The Big Ten Commissioner Search

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#126      

Mr. Tibbs

southeast DuPage
"And you're right, an actuary would tell you Virginia's chances of living to see the new stadium open "
Not knowing anything about her health ... assume she doesn't smoke. life expectancy is 1.95 years, 11.8% chance of living 5 years, and 0.6% chance of living 10 years. so do you take the over/under
she's my 1A in the Pine Box Derby and Bob Barker is 1B.
Henry Kissinger and Jimmy Carter right there as well
 
#128      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky
Lordy guess i need to go find me a new team to root for... Bears making it very hard to keep rooting for them.. Next they will bring back Lovie
kw06.jpg
 
#129      
Lordy guess i need to go find me a new team to root for... Bears making it very hard to keep rooting for them.. Next they will bring back Lovie
was worried when i saw "bring back Lovie" then i read more closely and saw "Bears"
 
#130      

Mr. Tibbs

southeast DuPage
Right, exactly. SF has kinda deceptively faraway CTA links. Arlington Heights has none. Plus it is not right off the highway. It's right off 53, but that's different.

And it's not an already developed area at all. It's like Ryan Field out there, you're in a John Hughes movie a football's throw away from the property in every direction. That's nothing like Jerry World in Arlington.

Foxborough is the best comparison in terms of the facility's isolation from its metro area. But New England is weird (it's far from Boston, but closer to Providence, Worcester, Hartford, what have you. Chicagoland isn't like that) and that stadium is hardly a rip-roaring success. A dome will do better, but still.

I don't feel super strongly that it's some disaster waiting to happen, but I'm skeptical.

(As a Crystal Lake native and longtime Metra NW line rider, I am also of course upset this didn't happen when I was a Bears-obsessed kid)
my son lives in Boston (lived in city for 3 years, after grad school, now in a western suburb of Newton with his g/f, who grew up there ) and has been to a number of Pats games as his g/f gets free tix from work. Costs him nothing and saw the Bears play there this year. He describes the Foxborough location as "Aurora is to Chicago" Its 95% Boston peeps . and to him , Providence is like Gary, In -- not racially, but by heirarchy. Providence is mainly old school Italians and Portuguese who dont go to sporting events - not at $400 pp.
Said its about a 45-50 minute drive south and east (Newton is straight west of Boston and BC is like 10 minutes from his place).

But the point is , people adapt and nothing solves these commuting issues quicker than a 12-5 or 13-4 record .
 
#132      
my son lives in Boston (lived in city for 3 years, after grad school, now in a western suburb of Newton with his g/f, who grew up there ) and has been to a number of Pats games as his g/f gets free tix from work. Costs him nothing and saw the Bears play there this year. He describes the Foxborough location as "Aurora is to Chicago" Its 95% Boston peeps . and to him , Providence is like Gary, In -- not racially, but by heirarchy. Providence is mainly old school Italians and Portuguese who dont go to sporting events - not at $400 pp.
Said its about a 45-50 minute drive south and east (Newton is straight west of Boston and BC is like 10 minutes from his place).

But the point is , people adapt and nothing solves these commuting issues quicker than a 12-5 or 13-4 record .
I tend to agree a bit with both you and Gritty. If the Bears manage to pull of a stadium in Arlington Heights it will be like the Pat's stadium in Foxboro. It will not be Sofi in LA or AT&T in Dallas; drive in, drive out, 8 days a year. Bears fans will adapt, but no one else will care to go there otherwise. The extra revenue will not be there, and it will likely be a financial loser. The only way for the Bears to pull the move off will be to go much bigger with the surrounding development. They don't have the team in place or the capital to do that. Their first presentation was pretty banal after all. They are banking on Kevin Warren who gets credit for building a stadium in Minneapolis, but it can't be overstated that the owner of the Vikings is a real estate developer.

Setting aside Bob Dunn's ridiculous ask for billions of dollars from the State of Illinois for his One Central project, the latest Soldier Field proposal that Dunn is shepharding seems much more viable. The Bears have leverage to get a better deal (with more control) with a re-re-developed Soldier Field now then they ever have.
 
#133      
"And you're right, an actuary would tell you Virginia's chances of living to see the new stadium open "
Not knowing anything about her health ... assume she doesn't smoke. life expectancy is 1.95 years, 11.8% chance of living 5 years, and 0.6% chance of living 10 years. so do you take the over/under
So funny. Do the actuarial tables start to reverse regarding smoking at a certain age? You're 95 and still smoke? Our actuaries believe you'll live to 112.
 
#135      
after they borrow the Rams builders manual for the next 6 years , they can borrow the owners operating manual from Jerry Jones. Hes figured it out
that place is busy ALL THE TIME
Various industry Conventions, concerts , rodeos, basketball games, college games , high school games etc etc etc.
There are not too many weeks from Feb-Aug that its dark. They have events in the parking lot for goodness sake. lots of rental streams .
I live in LA and have been to several games and concerts in SoFi already. The venue is fantastic. The stadium and surrounding development (including retail, residential and offices) is estimated to cost over $8 billion, is still several years from completion, and is being developed by one of the richest guys on the planet, who has spent his career in real estate development.

I am 100% confident that a bumbling, capital-constrained and successor distracted ownership like the McCaskeys will never be able to achieve anything remotely similar. Expect a disappointing stadium like Guarantee Rate Field, with the surroundings lucky to achieve the ambiance of the Rosemont Entertainment District.
 
