Hangar18's Chicago NewsMedia Watch Thread

[zach23]

The attendance was s*** in Pitts today because the fans have brains, unlike most of the Cub "fans". It's not about the coverage... it's about word of mouth. And if it's not then let them read and fill that s*** hole up all they want. I don't want their stupid asses at my "house".

 

This is it exactly. This is the same reason why s*** like the "Spice Girls" and "New Kids on the Block" sell millions of records while groups with actual talent can't sell s***.

The majority of people in the world will buy s*** wrapped in a pretty package if it is marketed correctly. And someone can complain about it until they are blue in the face and it won't put a stop to it.

The Cubs are going to always sell out Wrigley from now on, and because it is sold out other people will want to be part of it because they perceive it as the popular thing to do. That is it, bottom line. Some people need to get over that and get on with their lives.

Even if the Tribune and the Sun-Times were to start writing stories favoring the Sox 90% of the time, people will still go to Wrigley in masses and the Sox will draw based on their play.

Hangar is like Don Quixote chasing windmills.

[Hangar18]

SO does Old Style Beer. I would like some comparison's on that. And Jewel and Dominicks sell cubs and white sox bags of nuts, I wonder if the ratio of cubs to sox bags in the display is sqewed based on the attendance the previous week.

 

 

the peanut thing is a good point. The availability of bags with both logos was a marketing thing.

The makers of those peanuts, figured, how can we sell MORE of the peanuts over our competitors? A bag of nuts is a bag of nuts right? They (shrewdly) decided to sell peanuts with logos of BOTH teams. More bags with the little league logo northside team distributed up north, more of the WS Champs logo distributed down south.

Of course, it is funny to go to a store and see only the northside peanuts left, and all the SOX ones gone!

that is just a company capitalizing on fan allegiance.

 

As for Old Style, they have no excuse. They were always known as a midwest beer, and way back in the day, they were able to get a distribution deal to sell in The Urinal. It was a coup for them, but when Budweiser also became the "official" beer, OldStyle Foolishly (depending how you look at it) decided they were going to hitch thier Wagon to the Cubs Cart. They werent happy that Bud was the official beer, so OldStyle they decided they were the beer of the fans, and aggressively put the team LOGO on their cans and packaging (knowing that those fans are also imbeciles and will buy Anything with the logo on it).

What you saw was more of a Beer War than anything but with that team winning the 98 "wild card championship", OldStyle stepped their campaign to defcon5 status. The fact that they dont care that some SOX fans may actually like their beer too is fact enough to how they market their product. They "believed" there were "more" of their fans to market to, so go for it. (anyone remember in 04, they had those giant cardboard IVY walls with "This is the year" on it, and on the packaging? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAA)

that team crashed and burned and the brewery looked like FOOLS (mastercard/ATA also) basing whole marketing campaigns on the fortunes of one team. So OldStyle jumped on the cubwagon first because of their distribution in the Urinal, and 2nd because they thought that team was about to start a dynasty.

[Steff]

Best statement in this whole thread.

 

 

 

Finally!!! Only took till June 1st..

[LVSoxFan]

If people don't like people posting about media coverage, attendance, whatsoever, then DON'T READ THE DAMN THREAD.

 

Unless somebody's being obscene or trolling, I have a hard time dictating what they can or cannot post or whether it is sufficiently Sox-worthy. If you want that kind of despotism, I know another Sox site you can visit...

 

I personally don't care about the media coverage (I thought the Sox got plenty of media coverage last year) but if that's what toasts Hangar's bagel, then rock on, brother.

[southsideirish]

QUOTE(Steff @ Jun 1, 2006 -> 09:26 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That is what she told me. The Friday Sox/Cubs game I had to go to 3 different Jewel stores to get a Sox balloon. They all told me the stuff was flying off the shelves. Thank God the Trib hasn't gotten into the minds and brainwashed the good folks of Plainfield...

 

ha ha!

