OT: Bears Talk - Justin Fields era begins

[fleet]

I just saw that Lebron said it a couple times sort of. Once after Fields. But once taking an insult against Harden. I tend to change the channel when he talks so I’m pretty blissfully unaware of most of his statements unless he has his own show to garner attention. Most of what he says seems self serving. I like the way Fields came across as way more wholesome.

[Chicago-Bull-E]

The Bears aren't moving to Arlington Heights, that space is not nearly big enough. It's a ploy to milk more money from Chicago tax payers to have a state of the art stadium and facilities built just like Rickets did with the Cubs.

Call their bluff, stop giving billionaires free money ffs.

Arlington Park is **** massive.

Someone superimposed Soldier Field onto it. It may take you a second to actually find Soldier Field.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CHIBears/comments/o27d38/soldier_field_superimposed_on_arlington_raceway/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

[Bullflip]

Bears should just move to Arlington Heights. Chicago is a cesspool of crime and violence now. Lori has just been incompetent as a mayor.

if you're afraid to go to a bears or sox game, you're quite the delicate flower

and i'd love to see your evidence that lightfoot has had a negative impact on crime and violence in her 2 years on the job. violent crime was a bit down in 2020 and property crime way down in chicago. meanwhile, in elgin (pretty close to arlington heights), crime was slightly up. same in some other major cities in illinois. so the chicago decreases don't appear to be strongly pandemic related

so what's the REAL reason you don't like her?

Yea not sure where you are getting your statistics but homicides are up in 2020 and 2021 when compared to 2018 and 2019. Homicides are already more than last year and this year isn’t over yet.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-chicago-homicides-data-tracker-htmlstory.html

[dice]

Bears should just move to Arlington Heights. Chicago is a cesspool of crime and violence now. Lori has just been incompetent as a mayor.

if you're afraid to go to a bears or sox game, you're quite the delicate flower

and i'd love to see your evidence that lightfoot has had a negative impact on crime and violence in her 2 years on the job. violent crime was a bit down in 2020 and property crime way down in chicago. meanwhile, in elgin (pretty close to arlington heights), crime was slightly up. same in some other major cities in illinois. so the chicago decreases don't appear to be strongly pandemic related

so what's the REAL reason you don't like her?

Yea not sure where you are getting your statistics but homicides are up in 2020 and 2021 when compared to 2018 and 2019. Homicides are already more than last year and this year isn’t over yet.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-chicago-homicides-data-tracker-htmlstory.html

homicides are a teeny tiny fraction of violent crime. and obviously an even tinier fraction of overall crime

if you're going to blame lori lightfoot for 100+ additional murders last year, you then also have to give her credit for thousands fewer crimes overall. frankly, it's hard to do either given the short time she's been in office

regardless, it shouldn't have jack to do with whether the bears stay at soldier field

[thedarkstark]

The Bears aren't moving to Arlington Heights, that space is not nearly big enough. It's a ploy to milk more money from Chicago tax payers to have a state of the art stadium and facilities built just like Rickets did with the Cubs.

Call their bluff, stop giving billionaires free money ffs.

Arlington Park is **** massive.

Someone superimposed Soldier Field onto it. It may take you a second to actually find Soldier Field.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CHIBears/comments/o27d38/soldier_field_superimposed_on_arlington_raceway/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

That's cool but you also need to consider parking/traffic and everything else that comes with 70-100,000 people coming and going every day. Chicago has public transit and other infrastructure things that support those kinds of crowds, Arlington is a relatively small town and has none of those things.

[Leslie Forman]

That's cool but you also need to consider parking/traffic and everything else that comes with 70-100,000 people coming and going every day. Chicago has public transit and other infrastructure things that support those kinds of crowds, Arlington is a relatively small town and has none of those things.

It's 8 or 9 times a year on a Sunday and that part of 53 doesn't even get full during rush hour. Arlington Park also already handles baseball game-sized crowds with no problem.

Soldier Field has to be the absolute worst "great location" in real practice. The door-to-seat experience is awful. Just getting from the Roosevelt stop to your seat can take an hour. Tack on the actual commute itself and you might as well drive to Milwaukee. And if you want to go to the bathroom? Might as well have stayed home since you'll be stuck in line watching the rest of the game on your phone.

