Change.org Petition for Reinsdorf to sell Bulls

[dice]

has any sports owner EVER been convinced to sell by a disgruntled fan base, let alone an owner who presided over a championship dynasty? the only reason this thread even exists is because of a fan base built by winning during reinsdorf's tenure. does anybody think that there were ever petitions signed to get donald sterling to sell based on his culture of losing? hell, the cubs were mediocre for decades. there was never any significant pressure on the tribune to sell the team. nor on...jerry reinsdorf for his mediocre stewardship of the sox! because their fans were not spoiled by winning

there are very few owners who have reputations so bad that their names are frequently brought up in the national media: dolan, daniel snyder, sarver in phoenix. none have ever been rumored to even be CONSIDERING selling

other notables:

mike brown has owned the bengals since 1991. they haven't won a single playoff game under him. in a league designed for parity!

the mets have been relatively bad under fred wilpon, a criminal business partner of bernie freaking madoff who was not shamed into selling the team

a guy named michael jordan has been pretty damn pitiful as an owner too

last and certainly least, anyone remember bill wirtz? if you're a longtime blackhawks fan, you just cringed. named the worst franchise in sports by ESPN a few years before he died. he was honored at a home game after he died and the fans booed. didn't care nearly as much about what the fans thought as he did about the bottom line

there are four major examples of owners who sold in the face of external pressure: sterling, marge schott, jerry richardson (carolina panthers owner who sexually harassed employees) and ted stepien (owner/GM of cavs, source of the 'stepian rule' prohibiting trading first round picks in consecutive years). none was primarily due to their teams' performance. jerry reinsdorf is simply not in the same category as those clowns

[HomoSapien]

I just have to note that JR has pretty thin skin. That's why his reaction to JVG calling him out was so severe.

Obviously a change petition isn't going to get him to sell but get enough sigs that its talked about on the radio will make him pretty uncomfortable. He likes having fall guys. Him taking fire directly will not sit well with him at all.

And don't forget, he isn't majority owner. While he is taking phone calls from the other owners about attendance, him getting hammered to sell just adds one more log to the fire.

Agreed. The petition, if it gets enough traction, won't get Reinsdorf to sell the team but it inches us closer towards a Forman dismissal.

[HomoSapien]

remember that billboard? or was that about garpax?

It said Fire GarPax. It failed because it came out while the Bulls were starting to play well. If it came out today it would be a bigger news story.

[drosereturn]

So embarrassing

Not embarrassing but kind of pointless or not effective at all.
Better idea would be somehow recruit all the rich Bulls fans and fund money to buy a majority stake of the Bulls like FC Barcelona.
Would gofundme even work if they need billions?

[coldfish]

I just have to note that JR has pretty thin skin. That's why his reaction to JVG calling him out was so severe.

Obviously a change petition isn't going to get him to sell but get enough sigs that its talked about on the radio will make him pretty uncomfortable. He likes having fall guys. Him taking fire directly will not sit well with him at all.

And don't forget, he isn't majority owner. While he is taking phone calls from the other owners about attendance, him getting hammered to sell just adds one more log to the fire.

I'd agree if you could got enough it might cause him to act in some way. Not sure if that's 10k, 100k, 1m, though.... I doubt it would ever make him sell but might make him switch up the org in some way. Problem is you'd need to find 100k people whom aren't so apathetic about the team they'd care enough to sign it.

Yeah, if a million people sign a petition effectively saying that Reinsdorf sucks and that the city wants him completely out, heads will roll. That's incredibly embarrassing.

OTOH, if 50 people sign it, that's a complete non entity. If anything, the FO might take it as tacit fan support.

Somewhere in the middle of those two numbers is where a line gets crossed and this gets uncomfortable for people. I suspect that its a pretty big number though. Easily over 100k. If someone is serious about it, they better start pushing it on social media and try to get it to go viral.

[pwrshft99]

There is really only one way to get Reinsdorf out. In today's PC culture, claim he is racist. That is literally the only way.

Jerry doesn't have many years left. Plain and simple, the Bulls and Sox will stay in the family.



There is always the nuclear option. Stop watching the Bulls. It's been hard for me but here we go, year three.

[aguifs]

Go nuclear is the only option

[dougthonus]

Somewhere in the middle of those two numbers is where a line gets crossed and this gets uncomfortable for people. I suspect that its a pretty big number though. Easily over 100k. If someone is serious about it, they better start pushing it on social media and try to get it to go viral.

I don't think there are enough people who care about the Bulls to hit the critical number.

[ChiCitySPORTS#1]

Although I would love to see Reinsdorf sell the team, I dont think he's the major problem as it stands today. The front office needs to be cleaned out. Jerry has shown he's willing to open his checkbook a little bit. And even if he's not perfect, he's still better than a lot of owners in the sports world. His main criticism is refusing to let go of GarPax.

[Stratmaster]

So embarrassing

Why?

Because it's embarrassing to treat a TV show as if it were a representative government that was supposed to be accountable to you for something. It's exactly the same thing as if someone made a change.org petition to try to get the writers of a fictional drama show to change the plot lines of their made up characters.

Pretty much this.

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[Stratmaster]

*Reinsdorf looks at the petition*

"Oh, well I guess I should sell then. It has 100 signatures."