 

[Hangar18]

Oh bulls***. If the media had that much control over attendance there would be NO ONE at Comiskey. And last time I checked... I write the check for my season tickets without help from a media outlet. Sox fans who aren't obsessed with the Cubs go for the product not the atmosphere. That's that. And the atmosphere around Wrigley is more lively - note I did NOT say better.

The attendance was s*** in Pitts today because the fans have brains, unlike most of the Cub "fans". It's not about the coverage... it's about word of mouth. And if it's not then let them read and fill that s*** hole up all they want. I don't want their stupid asses at my "house".

 

 

Steff, you have some good points. some.

the Media used to have control over attendance at Sox park. We won the Series. They cant control that anymore. (both teams may have 3 million, first time in history) You write a check for SOX tickets.

Great. You arent who Im talking about (you know better) Attendance has been CRAP in Pittsburgh for a while now, because they are NOT A GOOD TEAM, and bottom of their division. You dont think if the media helped the Pirates and told everyone how that is the greatest park in baseball, everyone should go no matter what, that that wouldnt help?

 

YES, you are right, (which is the point im making) those "stupid asses" as you call them DO fill the park up no matter what, theyre there for the Cold Beer and Chicks. The old ladies from Iowa are there because the tourbuses dont have directions South on 94. Game of the week, in which that team was on, the announcers commented on how they sold the most tickets in one game, and everyone in the city is clamoring for those tickets, people love them thats why its always "full". They didnt mention that the team just south also is having a Ticket Problem, everyone in the city is clamoring for those tickets, people love them, and thats why The Cell has been always "full" this season. People fill one park because the team are Champions. People fill another park because they were told the stadium is awesome.

[Sox1422]

The only reason why the bags at Jewel have the Cub logo on them is so Cub fans can wear them over their heads at games.

[Steff]

the Media used to have control over attendance at Sox park.

 

 

 

For the 1,000,000,001 st time...

 

 

You need help, kiddo.

 

 

:banghead

[Hangar18]

^ I hate to admit it.. but when I went into Jewel the other day I saw no bags with Sox on them and I complained..

 

 

 

Ive got a better story, and I'll bet NOBODY here ever knew this has happened. I went to the Target near my house (on Roosevelt downtown). There was a giant kiosk of Cubjunk, tshirts, shorts etc, with 2 separate hanger kiosks with more cubcrap. Next to it, hidden behind it, was 1 hanger kiosk, and only about 7 Sox shirts. There was nowhere the amount/selection of SOX shirts, so I asked the MGR, hey

why arent there more SOX shirts and displays, we did win the World Series after all.

 

The Mgr LAUGHED and said I was like the 10th person looking for SOX stuff. He said they cant KEEP ENOUGH sox stuff on the shelves and said the whole kiosk was filled a couple times and soldout already so they moved the kiosk away. He said SOX stuff flying out the doors was unheard of and its selling great.

I asked how did that compare to Cub junk. Said it didnt compare, even in 03, at another store, the stuff sold, but not like how SOX stuff is flying. He said he triples the amount of stuff available to them when they order. You would think that one of the lazy reporters here in this town of 5million people, 2 major newspaper dailies, might mention this very positive piece of news. It is great news ..........

[Steff]

Ive got a better story, and I'll bet NOBODY here ever knew this has happened. I went to the Target near my house (on Roosevelt downtown). There was a giant kiosk of Cubjunk, tshirts, shorts etc, with 2 separate hanger kiosks with more cubcrap. Next to it, hidden behind it, was 1 hanger kiosk, and only about 7 Sox shirts. There was nowhere the amount/selection of SOX shirts, so I asked the MGR, hey

why arent there more SOX shirts and displays, we did win the World Series after all.

 

The Mgr LAUGHED and said I was like the 10th person looking for SOX stuff. He said they cant KEEP ENOUGH sox stuff on the shelves and said the whole kiosk was filled a couple times and soldout already so they moved the kiosk away. He said SOX stuff flying out the doors was unheard of and its selling great.

I asked how did that compare to Cub junk. Said it didnt compare, even in 03, at another store, the stuff sold, but not like how SOX stuff is flying. He said he triples the amount of stuff available to them when they order. You would think that one of the lazy reporters here in this town of 5million people, 2 major newspaper dailies, might mention this very positive piece of news. It is great news ..........

