Texsox

Or why any nepo pick is automatically bad. The organization has to know the kid and be familiar with his character and work ethic. This isn't even close to drafting Kenny Williams Jr.

If the scouts are saying this guy will be an all star in 6 years and the higher ups are saying we want a guy in two years, I'm ok with that discussion.

Please don't pick a high school kid or a pitcher with the #1.

As your program grown much in those ten years?

San Antonio built a pitch on the site of a golf course they purchased. We practice at the still open driving range and I've been out there a few times watching. I would probably enjoy it more if I really understood the rules. I see way more kids playing soccer than other sports, both when I was in Illinois and now in Texas. Interestingly even in football crazy Texas we see families deciding to not risk their kids brains in football and channel them into other sports. It's predominately at schools with high socio economic status.

Please don't take a high school kid with the #1.

Seems about right. There are still a lot of games to play. This team doesn't feel like they are two steps from disaster.

I never thought anyone could impress me more than Bo. But I believe some of y'all can build a Ohtani case.

I'm thinking a big inning will happen sometime this week.

That seems like a great strategy.

This. Major donors hold the power.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/brendan-sorsby-granted-2026-eligibilty-texas-tech-qb-ncaa-gambling/ 😲 Bet on games involving your team and staying eligible?

I agree. We probably disagree if it will be as mainstream as it was in the 1950s, 1980s, or 2020s. I see parents and kids at games and they are all lost in their phones. How many right now are watching the game and posting here? Perhaps it starts with virtual eSports teams in the Nashville and San Antonios of the world without physical franchises. Image games that fit into a perfect 90 minute videosteam.

Giving up on the NFL or switching teams? Packers maybe? That would be an interesting dynamic shift if Chicago became Packer Country. It would serve the McCaskey 's well.

I think that's exactly what @Kyyle23 said.

Isn't that almost every state? I've enjoyed most of every state I've visited. My last trip through Central Indiana was a big eye opener in a positive way. New York survived the New Jersey takeover. Illinois and Chicago will survive this. But honestly anything other than Bear weather on the lakefront sucks in my mind. But football domes and Super Bowls are big sellers. I'm reminded of an African proverb that Gwendolyn Brooks said at my college graduation, "when elephants fight, it's the grass that gets trampled." Guess who the grass is?

Plus it's easy to make an offer that you know has little chance to succeed. I wonder how much support there would be if fans were guaranteed somehow the stadium savings would directly go to player payrolls and be spent building winning teams instead of creating more wealth for the owners.

Trying to gather public demand for a stadium. While they may think the public has short memories, JR's threats are still remembered by fans forty years later. Of course the Bears are remembering the "midnight deal" that kept the team in Chicago. I barely believed JR's current threats, I'm even less inclined to believe the only team of is kind in Chicago threats. I still wish they could build on the Soldier Field site.

Never trust someone pushing you into a decision. I would propose calling their bluff but that would be trolling.

And I guess I should add, like most of the major changes in sports, I'm not a fan of the changes. Just like everyone else here, how it is when we are in our formidable years is how we want it to stay. But it doesn't stay the same. I enjoy amateur athletics and preferred the Olympics of the Miracle on Ice over the Dream Team but it was easy to see the future with professionals. Predicting in the 1970s that the games would be dominated by pro athletes would have seemed crazy but here we are. College athletics is rapidly becoming paid minor league programs instead of free minor league programs. Just like professional sports the college teams with the biggest budgets are doing the best. It's easy to predict allowing players to be part time students. Is that trolling? Is predicting players may not even have to attend classes trolling? Or will the payments stop here forever?

I agree. The team really controls the time line and I guess they can try to push law makers but it's a false urgency.

I teach high school and talk to hundreds of students. I coach high school sports and continually read how nationally participation numbers are declining across most sports. I'm looking at the stats and predicting a future. I'm not clamoring for the future I'm predicting. I was tired of JR's bull s%*# threats to move. What do you see as the future of sports? Would you have predicted ten years ago that teams would be embracing gambling? Umpires not calling balls and strikes? A gifted runner on 2nd to start an extra inning? Would you have predicted the Indiana Bears? Would you have predicted states passing laws banning kids from using cell phones, vr glasses, tablets, watches, etc in school? The screen is the thing.

Glad you mentioned that. Remember we are talking about watching other people touch grass. Did it bother you when football went from grass to artificial turf? Do you dislike baseball on the few stadiums that play on artificial turf? I'm currently camping near Leadville, Colorado relying on solar energy and a water tank. Lots of hiking. Heading up to Northern Ontario for the great provincial parks along Lake Superior. Fifteen years ago there was zero cell coverage here. Now I have four bars of 5G coverage. If I invested in a Starlink system I'd have high speed streaming just like home. Grass? Sure. But there are folks running generators and watching television at night all around me. I'm a golf coach during the school year. When I was competing in high school we used 150 yard trees and pacing off yardages. Now we use simulators, launch monitors, range finders, slope charts, green charts, and video while also practicing at a Top Golf facility. Ben Hogan may have been able to "dig it out if the dirt" but today is all about the tech. Also, notice the stadium golf events. Cool stuff. Space X just took over 700 acres of wildlife refuge (grass) to enable them to launch more satellites to expand our virtual world capabilities. The future is not in grass.

We kind of discussed it in the Stadium thread but @Kyyle23 correctly pointed out it is really a tangent from stadiums. At least here in Texas high schools, eSports competitive teams are really taking off. Worldwide more people born this century are playing video games over all than participating in physical sports. Additionally, the sub group of gamers playing sport specific games is increasing while physical game play is declining. Even physical sports are seeing a huge increase in generating ad revenue from virtual ties to their games though predictive markets. The e sports stars are earning a living with millions of fans watching. It's a high growth industry while physical sports are experiencing flat or a decline with younger audiences. We have embraced non human entertainment. The Simpsons were the longest running TV show in history. We've embraced recorded versus live, movies replaced stage theater to a great degree. CGI has redefined movies. E books replaced physical books. Humans have always changed. Baseball is much different than the first team to 21 runs wins beginning. Field dimensions have changed, why won't they change to a screen instead of dirt and grass? How much "safer" can we make football until it loses it appeal or is replaced by AI athletes? How many player gambling scandals will we endure before we eliminate the human element? If you are watching a game on your screen (TV, phone, tablet, watch, glasses, eye implant) does it really matter if those images you see are actual humans or they are unable to distinguish the difference AI generated? Everyone here watches more games via broadcast then in person. But I've always embraced change. Perhaps the younger generation wants to slow the pace of these changes and will grab hold of traditions. But based on the last few hundred years we know kids do things differently then their parents. Everyone will eventually be the Boomers their kids will make fun of for not changing with the times. Yes, even vapes will stop being cool.

Then let's keep it to the stadium. To future build this stadium I think fewer seats and a large, year round, casino makes sense. If a community really wanted to attract a team give the team a cut of year round gambling revenue in addition to the tax breaks. We also need to predict how to collect revenue from in seat predictive market transactions. Obviously gaming is experiencing a huge boom and a new stadium needs to take advantage of that. Human umpiring will be gone in this stadium's lifetime. If we can have self driving cars we can call fair or foul, safe or out, with technology. Perhaps one human sitting in a on site booth just to make old people happy will be necessary for a little while. Managers will need better access to technology to share strategy. Perhaps a control room of some sort needs to be considered. But the manager will be more of an entertainer and motivator with all the strategy dictated by statistical analysis. If we are going to stick with humans playing I'd like to see a larger dug out with players platooning like football. Once there is a clear model of how the stadium will generate the most revenue a stadium location will become really clear.