Right on Time

I told Michele that the Super Bowl being played at SoFi Stadium would make Chicago sportswriters go all silly, and I was right. Stories in both the Sun-Times and Tribune over the weekend shows just how little the local sports’ media has learned since Jerry Reinsdorf got his mall park paid for by the public back in the late 1980s. The Tribune story was somewhat more objective in approach, noting the increase in ticket costs and housing for the host community of Inglewood, outside Los Angeles. But there was a strong sense of “if only” to the piece, as in, if only the Bears could find a way to offer a Midwestern version of this. But how exactly would SoFi East benefit Bears’ fans, if the point is winning football? Yes, a larger revenue stream would mean better training facilities and maybe a bigger support staff and front office, but at some point not too far into football operation that money would be spent, with a whole bunch more heading straight into ownership’s pockets. The McCaskeys get richer and the fans poorer. The peasants might grow upset. And if the point isn’t winning but producing some sort of year-round entertainment venue, again, it’s the McCaskeys who benefit at the expense of established businesses. People spending money at restaurants, hotels and whatnot owned by or paying rent to the Bears will end up being people who aren’t spending that cash elsewhere in the region. Arlington Heights may benefit from sales-tax revenue, but it will be at the expense of other communities. One other thing. Who are the SoFi-based Rams playing today for the Super Bowl crown? Oh, right, the Bengals, who play in Paul Brown Stadium, over twenty years old and seating only 65,535. The Bengals in all probability generate a lot less revenue than the Rams in their shiny new home, but it’s more than enough to operate in an environment where the salary cap reigns supreme. If only a sportswriter or two would bother to take note.