 

 

And look at that.. it's selling WITHOUT the Sox being in the paper as much as the Cubs...

 

 

Kind of took a poop on your own theory right there Henry..

[zach61]

And look at that.. it's selling WITHOUT the Sox being in the paper as much as the Cubs...

Kind of took a poop on your own theory right there Henry..

 

 

But if the media would report it, then they would be in the media? Maybe Henry will be happy when the Sox have a crappy team, a full park, and tons of great stories about how the Sox are the best team to go see even though they suck and can't win.

[Hangar18]

And look at that.. it's selling WITHOUT the Sox being in the paper as much as the Cubs...

Kind of took a poop on your own theory right there Henry..

 

 

Kind of. Except what Im saying is that they wont mention anything then. they'll just ignore this

and do a feature on why AJ is the biggest "jerk" in baseball. The SOX selling out all of their season ticket base for the 1st time in their history, was quickly pushed by the wayside of the Trib talking about how thier team sold 600,000 tickets in one day. I still like ya Steff

[SleepyWhiteSox]

Anybody boycott cub foods stores?

[WCSox]

As for this guy starting and maintaining a thread on this media bias thing ... people will comment one way or the other. A few will find it interesting and a lot will find it overkill and beating a dead horse.

 

And if the latter group feels that way, they can choose to ignore it.

 

I'd rather that Soxtalk allow people to post such threads than to take WSI's totalitarian approach to content. Just my $0.02.

[Guest JimH]

And if the latter group feels that way, they can choose to ignore it.

 

I'd rather that Soxtalk allow people to post such threads than to take WSI's totalitarian approach to content. Just my $0.02.

 

Or they can choose to comment about how they think it's an obsession and stupid.

 

That's the way it works around here, so I highly doubt all you people who say "if you don't like it just ignore it" will get your wish.

[aboz56]

I'm not gonna read through all of this, but I think these type of threads are pretty pointless if you ask me.

 

The amount of media coverage a certain team gets, who cares?

 

Actually going and researching this stuff on a daily basis is even more ridiculous.

 

Just worry about what's happening on the field. That's all that matters.

 

Even worse is that people have replied to this to make it stick on the front page of PHT and also that its seven pages long.

[WCSox]

Or they can choose to comment about how they think it's an obsession and stupid.

 

That's the way it works around here, so I highly doubt all you people who say "if you don't like it just ignore it" will get your wish.

 

No problem with that. But as long as it's non-offensive and Sox-related, I support his effort to post such material... even if he is beating a dead horse.

[southsideirish71]

IMHO.

 

I could care less if someone keeps a thread on this, but I think it belongs in Diamond Club and not here.

 

That is where the fouler team of the northside is chatted about, made fun of, and torn apart. In Palehose we try to keep it generally about the whitesox. Not about attendance threads, threads about coverage, or the conspiracy threads or all things northside.

[WCSox]

IMHO.

 

I could care less if someone keeps a thread on this, but I think it belongs in Diamond Club and not here.

 

That is where the fouler team of the northside is chatted about, made fun of, and torn apart. In Palehose we try to keep it generally about the whitesox. Not about attendance threads, threads about coverage, or the conspiracy threads or all things northside.

 

Agreed, especially since much of it will inevitably deal with "the other team."

[aboz56]

I will tell you this, if its centered around the Cubs, it's not gonna be in this forum.

 

I'm sure Northsidebaseball.com would like to talk about the Flubbies though.

[Steff]

Kind of. Except what Im saying is that they wont mention anything then. they'll just ignore this

and do a feature on why AJ is the biggest "jerk" in baseball. The SOX selling out all of their season ticket base for the 1st time in their history, was quickly pushed by the wayside of the Trib talking about how thier team sold 600,000 tickets in one day. I still like ya Steff

 

 

There have been plenty of articles on the Sox selling out Henry. You just continue to focus on the negative.

[Guest JimH]

No problem with that. But as long as it's non-offensive and Sox-related, I support his effort to post such material... even if he is beating a dead horse.

