No Mully, but more dumb stuff about the Cubs threatening to move to Rosemont or Arlington Heights. All while they're using a 100 year old ballpark as the centerpiece of a huge marketing campaign and recreating the rooftops at their new spring training facility. That would be the biggest Who Ya Crappin'? ever.

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Don't take it personally.

Liquid breakfast JORR?

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It is Friday

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I have now heard the mcdonough interview THREE times! ugh.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

True.

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JORR is taking the removal of Arlington to personal, but it's the best solutuion for Ricketts.

he could get the city of AH to pay for a big chunk of the infrastructure and he could have it done in less than 2 years.

Not sure why Quinn hates horse racing so much, or gambling in general, but going to Arlington is one of the nicer things to do in this state! clean, well kept, decent service, etc.Guessing they dont kick back enough into the hoppers to have political interests.

Right now is when Ricketts should be having the meetings!

It would cause some SERIOUS issues in this city! Imagine all these guys with bars that put millions into it and they lose the cubs because the Alderman went to the wall with the rooftop shitheads!

but the "Wrigley Townhomes" would be pretty nice. I assume they would start at 699K

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

I've read a lot in trying to understand and grasp the Ricketts' Cubs plan. I believe that Joe Ricketts wants the Ricketts' Family Trust's coffers to be properly replenished and then supplemented as quickly as possible. But a thought hit me as I casually observe another 100-loss season, what if the Cubs were to suddenly be competitive? Would they really spend the money now to better position their post-season prospects? Or would they continue the losing is more profitable than winning tack? I believe their stance on stadium signage is more a ruse than a true impediment to doing anything competitively, and the notion of building materials laying unused around the ballpark as a negative is almost absurd.

Conversely, moving to Arlington would mean that the plans to enrich the RFT coffers would be put on hold, almost indefinitely. Moving to Arlington would come with the expectation of "now that it has been built, you must win." No more excuses, no more good will, and a ticking clock on the novelty of the new stadium juxtaposed against having to win now. Let the Cubs not win and the turnstyles will stop turning and the lovable embrace will be gone as will the fading memory of the world's largest beer garden.

As to the area now known as Wrigleyville, it won't go vacant and dormant overnight. Proper planning and development would offset the loss of a dozen or so bars by bringing other aspects to enhance the quality of life. Probably the only people who would complain are those who don't live in the area, and those few that do live there who might not be happy would do the logical thing, move.

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DRINK BƎTTƎR. @theRIPH

I too love going to Arlington Park, but if they close, it is the prefect location for new Wrigley Field. Rickett's has fucked up every aspect of his Cubs ownership with the exception of hiring Theo. Ricketts is a silver spoon 2nd generation pussy who doesn't have a set like his Father Joe does. I would have loved to see how this would have all played out if Joe was running things. The Cubs have more leverage than any other business in this state. They should use it.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

Wrigley in Arlington would be a ton more convenient for me. And yet, I would go to a lot fewer games. The Cubs and Wrigleyville are logically linked and provide a symbiosis akin to the blue natives with their environment in Avatar.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Leverage to do what? Leave the biggest cash cow in MLB for a suburban mall? Yeah, threatening to do that would raise Ricketts' IQ at least ten points.

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Don't take it personally.

You don't think the Cubs have leverage? Really??? Are you one of Tom Ricketts' Mults?

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

What's their leverage? "If you don't give us whatever we want we're going to go make less money in Schaumburg."? I'm sure Rahm Emanuel would crap his pants at that idle threat.

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Don't take it personally.

You don't think the possibility of one of the city's biggest tourist attractions moving wouldn't worry Emanuel?

But Matt he said he won't move.

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If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

The single stupidest move he could have made. AND IT WAS ON DAY 1 !!!!!

I was just saying if there was any chance of it happening, Rahm would be worried.

Think about what you just wrote there. The tourist attraction is the ballpark. Not the team that usually doesn't compete. I think the idiot that moved the team away from the tourist attraction should be more worried than the mayor that let him. And Ricketts was smart enough to understand that he really didn't have any leverage. It would be like Scorehead threatening to move to Gary if Schaumburg or wherever he lives didn't lower his taxes. Unrealistic and therefore impotent.