There really is no reason whatsoever to stay at Soldier Field except out of apathy or a lack of ability to find funding. Even as someone who likes it, I admit it's an objectively terrible stadium for the biggest single team market in the country.

But hey, it should be fine for the Fire.

[Susan]

The Bears aren't moving to Arlington Heights, that space is not nearly big enough. It's a ploy to milk more money from Chicago tax payers to have a state of the art stadium and facilities built just like Rickets did with the Cubs.

Call their bluff, stop giving billionaires free money ffs.

Arlington Park is **** massive.

Someone superimposed Soldier Field onto it. It may take you a second to actually find Soldier Field.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CHIBears/comments/o27d38/soldier_field_superimposed_on_arlington_raceway/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

That's cool but you also need to consider parking/traffic and everything else that comes with 70-100,000 people coming and going every day. Chicago has public transit and other infrastructure things that support those kinds of crowds, Arlington is a relatively small town and has none of those things.

The state would have to spend so much money to build the infrastructure for AH to be remotely viable.

Currently people can fly in from either MDW or O'Hare, stay downtown and scamper on over. Everything AH related is 100% dependent on cars and when you factor in the partying scene that they'll try and build up over there, it's a dumbass idea.

Improve Soldier Field or knock down McCormick Place East and build a massive dome there that can handle multiple uses. Trade shows, Final Fours, Super Bowls and whatever else they can think of over there. People are fooling themselves if they think people want to travel all over to visit Arlington Freaking Heights.

[Susan]

That's cool but you also need to consider parking/traffic and everything else that comes with 70-100,000 people coming and going every day. Chicago has public transit and other infrastructure things that support those kinds of crowds, Arlington is a relatively small town and has none of those things.

It's 8 or 9 times a year on a Sunday and that part of 53 doesn't even get full during rush hour. Arlington Park also already handles baseball game-sized crowds with no problem.

Soldier Field has to be the absolute worst "great location" in real practice. The door-to-seat experience is awful. Just getting from the Roosevelt stop to your seat can take an hour. Tack on the actual commute itself and you might as well drive to Milwaukee. And if you want to go to the bathroom? Might as well have stayed home since you'll be stuck in line watching the rest of the game on your phone.

There really is no reason whatsoever to stay at Soldier Field except out of apathy or a lack of ability to find funding. Even as someone who likes it, I admit it's an objectively terrible stadium for the biggest single team market in the country.

But hey, it should be fine for the Fire.

Let's hear about the commute to Wrigley.

After a game, every freaking stadium is a mess. Go to a Sox game and it's a mess the hour after the game. LMAO at trying to drive to Wrigley. After a Bulls/Hawks game it's a **** show getting to 290 and once you're on there, it's a damn crawl.

Thinking moving to AH will make the commute any easier is hilarious. You're dealing with tens of thousands of people with a large swath of them drunk, all trying to leave the same space at the same time. It's ALWAYS going to be a mess. That Metra stop ain't alleviating anything.

[Leslie Forman]

Let's hear about the commute to Wrigley.

After a game, every freaking stadium is a mess. Go to a Sox game and it's a mess the hour after the game. LMAO at trying to drive to Wrigley. After a Bulls/Hawks game it's a **** show getting to 290 and once you're on there, it's a damn crawl.

1. I'm not sure how this is helping whatever your point is
2. Who's talking about after the game? Going to Soldier Field BEFORE the game sucks giant donkey balls.

Thinking moving to AH will make the commute any easier is hilarious. You're dealing with tens of thousands of people with a large swath of them drunk, all trying to leave the same space at the same time. It's ALWAYS going to be a mess. That Metra stop ain't alleviating anything.

For the vast, vast majority of the Chicago metro area, it will be IMMENSELY easier. Saying otherwise is just completely ignoring the makeup of the metro area and it sure sounds like you've never actually even been to a race at Arlington. I live by a CTA stop a good 20 miles closer to Soldier Field and it takes less time for me to drive all the way out to Arlington and get my ass in a seat than it does to actually get in my seat at Soldier Field. And it's really not even close. It's legitimately 15-30 minutes quicker, whether I'm driving or CTAing it.