 

I don't because I'm not an advocate of focusing on the negative and whining about it over and over and over. And with that, I have said enough about this topic.

[southsider2k5]

So the Sox grandmistake of Sportsvision coupled with the Cubs being on free TV at a time when the majority of the country didn't have anything to do with it?

 

I still want to see some hard numbers relating to media coverage throughout these eras. Without them there is no facts here at all. It is a completely onesided arguement with incomplete facts. You can't tell me how much coverage the teams get today, leave out how much coverage they got during these formative years, and then draw a conclustion based on that.

 

Also I would be curious to see how much coverage has changed relative to attendance at the ballparks with the changes in the teams records. IE how much did Cubs coverage go up in 2003 relative to 2002, or how much did the Sox coverage go up in 2006 as compared to 2005, and how does it compare to how much attendance has gone up from opening day in 2005 until today?

 

I guess what I am saying is a set up numbers by itself is well, a set of numbers. I am an economist at heart. I analyse trends, not a single set of numbers. Give me changes in totals as compared to the different factors that would affect attendance, and relative to that, how much coverage a team should receive. Granted if your numbers just began in the last few seasons your data set is going to be very incomplete, but at least we can gather some information from the trends in the shortterm. Any conclusions you have reached without actual data to back them up on the times prior to your body of work are pure speculation, and pretty much worthless for a fact based arguement.

 

 

Wow. Now that I didnt know. I had separate records for that year, and I kind of knew that to be the case (every dang time I opened the paper, they were front page headlines)

03 and 04 are the years that stand out to me as well.

 

In 03, the northside team surprised everyone and made the playoffs, and the Media here went HOG WILD writing as many stories as they legally could.

In 04, the stories for the northside team were Unprecedentedly high, and that was based on them "winning" in 03.

 

Did the SOX get HOG WILD coverage in 05 when they surprised everyone ? NO. The media told us "lets wait and see" OR "theyre not for real" and continued to give the other team more coverage.

Did the SOX get the Unprecedentedly high coverage for actually WINNING the World Series in 05?? NO. The records above bear this out.

 

So in other words, the media here (and only here, this isnt happening in any other city) cares only about the northside team, World Series be damned. Its a crying shame, and despicable this team isnt treated better.

 

OK, so I am still curious to see your research for my first question (mainly from the Trib, but any other sources you have), and now I have another question. What is the rest of the Chicago's role in the alleged media bias, and what would be their motivation? Wouldn't it stand to reason if there were so many Sox fans, and the Tribco was catering exclusively to them, that the rest of the media outlets would recognize the profit potential to be exploited from the underserved White Sox fans and jump on their bandwagon? What reason would the Chicago Sun Times for example have to keep a pro-Cubs bias?

[henry wiggins]

If the Sox want all the press, then they should get their own paper too.

 

Has anyone suggested this to KW yet? Because I believe he could do it! Maybe a deal involving Politte and a draft pick.

 

As a lifelong south sider, I know that Hangar isn't exaggerating about the media coverage of the two teams. It's about more than the baseball teams -- it's about race and class and the perceptions of both in Chicago. It ain't pretty.

 

(OTOH, the fact that the drunks and yuppie scum don't come to the Cell in the numbers that they go to the Confines is okay with me, so this is both a curse and a blessing.)

[Hangar18]

OK, so I am still curious to see your research for my first question (mainly from the Trib, but any other sources you have), and now I have another question.

 

What is the rest of the Chicago's role in the alleged media bias, and what would be their motivation? Wouldn't it stand to reason if there were so many Sox fans, and the Tribco was catering exclusively to them, that the rest of the media outlets would recognize the profit potential to be exploited from the underserved White Sox fans and jump on their bandwagon?

What reason would the Chicago Sun Times for example have to keep a pro-Cubs bias?

 

 

Theres a guy who posts over at the enemy site WSI, hes a member of the media and lives in Idaho currently, but has been a SOX fan since the 1950's and has also documented the folly that was pay-tv.

