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Why the Sox should be #1 in Chicago


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I was thinking today, if the Cubs and Sox didn't play in Chicago, where would they fit in? The Cubs seem like a L.A. team. The fans, the atmosphere, the "charm". The Sox seem more like Detroit or Pittsburg. Chicago should be rejecting the plastic, fake Cubs and embracing the Sox, yet it still isn't close. It just doesn't make sense. What happened the the working man's teams? The Bears during the Dikta regime tapped into it.

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QUOTE(DABearSoX @ May 23, 2005 -> 12:41 PM)
I read an article in the paper on if JR dove into his pockets and made the parking lots into an area like wrigleyville, with bars and things to do before and after the game we could be owning this city.

 

i enjoy driving to the game.

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QUOTE(DABearSoX @ May 23, 2005 -> 12:41 PM)
I read an article in the paper on if JR dove into his pockets and made the parking lots into an area like wrigleyville, with bars and things to do before and after the game we could be owning this city.

 

I think that is part of the grand master plan of re-designing the US Cellular experience. From what I keep reading about what they areplanning to do, bars are on the way. You can only hope that the people who own the property around the park are smart enough to capitalize on the gameday traffic.

 

It seems like it is way too obvious for me. Open a bar to cater to the fans. Duh.

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Well for 81 days those bars would make money. What about the rest of the time. Bridgeport is not a destination.

 

As much as I hate to say it, Wrigleyville is. You go to Sluggers or Hi-Tops in January and they are still packed.

 

I will go so far as to say if the Sox won the World Series, the TV crews would get better fan reaction and party shots if they went to the Wrigley bars. Just geography. I love the Cell and I love parking, but the surrounding area is not Wrigleyville.

 

I have gone to games at the Cell and then took the L back up north to party.

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QUOTE(kyyle23 @ May 23, 2005 -> 01:16 PM)
I think that is part of the grand master plan of re-designing the US Cellular experience. From what I keep reading about what they areplanning to do, bars are on the way. You can only hope that the people who own the property around the park are smart enough to capitalize on the gameday traffic. 

 

It seems like it is way too obvious for me. Open a bar to cater to the fans. Duh.

 

I hope you are right...but I've never heard this before...

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QUOTE(DABearSoX @ May 23, 2005 -> 11:41 AM)
I read an article in the paper on if JR dove into his pockets and made the parking lots into an area like wrigleyville, with bars and things to do before and after the game we could be owning this city.

 

What most people tend to forget is that JR owns very little of the team. I'm sure someone knows the exact number but I believe it is around 9%. He is the managing partner and speaks for the rest of the group. Holwever, when discussing the improvements around the ballpark it is by no means "JR diving into his pockets." It is the plan of the partners (of which there are many) and that of the Illinois Sports Authority which owns the stadium which must be taken into conisderation.

 

I hope they do improve the area around the ballpark but it will hardly be up to JR diving into his pockets to do so.

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QUOTE(retro1983hat @ May 23, 2005 -> 06:20 PM)
Well for 81 days those bars would make money. What about the rest of the time. Bridgeport is not a destination.

 

As much as I hate to say it, Wrigleyville is. You go to Sluggers or Hi-Tops in January and they are still packed.

 

I will go so far as to say if the Sox won the World Series, the TV crews would get better fan reaction and party shots if they went to the Wrigley bars. Just geography. I love the Cell and I love parking, but the surrounding area is not Wrigleyville.

 

I have gone to games at the Cell and then took the L back up north to party.

 

Wrigleyville hasn't always been the Wrigleyville it is today. Put a few bars and restaurants in, then the neighborhood will slowly change, then you put more bars and eateries in, then more young, hip people move in, then more bars and restaurants, etc. Pretty soon, it will be a fun area year round because you have enough people living there looking for things to do. You have to start somewhere. The problem is too many people seem to resist that kind of change to the area.

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There are too many people in bridgeport that dont want that element to come to their area. Its too bad because just a little ways north University Village is a great place for people to live and it could be the LP/wrigleyville relationship of the south.