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Don't take it personally.

I'm gonna go out on a limb & say that the Cubs have a little more leverage than I do.
Regarding Ricketts, do you really think that he has been smart in the way that he has managed his business? Do you really believe that he doesn't have any leverage? Come on now. If fan Boy Tommy would have played his cards right & used his leverage, the Wrigley Field renovations would have already been done. He's a 2nd gen silver spoon lightweight.
You cant say that Ricketts owns the most popular tourist attraction but doesn't have any leverage. That just doesn't make sense at all.
I love it when my clients have leverage but don't realize it.

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CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

You're confused about what the tourist attraction is. It isn't a last place ballclub.

I don't think Ricketts is particularly smart and maybe his own personal feelings were more responsible for his position on Wrigley than the fact that starting a negotiation with an idle threat is never a good idea. But the result was the same. It would be idiotic to move that baseball team and it would hurt the Cubs far more than the City of Chicago.

It's not 1990 anymore. The city is broke. It can't fund its pensions. Don't compare this situation to what Reinsdorf did. People are fed up with private businesses getting public dollars. And anyway, this rube from Omaha isn't Jerry Reinsdorf. He just doesn't have those connections and the kind of power that is built up over years. Threatening to leave would have gotten him laughed at.

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Don't take it personally.

You are missing the point, Numbnuts had leverage n pissed it away from day one with his " we are not moving anywhere " its irrelevant if it was an idle threat or not, Rahm could have atleast used that to throw him a bone...but Ricketts was too dumb to know how to negotiate . I agree with you on the rubes coming in droves for the park ...but those dumb fucks would travel to Rosemont or Addison to watch a game in a new stadium as well.

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It's not leverage if no one believes you would really do it. Have you ever negotiated anything? You never make a threat you're not willing to follow through on. And moving the Cubs out of the biggest cash cow in baseball would have been the dumbest move since New Coke. In fact, I'm surprised they didn't do just that. It would have been typically Cub.

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Don't take it personally.

Ofcourse I've negotiated , who the fuck hasn't ?
Obviously I've never negotiated a billion dollar decision like this is but ...Do you honestly think the Sox were ever going to move to Gary or St Petersburg ? Ofcourse not. And that is ludicrous to say "You don't make a threat that you aren't willing to follow through on" Didn't the Bears threaten to relocate as well?

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Gary, no; St. Petersburg, yes. They built a new stadium on spec, baseball had been trying to get in on Tampa Bay for years (Giants, Mariners, I think even the Blue Jays), and the gap was starting to widen between the Cubs and Sox due to WGN. It wasn't unthinkable. Hey, the Dodgers moved.

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The Sox were all but gone.

And the Bears are a bad comparison. Football isn't the same as baseball. Bear fans would go wherever the Bears play. It would be fine if they were in Schaumburg. Fetishization of the stadiums (or "stadia" if you're dan bernstein) isn't part of the NFL the way it is in MLB where guys like Jay Buckley get fat leading tours and people have lists checking off the parks where they have seen games.

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Don't take it personally.

I agree with this, with the exception of Lambeau Field. It would not have broken my heart at all if the Bears had moved to Schaumburg or Rosemont or Elk Grove or wherever. If the Bears had gone away, that part of the lakefront could have been restored to public space instead of having a big dumb spaceship squatting amid the museums and parks.

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Yeah, that's a good point. Come to think of it, why the fuck do the Packers play in Green Bay? They could just build a Lambeau replica on the lakefront in Milwaukee and make way more money!

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Don't take it personally.

Even Lambeau Field is only special because of the incongruity of being in Green Bay. I understand it's pretty impressive now with the renovations and the museums and stuff, but the original Lambeau Field was a forgettable dump just like Texas Stadium or Candlestick Park or any other stadiums that housed good football teams. Looked pretty chintzy with those green metal walls. Now it's Football Miller Park.

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