#138      
I tend to agree a bit with both you and Gritty. If the Bears manage to pull of a stadium in Arlington Heights it will be like the Pat's stadium in Foxboro. It will not be Sofi in LA or AT&T in Dallas; drive in, drive out, 8 days a year. Bears fans will adapt, but no one else will care to go there otherwise. The extra revenue will not be there, and it will likely be a financial loser. The only way for the Bears to pull the move off will be to go much bigger with the surrounding development. They don't have the team in place or the capital to do that. Their first presentation was pretty banal after all. They are banking on Kevin Warren who gets credit for building a stadium in Minneapolis, but it can't be overstated that the owner of the Vikings is a real estate developer.

Setting aside Bob Dunn's ridiculous ask for billions of dollars from the State of Illinois for his One Central project, the latest Soldier Field proposal that Dunn is shepharding seems much more viable. The Bears have leverage to get a better deal (with more control) with a re-re-developed Soldier Field now then they ever have.

They still wouldn't own Soldier Field, which makes any potential Soldier Field route DOA in my opinion. There's only so much you can do with the location anyway, before they're having this discussion again not too long down the road.

I think plenty of people will go to Arlington Heights especially for hosting non-football events. I get why people are nostlaigc and fond of Soldier Field, but everytime I go to a Bears game I remember why I it's time for them to move on.

And no, me living my prime years in Arlington Heights has no influence on me whatsoever. ;) (My house was on the same street at Walter Peyton's when he was a rookie, many years later of course).
 
#141      
He did such a good job that the Big Ten Council of Presidents/Chancellors chose not to extend his contract.....

Chicago Bears hire Big Ten's Kevin Warren as president, CEO
"Warren had been with the Big Ten since June 2019 but recently was not given a contract extension by the conference, sources told Thamel."
This is interesting. If a person isn’t given a contract extension, it means they need to be looking for something else.

Im looking forward to a new B1G commissioner.
 
#142      

Mr. Tibbs

southeast DuPage
This is interesting. If a person isn’t given a contract extension, it means they need to be looking for something else.

Im looking forward to a new B1G commissioner.
Yea, I do think there was a somewhat "difficult" relationship with Warren and many schools in the B1G.
His leaving for this job with the Bears , or another similar position with another team was inevitable in the short term.
Whether he sensed it first or the B1G did, doesnt matter at this point.

Its a win - win for the league and the Bears, imo.
 
#144      

ChiefGritty

Chicago, IL
I live in LA and have been to several games and concerts in SoFi already. The venue is fantastic. The stadium and surrounding development (including retail, residential and offices) is estimated to cost over $8 billion, is still several years from completion, and is being developed by one of the richest guys on the planet, who has spent his career in real estate development.

I am 100% confident that a bumbling, capital-constrained and successor distracted ownership like the McCaskeys will never be able to achieve anything remotely similar. Expect a disappointing stadium like Guarantee Rate Field, with the surroundings lucky to achieve the ambiance of the Rosemont Entertainment District.
This is kinda where my expectation level is.

And of course the other thing is LA lacks for sort of hub commercial spaces like that and everywhere in LA is car-only and takes forever to get to from anywhere else. The SoFi complex is compatible with the LA context.

Chicago isn't like that.

I have a hard time believing anyone who has actually been to Soldier Field for a Bears game concluded that experience thinking "yes, yes, this is what a modern NFL franchise in one of America's largest urban areas should be like"
Most of the criticism of Solider Field is spot-on, but I do think it's underrated from a compactness and sightlines perspective of the seating itself. It's a good place to watch the action on the field.
 
#145      

mattcoldagelli

The Transfer Portal
Most of the criticism of Solider Field is spot-on, but I do think it's underrated from a compactness and sightlines perspective of the seating itself. It's a good place to watch the action on the field.
I agree - but the things that make it a good (borderline great, honestly) place to watch a game are the things that fly directly in the face of what I'm talking about.

Pluck a sports fan out of Anytown USA who understands Chicago is one of the country's great professional sports towns and the Bears are the perennial alpha dog, drop them into Soldier Field on a game day, and I would wager the farm their response would be "wait, this is it?"
 
#146      

redwingillini11

North Aurora
Most of the criticism of Solider Field is spot-on, but I do think it's underrated from a compactness and sightlines perspective of the seating itself. It's a good place to watch the action on the field.
This is true, and the crowd noise and atmosphere seems fantastic for big, important games especially during the playoffs. Problem is of course that its been few and far between as far as playoff games there...
 
#147      
Thought Werner made a good point that the conference commissioner jobs are trending towards people with entertainment backgrounds rather than athletic director backgrounds. Doesn't mean the Big 10 will follow that trend obviously, but is important context to consider.
 
#148      

ChiefGritty

Chicago, IL
I agree - but the things that make it a good (borderline great, honestly) place to watch a game are the things that fly directly in the face of what I'm talking about.

Pluck a sports fan out of Anytown USA who understands Chicago is one of the country's great professional sports towns and the Bears are the perennial alpha dog, drop them into Soldier Field on a game day, and I would wager the farm their response would be "wait, this is it?"
Totally. And shiny vastness notwithstanding, the Arlington Heights facility will not expand the seating capacity as much as people think, by the way.

The conventional wisdom in the industry now is that the last rows of seats cost the most money to build and generate the least revenue, so don't bother with them. The game is all about the capacity and variety of luxury club space options now.

And I could set off on a wall of text about how this portends the doom of sports and society, but you get it.
 
#149      
My poorly articulated point was that Stan Kroenke is very knowledgeable about real estate development and spared no expense on SoFi, while the McCaskeys lack both the necessary expertise and necessary cash. Bears fans (and Arlington Heights) would be much better off if the McCaskeys bought the property and then sold everything to someone far better capitalized who knows what they’re doing.
 
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