Because those three teams are cheap, in small markets, or compete with other larger fan bases in their own market? White Sox play in the city, and they have one of the lowest attendances.
Chicago Bears bought Arlington Heights track only to build next to Soldier Field?
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I agree completely with you, but Soldier Field, even though it's in the city, isn't an easy walk to fun bars/restaurants like Wrigley is. Hell, you can trip coming out of Wrigley and fall through a door and into a bar. Soldier Field is on a bit of an Island in that respect. And even though there some stuff to walk to, it's not the most pleasant walk in late November and December. Baseball is a bit of a different animal as when it's played its fun to be outside.
I think the biggest issue for the Bears Franchise though, is that if they build in Chicago, they are going to be renting the stadium, they won't own it. It may not be as fun for fans to be in Arlington Heights, but it makes the Bears Franchise a lot, lot more valuable owning it all and I don't see the McCaskey's holding on to it that much longer. With the death of Virginia, the ownership pie is getting pretty divided up and it's worth a lot more to sell it than try and divide up all the pieces with just the income the team makes.
I thought the major reason why the bears want to build their own stadium and entertainment district is that they won’t be able to afford the taxes once Virgina passes. So they want the development/rent income from the entertainment district to pay for the inheritance tax.
And I just had a thought. As mentioned a little bit ago, the bears owners aren’t exactly rich. Their entire income and wealth comes from the bears franchise. I wonder if they want to use the value of the bears franchise as collateral to build their own stadium and development, then sell the franchise once it’s all done, but keep the land. I’m not sure how the family feels about actually owning the franchise.
I don't disagree on the green line, but I believe the proposal that was submitted was for the Red, I may be mistaken on that.
The blue line extension has been talked about for a long time, it would probably go to Schaumburg was my understanding, although it has been a while since I have thought about this. There is a ton of commuter traffic that would utilize that line on a day to day which would alleviate brutal traffic on 90. Again, I don't disagree with you, but I think there is more to it then you are giving it credit.
I saw the Cubs play the dodgers in LA this year, that stadium was underwhelming especially compared to their payroll and market. We saw them play the Padres on the same trip, highly recommend Petco Park. I have been to around a dozen different MLB stadiums (some now torn down) and Petco might be my favorite.
Meh, I'm rural and have taken the train to the Vikings stadium and rode the DC subways. Haven't rode the KC train because haven't been there enough to utilize it.
American football vs European soccer. Same capacity stadium. Different priorities.
We must cater to the rural folk afraid of cities and give them a car-dependent safe haven!
American football vs European soccer. Same capacity stadium. Different priorities.
We must cater to the rural folk afraid of cities and give them a car-dependent safe haven!
Oh urban dweller...please tell us rural hillbillies all about your fancy metal trains and European soccer stadiums. Us hillbillies love taking our sister..err wife in car rides to the big city to watch foosball....just tell us what to do! We need your guidance.
You think you're being sarcastic but you're not.
Every city's subreddit is riddled with "I'm taking my wife to a show at XYZ stadium, tell me where the nearby romantic restaurants are. Oh also where can I park?"
Visited both parks for games in the summer of 2023..feel the exact same way! Petco is a blast! Dodger has a beautiful view for sure...but Petco is a blast!
You can't really have BOTH oceans of open parking lots for tailgating AND commercial structures with the bars and restaurants you mentioned. Nobody likes tailgating in a parking garage.
Dedicating a square foot of land to one means not dedicating a square foot of land to the other. CyTown might be worth it but it is moving Jack Trice towards the "bars and restaurants" side of the continuum because those surface lots were once for tailgating and tailgating alone and never will be again.
If you want to tailgate... Arrowhead is great.
If you want to bar hop... Cincinnati or Indianapolis are great.
Just depends on what you want to do.
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Oh so people that don't live in said large city ask for advice on good restaurant's and best places to park? Crazy....
And the AD doesn't say it because there's no reason to poke the bear yet until they have to, but if CyTown proves successful they'll almost certainly cut into more of the lot.
Here's what the A.I. is telling me. For what it's worth.... cake and it it too?
Arlington Heights will have roughly the same number of parking spots as around Soldier Field. Estimates are tough but between 10k and 20k spots around Soldier Field.
There are roughly 19k spots at Arrowhead. I'm guessing lower end for AH, but metra access and parking money goes to the Bears and not the city. How many will be driving from the city? This seems like plenty of space.
Bears campus - 326 acres vs 382 for the Truman complex shared with the Royals.
The only estimate for mixed use area with bars-retail-restaurant-hotel-housing-office seems to be "a lot".
Arrowhead will probably be larger than the new Bears stadium
If the Bears do this right it will be pretty amazing. Why rent when you can own?
I don't know the exact economics.
But the $$$ per square foot from a parking spot that will fetch whatever donations from a season ticket-holder and some nominal rent from a student parking there the rest of the year
Much much much <
Rent (maybe even multiple stories of it!) from commercial or office space or high-end residential
The oceans of parking lots around Jack Trice gave Iowa State football a "culture" of tailgating few others could match. But the AD needs money and one of its major unleveraged/unexploited assets right now is the fact it owns/controls the land around Jack Trice and Hilton. They're obviously going to use it.
Want a dumb take. Rual folk make up make up a very small amount of people going. It was way more to do with the abundance of land we have and catering to folks in the burbs.
American football vs European soccer. Same capacity stadium. Different priorities.
We must cater to the rural folk afraid of cities and give them a car-dependent safe haven!
The Arlington Metra is 1.8 miles down the street from the Bears site. That's not bad, but could be better. I also don't know if they'll be able to spin up the number of trains they'll need for everyone that would want to ride from the city. With all the frieght and equipment delays (especially during the winter) they had better have a better mass transit plan than Metra.
Yes, the Bears, Bulls, and White Sox all play in bad locations currently.
If Soldier Field had been built by Buckingham Fountain…or even where Millenium Park is now…it would have been perfect. As it is, it’s in a horrible location. Between the railroad tracks and the lake doesn’t offer good options for fixing the situation…and it’s much too far from the loop.
The problem with Sox park isn’t that you HAVE to drive…it just takes forever to get there on the train. And bad neighborhood.
The United Center is arguably slightly easier to get to…and arguably in an even worse neighborhood.
The proposed location actually makes a lot of sense. It’s already by a train line/stop….on 53…and near 90. And there is room for other development.
Man don’t even get me started on how much I hate that stadium, obviously extremely popular team tho I get it