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QUOTE(RockRaines @ May 23, 2005 -> 06:50 PM)
There are too many people in bridgeport that dont want that element to come to their area.  Its too bad because just a little ways north University Village is a great place for people to live and it could be the LP/wrigleyville relationship of the south.

Yep. There's always been a kind of south side, blue collar, belly up to the tavern image that a lot of people want to keep. To a lot of people in the area, the Sox are not even really that important.

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While building up the surrounding area would help attendence I think by a bunch, Idonno if we would outdraw the cubbies unless they were like the royals bad and us being as good as we are now.

 

That being said, look what happened when they built up woodfield, that whole place was dead and now its a hot spot to hang out and see movies and go to that awesome ice cream store... so building up the surrounding area is very important.

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QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ May 23, 2005 -> 07:13 PM)
While building up the surrounding area would help attendence I think by a bunch, Idonno if we would outdraw the cubbies unless they were like the royals bad and us being as good as we are now.

 

That being said, look what happened when they built up woodfield, that whole place was dead and now its a hot spot to hang out and see movies and go to that awesome ice cream store... so building up the surrounding area is very important.

 

 

Who cares about outdrawing the Cubs. I care aboutdrawing our own attendance from past years.

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Guest JimH

Of possible interest, there's a nice new development going up on the NW corner of 35th and Halsted, about 7-8 blocks west of the ballpark. It'll be a combination of nice condos, ground floor retail, and a Gale Street Inn restaurant and bar. Granted it's not extremely close walking distance from the ballpark like Wrigleyville but there's some definite development happening in Bridgeport.

 

In addition, much of the west side of Halsted is being demolished and redeveloped, with plans for all sorts of new businesses (mostly from 35th north to 31st).

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QUOTE(Texsox @ May 23, 2005 -> 05:33 PM)
I was thinking today, if the Cubs and Sox didn't play in Chicago, where would they fit in? The Cubs seem like a L.A. team. The fans, the atmosphere, the "charm". The Sox seem more like Detroit or Pittsburg. Chicago should be rejecting the plastic, fake Cubs and embracing the Sox, yet it still isn't close. It just doesn't make sense. What happened the the working man's teams? The Bears during the Dikta regime tapped into it.

To answer your orignal question, times change, sports change and areas change. I look around Chicago (and I mean the actual city, not the burbs) and I see it moving away from it's blue collar reputation.

No, it's not impossible to win with our payroll and a huge payroll doesn't guarantee success, but can you imagine what KW might be able to accomplish with just an extra 10-15 extra mil per year?

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QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ May 23, 2005 -> 02:34 PM)
Whatever happened to the condos that were supposed to go up at State and 35th?

 

 

 

Permit problems.... :angry:

 

 

Something about zoning crap. Supposed to be resolved by this fall.

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People, people ..... just enjoy our park for what it has. Wrigley has something to sell that we do not. Fine, we'll sell something they do not. Convenience, parking, food, oh and .... WINNING BASEBALL.

 

Wrigely Field is a museum and they will draw no matter what. You want to know something else, there are more Cub fans than Sox fans. We all know it. That's fine. Someone has to have more fans. We just need to keep going out and supporting our team.

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QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ May 23, 2005 -> 02:38 PM)
To answer your orignal question, times change, sports change and areas change. I look around Chicago (and I mean the actual city, not the burbs) and I see it moving away from it's blue collar reputation.

No, it's not impossible to win with our payroll and a huge payroll doesn't guarantee success, but can you imagine what KW might be able to accomplish with just an extra 10-15 extra mil per year?

 

An interesting question.

 

My concern would have been that the temptation would have been to not subtract some of the problems we had, and instead to just add to the team. This winter was solid not only for who we added, but who we chose to get rid of. I wonder if KW would have just simply spent the extra money, and if that were the case, would it have changed our luck at all.

 

And as for spending money, we all know that it helps, but doesn't necesarily mean anything. A great example, is if you add up all of the Yankees payrolls starting with 2000, they have spent just under $800 million, and have won the same amount of WS's as we have, none.

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