This isn't even taking into account that they can finally have a goddamn roof. That alone is worth it. Maybe they'd even finally have a decent offense, then.

[Susan]

Let's hear about the commute to Wrigley.

After a game, every freaking stadium is a mess. Go to a Sox game and it's a mess the hour after the game. LMAO at trying to drive to Wrigley. After a Bulls/Hawks game it's a **** show getting to 290 and once you're on there, it's a damn crawl.

1. I'm not sure how this is helping whatever your point is
2. Who's talking about after the game? Going to Soldier Field BEFORE the game sucks giant donkey balls.

Thinking moving to AH will make the commute any easier is hilarious. You're dealing with tens of thousands of people with a large swath of them drunk, all trying to leave the same space at the same time. It's ALWAYS going to be a mess. That Metra stop ain't alleviating anything.

For the vast, vast majority of the Chicago metro area, it will be IMMENSELY easier. Saying otherwise is just completely ignoring the makeup of the metro area and it sure sounds like you've never actually even been to a race at Arlington. I live by a CTA stop a good 20 miles closer to Soldier Field and it takes less time for me to drive all the way out to Arlington and get my ass in a seat than it does to actually get in my seat at Soldier Field. And it's really not even close. It's legitimately 15-30 minutes quicker, whether I'm driving or CTAing it.

This isn't even taking into account that they can finally have a goddamn roof. That alone is worth it. Maybe they'd even finally have a decent offense, then.

My point is that no matter what, getting to and from a game is going to be a mess.

Getting in is less vital because people come in staggered. Once a game ends, you have 95% or so of the people in the stadium all leaving at once.

Either way, AH ain't happening unless the Bears stumble into a few billion. How many times have they pulled this card over the past 30 years??

[thedarkstark]

That's cool but you also need to consider parking/traffic and everything else that comes with 70-100,000 people coming and going every day. Chicago has public transit and other infrastructure things that support those kinds of crowds, Arlington is a relatively small town and has none of those things.

It's 8 or 9 times a year on a Sunday and that part of 53 doesn't even get full during rush hour. Arlington Park also already handles baseball game-sized crowds with no problem.

Soldier Field has to be the absolute worst "great location" in real practice. The door-to-seat experience is awful. Just getting from the Roosevelt stop to your seat can take an hour. Tack on the actual commute itself and you might as well drive to Milwaukee. And if you want to go to the bathroom? Might as well have stayed home since you'll be stuck in line watching the rest of the game on your phone.

There really is no reason whatsoever to stay at Soldier Field except out of apathy or a lack of ability to find funding. Even as someone who likes it, I admit it's an objectively terrible stadium for the biggest single team market in the country.

But hey, it should be fine for the Fire.

I'm not arguing that Soldier Field doesn't suck, it does, but it at least has infrastructure to support it. The location is far from ideal, it's just far better than Arlington Heights.

If they build up Arlington Park into one of these luxury stadiums they're not just going to host bears games, it's going to host concerts and all other types of events, that's the only way to recoup the massive cost of building it. So in order to make it viable as Susan mentioned they'd need to build all types of new expressways, hotels, and public transit options that would allow it be viable.

[dougthonus]

Let's hear about the commute to Wrigley.

After a game, every freaking stadium is a mess. Go to a Sox game and it's a mess the hour after the game. LMAO at trying to drive to Wrigley. After a Bulls/Hawks game it's a **** show getting to 290 and once you're on there, it's a damn crawl.

Thinking moving to AH will make the commute any easier is hilarious. You're dealing with tens of thousands of people with a large swath of them drunk, all trying to leave the same space at the same time. It's ALWAYS going to be a mess. That Metra stop ain't alleviating anything.

Have done probably around ~500 Bulls games, and the commute home (to the Suburbs) is pretty easy. Never find 290 to be going all that slow, granted, going to so many games, I have the route out of the stadium, perfect place to park to get out figured out, so maybe my experience was easier.

I don't know those things at all about Sox games, but I never found that commute to be so bad going home either. I agree that Wrigley is a train wreck if you drive, which I have done a couple times, by far the worst.

[Leslie Forman]

I'm not arguing that Soldier Field doesn't suck, it does, but it at least has infrastructure to support it. The location is far from ideal, it's just far better than Arlington Heights.

