> 09:13 PM) Konerko and Samardzija being friendly? Don't let greg see that pic. NEVER FORGET! !! KONERKO SHOULD HAVE TAKEN THE PANEL AND CLOCKED HIM OVER THE HEAD WITH IT

QUOTE (Hawkfan @ May 6, 2014 -> 10:56 PM) Would sox fans ever honor a cubs player with the equivalent merit level of Konerko? Yeah, why not? I'd absolutely applaud a Konerko equivalent if he was a Cub in his last game at the cell. But it's not like this was Cubs fans, this was the Cubs organization. Big difference. I'm sure some/most fans were classy, I bet others were along the lines of that texter.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ May 6, 2014 -> 11:00 PM) 2010 WCF You win 2 tickets to a future Sox game from soxobama

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ May 6, 2014 -> 10:43 PM) Shut out by my guy Ilya Bryzgalov, ugh. That's the 9th consecutive playoff series the Hawks have lost their first road game. Random stat of the night Quick, name the last series they won the first road game.

Classy move, I'll give them credit where credit is due. Didn't have to be anything huge.

QUOTE (PlaySumFnJurny @ May 6, 2014 -> 05:00 PM) They get more money by "building the brand" and drumming up excitement in these newer territories. The "more money part" doesn't have so much to do with tourney ticket revenue so much as it does B1G network TV subscriptions. Even if you're correct about attendance dwindling, this still makes financial sense. This is a long term play, and Jim Delaney is a very smart man. Besides, these arenas seat 20K; with 16 teams, that allots to 1.25K tickets per school. That's a pretty small percentage of fans and alums per school; so I disagree that "a lot" are going to be "upset." If so, they can wait their turn in the rotation (if it even goes to a rotation) for it to come back around. It's a long term, risky play. There's zero guarantee this turns into more revenue. When the rubber meets the road, this plan may or may not work, outside of the nice concepts of building the brand/expanding the footprint. Not sure how much excitement you will draw up in the DC area for the BT at this point. It would also be pretty embarrassing from a media angle if you have the 3rd and 4th days with lackluster crowds due to venue. Not going to build the brand there. And outside of PSU/Rutgers/Maryland? Yeah, fans are upset because it made it a lot harder/impossible to get to this tournament. 1.25K aren't showing up to every game, it's getting the other fanbases to have 5/6/7 as the weekend goes on. Not really possible in this scenario.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 6, 2014 -> 04:17 PM) The solution that can have the biggest impact, to me, is speeding up the games. Pitchers, and batters for that matter, need to be on a clock. Or at least the umpires should start being able to get things moving in some fashion. A 2.5 hour game is much more appealing than 3.5 hours, especially with the modern audience. It keeps the fans much more excited and engaged. This can be done without taking away offense (which increasing strike zone size would do), cost nothing, and still allow the same number of commercials between innings. Yup, it's all about "pace of play." You fix this issue, and I think you'll have a lot more people attending and watching games on TV. Here's how much of a focus the issue has/will become: http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/04/mlb-length...k-seven-innings

QUOTE (farmteam @ May 6, 2014 -> 03:35 PM) I really don't see what the big deal is. I was surprised it wasn't the Barclays Center. And the comparison to the Pac-12 putting their tournament on the East Coast is ludicrous. The most eastern team in the Pac-12 is Colorado. Distance from Boulder, CO to Washington DC: 1,625 miles. Distance from College Park, MD to Washington DC: 9.2 miles The point is, the PAC 12 wouldn't move it so far away from their fan bases. What's next, BT moves it to Omaha because Nebraska is close to it? It's irrelevant how close Maryland is to DC, as it's not a tournament for only Maryland fans. You weren't going to see the old big east put their tournament in Chicago just because Depaul was around the corner. School Indy Chicago D.C. Illinois 121 136 700 Indiana 50 233 629 Iowa 362 221 911 Maryland 574 698 9 Michigan 262 242 529 Mich St. 254 223 593 Minnesota 592 408 1117 Nebraska 637 518 1208 NW 197 12 717 Ohio State 176 326 405 Penn State 497 568 206 Purdue 65 124 642 Rutgers 686 782 196 Wisconsin 330 146 855

It's not an exact science, though. Sure, you increase your weekday ticket sales this Wed and Thu, but the weekend date is now down from what you would have had if it was the Cubs, and the Cubs games have higher ticket prices. You don't gain in both places. You're banking on cubs weekday + royals weekend > cubs weekend + royals weekday. You take a family of 4 or a group of 4 buddies, maybe they bite on the cubs/sox series if it's a Saturday night. Now, a lot of them aren't. Does it mean they are making it up by going to the KC weekend game (or a better example, are they going to the Arizona series this weekend)? Not necessarily. As a result, you got $0 from those fans since you flip-flopped those games. I think this theory really only works if there is a super high demand for the series. Then you can put it whenever, wherever and you're going to sell tickets. They aren't at that point anymore. With baseball already falling behind the NFL as the national past time, you'd think they'd try to market the hell out of the big city teams and rivalries and put them on the weekends, not only for the gate, but for TV as well.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ May 6, 2014 -> 03:16 PM) You are right, but I think this shows that the fans aren't what matters. Advertising revenue, sponsorships, BTN deals, money is what matters. I doubt the Big Ten's bottom line for the tourney is hurt much if there are 19k or 15k at the game. If they can increase their future revenue by playing in DC, that's what they are looking at. If DC is too far for Joe Wisconsin to drive to the tourney, is that gonna effect how many future B1G games he watches? Will it stop him from attending the following year in Chicago or Indy? Nope It just looks like Delaney is going to do anything possible to make sure BTN is on the east coast. I'm not sure you're ever getting a big piece of that market unless you add even more teams. We'd have to see it spelled out, but are they really getting that much more money from it being in DC, especially if # of fans per game goes down, possibly significantly? Is some average sports fan in the DC area now all about BT basketball because the tournament is there? How exactly are they drawing more money? I think this move is far from a sure thing as far as more $ for the BT. In the meantime, you just upset a lot of schools and fans.