And pretty much this

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[Stratmaster]

Why?

Because it's embarrassing to treat a TV show as if it were a representative government that was supposed to be accountable to you for something. It's exactly the same thing as if someone made a change.org petition to try to get the writers of a fictional drama show to change the plot lines of their made up characters.

It's not a TV show. This is the sort of thing that of course will not be the sole reason why this dude sells the team, but a collection of efforts that embarrass him because of the franchise's poor performance could absolutely result in some sort of actual change. This gets picked up by a blog or two, then by a beat reporter and then onto sports radio and it's another embarrassing mess for the Bulls at a time where the Bulls brand is not very strong in this city.

Yeah... like that billboard thing.

Very few people see basketball as important enough in their life to notice this.

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[Stratmaster]

I just have to note that JR has pretty thin skin. That's why his reaction to JVG calling him out was so severe.

Obviously a change petition isn't going to get him to sell but get enough sigs that its talked about on the radio will make him pretty uncomfortable. He likes having fall guys. Him taking fire directly will not sit well with him at all.

And don't forget, he isn't majority owner. While he is taking phone calls from the other owners about attendance, him getting hammered to sell just adds one more log to the fire.

So... then... Reinsdorf couldn't just sell the team anyway, right? If he isn't majority owner?

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[Stratmaster]

I'm of the opinion that the natural atrophy of the paying fanbase will have a much greater impact than a few salty die hards online. But I also believe that people need to find catharsis for things that hurt them. So sign away if it makes you feel better my fellow suffering basketball junkies.

And this.

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[Axl Rose]

So... then... Reinsdorf couldn't just sell the team anyway, right? If he isn't majority owner?

He could sell his share and i guess whoever buys will replace him as the "face" of ownership.

[Stratmaster]

remember that billboard? or was that about garpax?

It said Fire GarPax. It failed because it came out while the Bulls were starting to play well. If it came out today it would be a bigger news story.

No...one...outside...of...Chicago...cares.

Half of Chicago doesn't care about basketball.

Half of Bulls fans have no idea about the ownership structure.

The Bulls are an international brand.

The GarPax billboard was all over Chicago news and even got national coverage. Everyone yawned.

For most people, basketball is light entertainment after a hard day at work. They don't live and breathe on every occurrence in Bullsville.

If 21st Century Fox had a couple year string of horrible movies and you started a petition what percentage of movie-goers would take notice?

Hell half the people on here complaining brag about not spending money on the Bulls. You aren't even a part of their revenue stream.

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[dougthonus]

So... then... Reinsdorf couldn't just sell the team anyway, right? If he isn't majority owner?

He could sell his share and i guess whoever buys will replace him as the "face" of ownership.

If he sells his shares the buyer won't immediately become chairman of the board. He isn't the majority shareholder now.

[Susan]

Because it's embarrassing to treat a TV show as if it were a representative government that was supposed to be accountable to you for something. It's exactly the same thing as if someone made a change.org petition to try to get the writers of a fictional drama show to change the plot lines of their made up characters.

It's not a TV show. This is the sort of thing that of course will not be the sole reason why this dude sells the team, but a collection of efforts that embarrass him because of the franchise's poor performance could absolutely result in some sort of actual change. This gets picked up by a blog or two, then by a beat reporter and then onto sports radio and it's another embarrassing mess for the Bulls at a time where the Bulls brand is not very strong in this city.

Yeah... like that billboard thing.

Very few people see basketball as important enough in their life to notice this.

Sent from my SM-G965U using RealGM mobile app

We see the Chicago Bulls as important enough to have thousands of posts on them and the overall interest from the die hards has never been lower. The billboard generated negative PR for the Bulls and who knows how it's helped impact the downturn in attendance/viewership.

Both numbers are down to an extreme. This change.org petition is nothing but to think things are peachy is foolish.

[The Explorer]

The more negative media, articles, internet anger, along with the decreasing in attendance and ratings, the better. By itself, one petition doesn't mean much, but hopefully the collective voice of bulls fans are loud enough where it can impact the organization.

[Stratmaster]

It's not a TV show. This is the sort of thing that of course will not be the sole reason why this dude sells the team, but a collection of efforts that embarrass him because of the franchise's poor performance could absolutely result in some sort of actual change. This gets picked up by a blog or two, then by a beat reporter and then onto sports radio and it's another embarrassing mess for the Bulls at a time where the Bulls brand is not very strong in this city.

Yeah... like that billboard thing.

Very few people see basketball as important enough in their life to notice this.

Sent from my SM-G965U using RealGM mobile app

We see the Chicago Bulls as important enough to have thousands of posts on them and the overall interest from the die hards has never been lower. The billboard generated negative PR for the Bulls and who knows how it's helped impact the downturn in attendance/viewership.

Both numbers are down to an extreme. This change.org petition is nothing but to think things are peachy is foolish.

Wow. Thousands of posts from hundreds of die hards. I don't think you are taking into account the scope of the NBA, specifically the Bulls. Again, this is an international business.

I bet Fed-ex gets thousands of complaints daily. I don't think Fred Smith plans on selling his majority shares for the company he built which is raking in money hand over fist. I guarantee you the rest of the board isnt demanding he do so either.

But he may insist a couple Managers get fired.