WrigleyField 22

Agreed. I think it was one of the Hawks Cup rallies that I'm still scarred over. I lived in walking difference to Soldier Field so wasn't using public transit or car, and getting out of the stadium vicinity was the worst stadium experience I've ever had. But all the other times I've been, including for Soccer games which aren't as packed as a Bears game and it just always seems to suck. Edit- and as much as getting on the redline after a Cubs game can also be soul-crushingly miserable, there's at least alternatives because you're in the middle of a neighborhood with Bars and restaurants. SF doesn't offer any alternative like that.

Transit normally helps, but I think the transit isn't quite close enough (at least the El stops) and then you're land locked with the lake which lessens the exit paths.

Uh, wow this take.. It's not just that he uttered the word. Also what in hell is the "full blown outed racist" crap? The line isn't "not racist" and "KKK". He's going to undergo sensitivity training. He isn't losing his job.

Yea I don't care about the Final Fours and Super Bowls and horsefeathers. As an actual IL resident all I really want is for IL to not shell out any money to build something new for the Bears or any sports team. Beyond that, I think they could do more accessible than Soldier Field, although you are likely talking about less accessibility for some group, unless there's some magical space on the west side or something, but I think that ship sailed post UC.

It’s picturesque but yeah not exactly a ideal location for a 60,000 seat football stadium. I’d prefer the Bears find something in the city and I could live with Soldier Fields location as my concern is more the stadium than the location. I want a stadium that can host Super Bowls, Final Fours, Big Ten Championship games, etc. if that has to be built in Arlington heights or something so be it. Cowboys Stadium is not in Dallas, whatever they call the Cardinals stadium is far away from central Phoenix, MetLife field is not centrally located, nor is the new LA stadium. Yea, Soldier Field is mostly good for being picturesque. It's kind of miserable to get in and out of. For 8 times a year, the boonies is okay. For baseball and even hockey/basketball, it's a bigger factor. And Arlington Heights is still not even that "Boonies". There's a Metra stop there at least. We're not talking Dekalb or something.

This is pretty random, but i have five Free 30 Day passes for the Athletic. If you've contemplated subscribing before and never have, you're missing out. DM me and I will share the link.

Not sure if serious, but they can't do that.

Once you realize Javy is a jedi who occasionally uses his jedi mind tricks in game it explains a lot.

Well they don't own any of it. So that's the trade off. Don't get me wrong, it was a pretty sweet deal as is for the Bears, but owning a domed stadium outright and still getting city/state to kick in financing would probably be the preferred deal for most teams.

Well they surely wouldn't finance the whole project, but they could chip in more than the McCakseys. That's basically why they have Soldier Field. A rich and experienced businessperson would have a dome and enough equity to make it very worthwhile, while milking the state for as much as they could. The Bears aren’t in Soldier Field because the McCaskeys are too poor Its a pretty big reason. Inability to secure financing killed the Elk Grove deal in 98 is my understanding.

New owner could probably finance a stadium. That's probably the biggest thing. So as far as the value of that ymmv. Why would they do that? Well they surely wouldn't finance the whole project, but they could chip in more than the McCakseys. That's basically why they have Soldier Field. A rich and experienced businessperson would have a dome and enough equity to make it very worthwhile, while milking the state for as much as they could.

New owner could probably finance a stadium. That's probably the biggest thing. So as far as the value of that ymmv.

Do you mean move the team from Chicago to the burbs? Or move the team outta state? I can’t see any buyer moving the team out of IL. out of the metro area mainly. It certainly can happen, and given the history of the Bears I would def not want it to. I honestly dont want them to move off the lakeshore and I'm not sure what the reason would be other then to get a bigger stadium and field turf. traffic? Bigger/domed stadium and in the case of a venue the size of Arlington, an entire entertainment district. Thing is, even by the end of the Bears lease, in 2033, It's hard to imagine IL being in a position to be ready/willing to help finance a project. Maybe NW Indiana inserts itself in the field at that point again if a new owner is shopping around for a new venue while still keeping them in the area.