QUOTE (PlaySumFnJurny @ May 6, 2014 -> 01:38 PM) Of course B1G doesn't "owe" those schools anything. That's not my point. My point is that they don't take the tourney to this new market if those 2 new schools aren't added, which I don't think is debatable. And no, I don't think the Pac 12 (or any other conference) is going to go the opposite coast to play in a market where it doesn't have a school. But Washington DC is a B1G market, so that's not a fair question. I'll grant you that DC is a much farther drive, but there are a few more things to see and do there than in Indy, once you get there. I don't really care that they added 2 schools out east - you still should put the tournament in a centralized location, so it's easier for more schools to get to. This hurts a ton of fan bases, especially those that decide to make the drive in day 2 or 3 as their team advances. DC makes that almost impossible. Of course they don't put this there if there aren't 2 new schools...but why are they? It's a fair question, because putting a PAC12 tournament on the east coast is similar what the DC tournament will be for the majority of the teams. No one, at the moment, considers Washington DC a B10 market. It's a terrible idea to put the tournament at the very outskirts of your "territory." The "there are things to do in DC" doesn't really do much when you have Chicago to work with. I don't think for Joe Wisconsin fan sitting up there, he's going to be more apt to make the trip there than to Chicago or Indy because there are things to see. It's more of an inconvenience.

QUOTE (PlaySumFnJurny @ May 6, 2014 -> 10:44 AM) Meh, its a TV event for most anyways. This is a welcoming nod to Maryland and Rutgers, and not that different than MLB giving the All-Star game to teams with new stadiums. As is any event ever, so that's not really relevant. You're making it much tougher for the vast majority of fan bases to make it to the tournament. And I can't imagine attendance will be great for it. The ones in the Midwest are full every year. Plus they don't owe Rutgers or Maryland anything. And Rutgers basketball? LOL. That'll really sell the place out. Pac 12 going to put their tournament on the east coast anytime soon?

QUOTE (flavum @ May 6, 2014 -> 08:27 AM) Katy Feeney was on the Score this morning. She sounds like a pleasure. http://chicago.cbslocal.com/audio/986-670-...-interviews#986 Sox and Cubs will play 3/3 next year when it's AL Central vs NL Central. She couldn't have been more full of crap. No logic given, just said "it's because of 15/15" 10 times. Which doesn't actually explain anything. Oh and the best part was saying how you have to have a week with 3 series in it. OK, great....so, what exactly would prevent, say, Arizona from playing the Sox Monday-Wednesday this week and having the Cubs series Thu-Sun? Still 3 series.

An incredibly premature, stupid move.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ May 5, 2014 -> 05:26 PM) I think it is tough for families to swing that these days. The other thing that has been mentioned is the three hour game has to stop being the norm. More waks and K's these days too which means its three hours full of no action. Every damn pitch is treated like life and death by the hitter/pitcher, Get it and throw it. I'm convinced that is what a large portion of Buehrle's success can be attributed to. 3 hour game would be great, but isn't the average Sox game now up to 3:17 or something this year (as of a few days ago), with a handful of 4+ hour games? It's today's day and age with how people treat their time and money. The "value" people get out of 5-6 hours between driving and watching the game, the expense of parking the car, tickets, then all the food on top of it...just not worth the value/time to a lot of people anymore. Comparing it to a movie - movie is 2 hours and it doesn't cost anything to park, and you could more easily get away with no food. Anyway, the answer is to make it less time and provide more value. Eliminate the dead time. This is going to become a bigger focus with MLB over the next few years, I believe.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 5, 2014 -> 03:16 PM) Hawks up 2-0 in series. Do you think the competition is weak this year and Hawks are guaranteed a spot in the Stanley Cup Finals? What you think? I was quite glad we got Minnesota in Round Two. Figured we'd beat them. Up 2-0 things looking pretty nice. 1) Nothing is a guarantee in hockey. 2) Considering LA or Anaheim is next, that's about as far from a guarantee as you can get.

Furniture store recommendations? Lot of stuff we have so far is from Crate and Barrel. Anyone have good/bad experiences with places? Mainly looking for couch, love seat, dining room set, maybe a few other pieces.

Blues sorry for being the Blues http://thechicagohomer.com/2014/05/05/the-...ouis/#more-1048