QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 13, 2011 -> 11:39 PM)
We could get into a political argument, but there's no point.
Baseball has always been protected by the anti-trust exemption and Congress, and Congress is basically run by corporate interests, and among those elites are the owners of 30 major league baseball teams.
The "average" baseball fan (with a family of 4) will never enter into their considerations, any more than Congress will care about the effects of cutbacks on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, food stamps, Head Start, WIC, etc.
That's one of those things lost from the Bill Veeck era. While he could hardly balance his checkbook, one of his primary concerns was always about entertainment and the fan experience. Things have obviously changed...for both the good and bad. In many ways, we're lucky the team is still in Chicago, and once again you can give credit (or blame, for those against public funding of sports facilities) to government for that.
But you did anyways!
I agree with you 100%, though.