I'll see if someone cant get him to comment on this for you (or I will have him reach you, the research is stunning)

Your questions are Excellent and Poignant. These are questions Ive asked over the years myself.

The rest of Chicagos role? the Chicago Tribune is a huge mega-corporation news syndicate, it owns WGN radio and TV, as well as other newspapers throughout the US. They bought the cubs in part, to aid in marketing for their WGN radio/tv division. Back in the day, Wgn was (still is) considered a SuperStation, made available to cable outlets all over the US. That means you could be shoveling snow in Aniak Alaska,

and come inside and catch WGN's team on tv. Knowing they had a product (cubs) to help anchor their programming, they (remember, cubs stunk badly at that point) and they decided to market the heck out of the park (cant market winning after all right?) They made sure cubs were marketed big time, in their newspapers, tv,radio and in other newspapers it owns. They had to make sure that you the viewer on cable, wanted to watch cub games instead of the other product available 8miles south, the SOX. The tribune at some point of giving extra and preferred treatment to its cub team, decided that, since it controls the information being disseminated, why not publicize everything BAD about comiskey park and the sox.

 

White sox fans cant help the tribune in response to the cubs. The Cubs are an extension of the Tribune Entertainment Corporation. The Better the Cubs are perceived, the more $$$$ marketing they make.

The SunTimes has no excuse. They are the weak-sister stepchild in all of this. They cant think for themselves and simply follow the Lead of the whatever the Tribune does. (Red Eye/Red Streak for example)

SunTimes figures, hey theyre catering to Cub fans only, must mean there are only cub fans in this town.

The perception that Chicago is a cubs town is now so far stretched on the planet, everyone thinks the SOX play in Detroit (ok thats pushing it) How in the world can a team that is that BAD, get more attention than a team thats consistently good? MARKETING. They have the ability to control what gets reported, so every negative story that can be pushed about the SOX, gets done. Everything positive that can be pushed about the Cubs, gets done so 5 times as much. And on the odd chance something negative happens at WrigleyField or with Cub fans? SWEEP IT UNDER THE RUG (murder in front of field/Underaged Drunk Trixie whipping baseball at JJones/Drunk Cub fans fighting with police on Lplatform) People in the far reaches of the planet wont hear about that stuff. What they will hear are the Daily routines of William Ligue, every court date he has, what recent Speeding Tickets he received. IS that really news?

 

Sure, SoxFan1 will say "Who cares man, let them talk all they want" or " That doesnt affect the SOX" or "your just crazy" or "you must love the cubs so much to talk about this' or "your beating a dead horse man, things will never change"

well it does. For years, the media did stories on how this town isnt big enough for the SOX, and that Cub fans quadruple them. People started believing that. I'll bet people here believe that too. But the SOX winning the World Series did something. Suddenly, the SOX sold out all of their season ticket base for the first time in Franchise History! Were talking about a team that has been around for 105 years. They will get 3,000,000 fans (hopefully) for the first time in history, and will mark the 1st time EVER in Chicago History that BOTH teams draw 3 Million Fans. That certainly flies in the face of "there are no SOX Fans" "cub fans outnumber sox fans" "they'll never draw 3million, too many cub fans". Where are these fans coming from? They arent cub fans thats for sure. 2 million showed up for the WS Parade! The SOX themselves were extremely surprised (kennywilliams "we didnt know there were this many of you)

(rickmorrissey jackass tribune/cub apologist wrote afterwards that of the 2million, most were cub fans out to see a parade, they werent all sox fans)

And that was glossed over in favor of a team that sold 600,000 in one day. Somehow that is a bigger story than the other? Not really, the Chicago Media simply chose what they were going to tell people.

 

Im getting away from your question, but the SunTimes continueing the ProCub bias is only because the Tribune keeps doing it. The Trib is the SunTimes direct competitor. Hey if theyre serving BaconCheeseburgers you better get BaconCheeseburgers on the menu too. The SunTimes are Idiots.

So are morons like Jay Idiotti, Mike "yellow" Kiley, and Carol "lets give Kerry a nickname" Sleazak.