OT: Other Chicago & General Sports Thread XXV - RIP Don Zimmer

[Blackhawkswincup]

At least the Sox are entertaining this year ,, But really the truth is until Hawks come back there isn't much to be excited about in Chicago sports

Sox maybe finish .500 (Would be big accomplishment) and at best Bears finish .500 barring a major turnaround from defense

 

[IU Hawks fan]

At least the Sox are entertaining this year ,, But really the truth is until Hawks come back there isn't much to be excited about in Chicago sports

Sox maybe finish .500 (Would be big accomplishment) and at best Bears finish .500 barring a major turnaround from defense

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

Could be worse ,, I could have brought up Illini football

 

[IU Hawks fan]

Duntcare

 

[hisgirlfriday]

Could be worse ,, I could have brought up Illini football

What kind of monster are you.

 

[ADifferentTim]

I actually attended a Sox road game in L.A. of all places and saw today's game. While I was at it, I got the chance to tell two Sox fans I ran into, "I know what I'm gonna say is 9 years late, but thank you for bleaching the Red Sox back in 2005."

 

[ColdSteel2]

i actually attended a sox road game in l.a. Of all places and saw today's game. While i was at it, i got the chance to tell two sox fans i ran into, "i know what i'm gonna say is 9 years late, but thank you for bleaching the red sox back in 2005."

gtfo.

 

[Kurtosis]

At least the Sox are entertaining this year ,, But really the truth is until Hawks come back there isn't much to be excited about in Chicago sports

Sox maybe finish .500 (Would be big accomplishment) and at best Bears finish .500 barring a major turnaround from defense

At best they finish .500?

GTFO with that ish.

 

[IU Hawks fan]

Their .500 through 60 after missing their ace for 2 weeks and not having their 2 most important hitters together for a month. I think .500 is pretty reasonable.



EDIT: oh, you mean the Bears

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Cubs and WGN Radio are ending a 90-year relationship, with the team moving to WBBM starting next year.

http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-80400692/

Not sure what to think of this...

EDIT: That being said, it does leave the Hawks as the sole sports draw for WGN, so hopefully that incentives them to more aggressively promote the radio side of the team.

 

[DisgruntledHawkFan]

They're explaining why now on the game

 

[neodydan]

I love how the Tribune story doesn't tell many details. They own the station. What a piece of investigative reporting, Robert Channick. That's not gonna win any Pulitzers.

This Robert Feder article at least attempts an explanation...

www.robertfeder.com/2014/06/03/why-wgn-radio-lost-the-cubs/

The Cubs not on WGN? I never thought I'd see this in my lifetime. This is as ludicrous as no longer selling hotdogs, frosty malts, Old Style or cracker jacks at Wrigley Field. If you had told me this 20-30 years ago, I'd have said you're nuts. Guess there's no loyalty or longevity anywhere anymore.

And next on Crane and boy wonder Epstein's agenda is a new tv deal which will screw Cub fans by charging exorbitant rates and no more free baseball on WGN. This will be compelling enough to make fans hand over their wallet. WGN and the Cubs made fans by those "free" telecast and radio broadcasts. Didn't we already go through this in Chicago years ago with the Reinsdorf and Einhorn SportsVision debacle?

If this is how Cubs baseball is run in the 21st century, they can keep it. Even if they win, they have lost the fan. The fan is what it's about. They have lost sight of that. Hope the whole thing blows up in their faces. The Cubs, WGN, WBBM. All of them. Harry Caray you'll recall came over to the Cubs because he was for the fan and did not like how the Sox were screwing them with that SportsVision deal.

Caray, Brickhouse, Lloyd, Boudreau all rolling over in their graves right about now...

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Uh... That's a bit of an overkill reaction for changing radio stations, isn't it? You're acting like they just added a paywall to basic radio coverage of the team. And I think that 780 has roughly the same downstate coverage as 720, too.

I'll be ticked if they don't bring Pat Hughes over, though.

 

[neodydan]

I don't think so after they have been on WGN for 90 years. The Cubs are only on WGN TV for 1 more season. You can be sure that contract won't be renewed either.

This is a big deal and I'm sure it will alienate a lot of people, not just me.

Hughes is supposed to move to WBBM according to the Trib article.

 

[IU Hawks fan]

I love how the Tribune story doesn't tell many details. They own the station. What a piece of investigative reporting, Robert Channick. That's not gonna win any Pulitzers.

This Robert Feder article at least attempts an explanation...

www.robertfeder.com/2014/06/03/why-wgn-radio-lost-the-cubs/

The Cubs not on WGN? I never thought I'd see this in my lifetime. This is as ludicrous as no longer selling hotdogs, frosty malts, Old Style or cracker jacks at Wrigley Field. If you had told me this 20-30 years ago, I'd have said you're nuts. Guess there's no loyalty or longevity anywhere anymore.

And next on Crane and boy wonder Epstein's agenda is a new tv deal which will screw Cub fans by charging exorbitant rates and no more free baseball on WGN. This will be compelling enough to make fans hand over their wallet. WGN and the Cubs made fans by those "free" telecast and radio broadcasts. Didn't we already go through this in Chicago years ago with the Reinsdorf and Einhorn SportsVision debacle?