Dang, you must be old. It will always be to me: 312 - city, but also 773, but only for like... Luna Carpet 708 - cook county burbs (where I grew up) 630 - west collar counties 847 - North collar counties Everything else- here be dragons. Which to me, 331 or 224 is still here be dragon territory even though it's the same as 630 and 847. Like those aren't real area codes. My doctor has 331 and it's still odd to me. Well yeah I'm old. But the first split 312/708 was '89 and more than half the board was alive and kicking by then. The next split 708/630 was '96, and I wasn't even in the area at the time, but technically it was my home. Okay I was born in 88. So not old enough to remember 312 in a 708 area. But I had no idea it was in my lifetime. That 630 was also part of 708 I had no idea either. We attended a church in a 630 area code so my friends from there were all 630'ers and as I recall there was a specific line I had to call them from. But I guess their 708 days predated the time where I would have called friends myself by a couple years. Also this is somewhat unrelated to area codes, but also when I was in elementary school I had to learn a new zip code because we went from sharing with Maywood to having our own zip. And I specifically remember some kid messing it up in class the fall after it happened and feeling bad for him for getting it wrong, like "Damn bro you didn't get the memo" lol.

312 was also the burbs Dang, you must be old. It will always be to me: 312 - city, but also 773, but only for like... Luna Carpet 708 - cook county burbs (where I grew up) 630 - west collar counties 847 - North collar counties Everything else- here be dragons. Which to me, 331 or 224 is still here be dragon territory even though it's the same as 630 and 847. Like those aren't real area codes. My doctor has 331 and it's still odd to me.

Those are some odd choices for the IL area codes. I guess I get the non Chicagoland area codes inclusion. But they did 630 and 331 instead of including 847? And they forgot 414 8-)

Fields tore up a bunch of day 3 picks and UDFAs. Big if true. I kid I kid.

Most of his articles are teeerrrrrrible. I recently subscribed tp the DH becuase I wanted some daily local news source. But it's pretty worthless for sports.

I can't for the life of me even understand what Julie there is trying to say.

According to my much smarter than me BIL (econ PhD) it's a. 0226% chance at a alternating H-A schedule given totally random distribution in 1 17 game season. Obviously some schedules the NFL would never let happen though for instance HHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAA. So probably quite a bit larger odds in practical terms, but still. Pretty unusual!

Also, if they did want a "soft" opener for Fields its week 2 or 4 at home against Bengals/Lions. So yea, Fields by week 4? I can deal with that wait if I have to.

No back to back home or aways. Weird. Jet lag tracker! Pacific Central (H) Eastern Central (H) Pacific Central (H) Eastern Central (H) Eastern Bye Central (H) Eastern Central (H) Central Central (H) Pacific (On a short week to the biggest HFA stadium in the league!) Central (H) Central

Well AKME and Vooch have to give them a better chance than GarPax and Lavine alone. But yea, its not necessarily a great FA year. And this would otherwise be a great window to make a big move before Zach is expensive because you can use bird rights on him. Trade wise they're just limited in the fact that they're not going to be able to deal FRPs for a few years. If there were any salary dump targets though I think they could do a Sato-Thad swap and pick up a FRP (Sato and Thad are only partially guaranteed, so good for a team trying to get under tax/cap). Then they have additional assets to deal from to make another move as well. I guess they just need to the best they can in FA as they can, but still keep an eye towards a consolidation trade. That Vooch move would have been a lot better if they had pulled off a Ball trade at the deadline too. As is, they're still kind of straddling a weird line between getting under the cap or being able to build using bird rights and the exceptions.

Just saw a great summary on RealGM the other day on this; https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2079458 (the link to Shamsports is also a great tool to play around with scenarios on your own as well)

no real running game? i mean, it may or may not be very good. montgomery was pretty damn good last year. but i'd say there's enough there (plus with cohen back and herbert looks like a guy you can plug in there too) to qualify as "real" whatever that really means. and robinson, mooney (to say nothing of guys like miller - who has been a disappointment but seems talented enough to be *fine* as a 3rd guy on the depth chart) is as good a WR tandem as I've seen the bears have short of the marshall/alshon years. then there's guys like byrd and even dumb ass wims who are cromulent relative to their spots on the depth chart. kmet may or may not turn into something but i don't hate our TE situation. i guess my qualm is with calling those skill position situations "extremely limited." maybe i'm a little biased because of how bad the bears historically have been on offense but i think they're far from devoid of guys to get the ball to. they're far from stacked like the chiefs or anything but yeah. this is an org we've watched go into seasons with scrap heap roy williams and devin hester as a #1 WR. those teams were extremely limited in weapons. this is just kinda maybe average-ish or maybe much better with a good QB. And of course it's also possible that Fields, not Dalton is who will maximize those other skill players. I get this ultimately ends up being a ton of counterfactual arguments here, but it's worthwhile to be agressive with Fields and Jenkins developments. I don't particularly think eithers draft slots is that reflective of their talent and the Bears were incredibly luck to get both. Use 'em, IMO. Now sure Fields has to bear out Dalton. And Jenkins. I guess Wilkerson? But presumably they show undeniable skill and compentanct over the playbook. Let's go.