But it doesn't. I don't know why everyone keeps saying this. How many people here have actually even been to both Soldier Field and Arlington Park? Because it doesn't sound like anybody harping on its location actually have.

Soldier Field is an objectively awful experience to get to and in, and then the experience of the stadium itself is poor too. It sucks to drive there, and it sucks to take the train there. Even for much of the city, Soldier Field is awful to get to, requiring multiple transfers and tons and tons of walking. So it's like you might as well be going to the suburbs. But in the city. To a crappy undersized stadium with no roof.

There's absolutely no convenience benefit at all to its location except for a tiny minority of the fanbase. The vast majority of Bears fans live in the suburbs, not the city. Arlington would be a much easier commute for, I don't know, 2/3 of fans? Probably more? A new stadium with better parking and entryways would even end up actually saving time for many of the fans that would have to drive farther to get there.

It'd be nice to have the city's football team actually in the city. But that's literally the only redeeming feature of Soldier Field. If this was a Wrigley, it'd be different. But it's not. It's just a small, somehow already outdated stadium with a terrible commute that just has some other old stadium's columns in front of it.

If they build up Arlington Park into one of these luxury stadiums they're not just going to host bears games, it's going to host concerts and all other types of events, that's the only way to recoup the massive cost of building it. So in order to make it viable as Susan mentioned they'd need to build all types of new expressways, hotels, and public transit options that would allow it be viable.

Woodfield is less than 10 minutes away. O'Hare is less than 20 minutes away. There's a Metra stop literally right there on the property that will send you directly to the loop.

Somehow, the Patriots, Cardinals, and Cowboys haven't totally collapsed with their suburban stadiums in smaller metros with no public transit anywhere near it. I'm pretty sure a stadium in an easily accessible burb in a 9million+ metro area will do just fine.

[Susan]

Let's hear about the commute to Wrigley.

After a game, every freaking stadium is a mess. Go to a Sox game and it's a mess the hour after the game. LMAO at trying to drive to Wrigley. After a Bulls/Hawks game it's a **** show getting to 290 and once you're on there, it's a damn crawl.

Thinking moving to AH will make the commute any easier is hilarious. You're dealing with tens of thousands of people with a large swath of them drunk, all trying to leave the same space at the same time. It's ALWAYS going to be a mess. That Metra stop ain't alleviating anything.

Have done probably around ~500 Bulls games, and the commute home (to the Suburbs) is pretty easy. Never find 290 to be going all that slow, granted, going to so many games, I have the route out of the stadium, perfect place to park to get out figured out, so maybe my experience was easier.

I don't know those things at all about Sox games, but I never found that commute to be so bad going home either. I agree that Wrigley is a train wreck if you drive, which I have done a couple times, by far the worst.

Yeah, you're ahead of it. Dilly dally for 10-15 minutes and that commute is a nightmare until you hit Harlem.

[dougthonus]

Yeah, you're ahead of it. Dilly dally for 10-15 minutes and that commute is a nightmare until you hit Harlem.

I don't really remember it that way even on the times I dilly daillied. That said, it was a long time ago. What is a visceral memory is being slow could cause it to take you 25 minutes to get from your car, out of the parking lot and to 290 which was still awful.

Either way, I don't think the home commute is a major factor, I mean ignoring the ride home, the ride in every day was at still at the tail end of rush hour and took at least an hour. Granted it was the reverse commute, but it was still a train wreck on the hillside stranger.

The ride in was way more stressful, especially because you also had a deadline, and a slow day due to an accident or some other random event increasing traffic meant you were late unless you left absurdly early, and leaving absurdly early sucked because it put you more in the prime of rush hour traffic.

I wasn't really paying attention to the topic at hand, so don't mean to be opining on it one way or the other, but my guess is that the commute is irrelevant to sales. They'll sell out every game and all season tickets. Especially given that it's 8-9 times a year plus playoffs and its on a weekend most of the time when you have time, people aren't going to worry about it IMO. People in the Chicagoland area (be it suburbs or city) are all used to lousy commutes for lots of things, I don't think we generally view it as a major blocker for something we want to do.