If this is how Cubs baseball is run in the 21st century, they can keep it. Even if they win, they have lost the fan. The fan is what it's about. They have lost sight of that. Hope the whole thing blows up in their faces. The Cubs, WGN, WBBM. All of them. Harry Caray you'll recall came over to the Cubs because he was for the fan and did not like how the Sox were screwing them with that SportsVision deal.

Caray, Brickhouse, Lloyd, Boudreau all rolling over in their graves right about now...

What a bunch of nonsense. Moving to WBBM is nothing like Sportsvision. Putting 80+ games on cable is similar to Sportsvision, something the Cubs have done for how many years now?

 

[neodydan]

They have 1 more year on WGN TV and then you can be assured they will not be on "free" tv after that. When that happens it will be exactly like SportsVision was.

Not nonsense at all.

Epstein doesn't like that too much revenue depends on paid attendance. Why? Because fans are growing tired of paying for the crappy product on the field. He wants a guaranteed big bucks TV deal.

They thought ratings were low now....Wait 'til the WBBM ratings come in.

And when the Cubs move to cable exclusively and Comcast blacks out 25% of the games because of ratings and you're paying even more for cable than you are now, remember when you could watch them on so called "free" tv.

 

[ColdSteel2]

Nobody would pay for a premium package to watch that crap. I imagine they will have their own network and cable rates will go up for everyone because of it, but I don't think it will be some kind of $49.95 per year pay per view type thing. They'd have to be coming off a playoff appearance for me to even think about doing that.

The Hawks, however, they could absolutely charge everyone as much as $200 a year to watch their games and I bet at least 75% of fans cough it up.

 

[neodydan]

Nobody would pay for a premium package to watch that crap. I imagine they will have their own network and cable rates will go up for everyone because of it, but I don't think it will be some kind of $49.95 per year pay per view type thing. They'd have to be coming off a playoff appearance for me to even think about doing that.

The Hawks, however, they could absolutely charge everyone as much as $200 a year to watch their games and I bet at least 75% of fans cough it up.

Hawks are a different animal and remember only recently (2008) televised home games. They don't have a history of being televised on free tv for decades. For years they were on obscure UHF channels like WSNS and WFLD. NHL Gamecenter is about that price ($200). They have actually won titles.

The Cubs next year likely broadcast half their games on Comcast SportsNet and the other half on Fox Sports. This is a bridge situation until they can have their own network, like the Yankees.

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

Nobody would pay for a premium package to watch that crap. I imagine they will have their own network and cable rates will go up for everyone because of it, but I don't think it will be some kind of $49.95 per year pay per view type thing. They'd have to be coming off a playoff appearance for me to even think about doing that.

The Hawks, however, they could absolutely charge everyone as much as $200 a year to watch their games and I bet at least 75% of fans cough it up.

No one wanted to pay Wirtz $29.99 for Hawks home games in early 90's ,, No way in hell Hawk fans would pay $200 to watch Hawk home games

 

[ColdSteel2]

No one wanted to pay Wirtz $29.99 for Hawks home games in early 90's ,, No way in hell Hawk fans would pay $200 to watch Hawk home games

So you're telling me people wouldn't watch instead of paying the $200? That's like tickets to one game in the 300 level. $2.50 a game to watch on TV. Obviously I don't want them to do it, but from a business POV, makes a lot of sense for them to do it. Start out at 100, go to 150 year 2, settle in at 200 year 3. Introductory rate of 250 for the first 3 years if you sign up by a certain date.

They would have to find a way to blackout the game. I guess they could only do that for home games? Not sure. In that case, cut the prices in half.

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

Yes I am saying people wouldn't watch

$200 to watch 41 home games on TV is a joke and would be a PR nightmare for Hawks

 

[ColdSteel2]

Yes I am saying people wouldn't watch

$200 to watch 41 home games on TV is a joke and would be a PR nightmare for Hawks

I was thinking of a way they could blackout all 82 games. If they can only do the home games like before, then $100.

How much do you think they could charge for the 41 home games before seeing a considerable loss in viewership?

 

[No Fun Shogun]

If the the Hawks did that, then interest in the team would plummet as if Bill Wirtz were alive.

They're not going to screw what they've got in a short-sighted cash grab, especially one guaranteed to reduce profits elsewhere.

At least with the Cubs, you could harken to YES as an analogy for why it makes business sense for them to make their own specialty cable channel, but even that's not going to be a PPV package from anything I've heard.

 

[ColdSteel2]

If the the Hawks did that, then interest in the team would plummet as if Bill Wirtz were alive.

They're not going to screw what they've got in a short-sighted cash grab, especially one guaranteed to reduce profits elsewhere.

At least with the Cubs, you could harken to YES as an analogy for why it makes business sense for them to make their own specialty cable channel, but even that's not going to be a PPV package from anything I've heard.

If the Hawks were this good or somewhat close to it consistently from then until now, I think there would be no issue if the home games never even came back. We'll never know, but I think if you are good enough, people will pay. I'd have gladly payed the $100 to watch those garbage teams at home when I was 14.

 

[DisgruntledHawkFan]

I was thinking of a way they could blackout all 82 games. If they can only do the home games like before, then $100.

How much do you think they could charge for the 41 home games before seeing a considerable loss in viewership?

$5. No point in messing with a very good thing.