[GetBuLLish]

If the Bears could build out a big, awesome new stadium in AH and surround it with restaurants, bars, and a good tailgating experience, I don't see how people can have a strong reaction against that. Whatever minimal location benefits come from keeping the stadium in the city would be drastically outweighed by the benefits of AH.

Whether this is feasible is another story.

[Michael Jackson]

I'm not arguing that Soldier Field doesn't suck, it does, but it at least has infrastructure to support it. The location is far from ideal, it's just far better than Arlington Heights.

But it doesn't. I don't know why everyone keeps saying this. How many people here have actually even been to both Soldier Field and Arlington Park? Because it doesn't sound like anybody harping on its location actually have.

Soldier Field is an objectively awful experience to get to and in, and then the experience of the stadium itself is poor too. It sucks to drive there, and it sucks to take the train there. Even for much of the city, Soldier Field is awful to get to, requiring multiple transfers and tons and tons of walking. So it's like you might as well be going to the suburbs. But in the city. To a crappy undersized stadium with no roof.

There's absolutely no convenience benefit at all to its location except for a tiny minority of the fanbase. The vast majority of Bears fans live in the suburbs, not the city. Arlington would be a much easier commute for, I don't know, 2/3 of fans? Probably more? A new stadium with better parking and entryways would even end up actually saving time for many of the fans that would have to drive farther to get there.

It'd be nice to have the city's football team actually in the city. But that's literally the only redeeming feature of Soldier Field. If this was a Wrigley, it'd be different. But it's not. It's just a small, somehow already outdated stadium with a terrible commute that just has some other old stadium's columns in front of it.

If they build up Arlington Park into one of these luxury stadiums they're not just going to host bears games, it's going to host concerts and all other types of events, that's the only way to recoup the massive cost of building it. So in order to make it viable as Susan mentioned they'd need to build all types of new expressways, hotels, and public transit options that would allow it be viable.

Woodfield is less than 10 minutes away. O'Hare is less than 20 minutes away. There's a Metra stop literally right there on the property that will send you directly to the loop.

Somehow, the Patriots, Cardinals, and Cowboys haven't totally collapsed with their suburban stadiums in smaller metros with no public transit anywhere near it. I'm pretty sure a stadium in an easily accessible burb in a 9million+ metro area will do just fine.

Arlington works out better in the long run for sure. I agree that I think a lot of people who are against it maybe have never gone there. That being said… I don’t think there is any chance they move to Arlington.

As for the hotels and infrastructure it’s very very very doable. Plus you are right off of 290 with plenty of arteries to Chicago, Joliet, Rockford it actually isn’t a terrible location… it’s far better than the Addison Cubs location would have been because you are literally right on the main artery. As you mentioned there is never the heaviest traffic at that spot right there (around wood field where 90 feeds in is really the only issue) and on sundays it would be such a minor issue. Still though this is only a negotiation tactic and it will never happen IMHO.

[Bluewaterheaven]

I am going to be honest, I think Urban Cities are great for the fabric of a major city. They bring crowds and increase hotel revenue. That said, the city of Chicago is messing this up, and Lori's antagonistic approach is doing her no favors, she is treating a historic team the same way she treats her staff... Should she pander? No, certainly not. Should she be negotiating professionally, and not telling the teams owners they should be focusing on Green Bay, yah probably.

[Michael Jackson]

I am going to be honest, I think Urban Cities are great for the fabric of a major city. They bring crowds and increase hotel revenue. That said, the city of Chicago is messing this up, and Lori's antagonistic approach is doing her no favors, she is treating a historic team the same way she treats her staff... Should she pander? No, certainly not. Should she be negotiating professionally, and not telling the teams owners they should be focusing on Green Bay, yah probably.

Lol her response is a take that fits RealGM not a mayor.

[fleet]

I am going to be honest, I think Urban Cities are great for the fabric of a major city. They bring crowds and increase hotel revenue. That said, the city of Chicago is messing this up, and Lori's antagonistic approach is doing her no favors, she is treating a historic team the same way she treats her staff... Should she pander? No, certainly not. Should she be negotiating professionally, and not telling the teams owners they should be focusing on Green Bay, yah probably.

Lol her response is a take that fits RealGM not a mayor.

If anything, will cause the Bears to dig in and ramp up AH. Probably way worse than a Bilandic snowstorm