bigfan wrote:
Curious Hair wrote:
The rooftop relationship should not have to be this contentious. I've always thought of the rooftops as less of a competitor than a supplement, selling an analogue to the luxury suite experience (don't watch the game, just be taken care of in the vicinity of a game!) that the Cubs, with a lack of suites in the grandstand, can't meet a demand for. There should be a strategic, symbiotic relationship here. I'm surprised the Cubs themselves haven't bought any of the properties. A brownstone on Waveland probably costs as much as a shitty free agent #5 pitcher, and God knows we've signed our share of those.
Yes, the rooftop owners should be paying the Cubs more. No one can argue this. Why, then, are we jumping right past compromise and into "the Cubs should put up spite fences and jumbotrons and implode their buildings under cover of night and fuck everyone because money!"?
Yes, the rooftop owners should be paying the Cubs more. No one can argue this. Why, then, are we jumping right past compromise and into "the Cubs should put up spite fences and jumbotrons and implode their buildings under cover of night and fuck everyone because money!"?
The Ricketts have made offers to the rooftop owners.
Compromise left the room last year! While I can spread the blame around, this is the Aldermans fault and the Rooftops to never actually work out a deal and think that some contract, which was a kickback deal was going to save them.
FYI, last week the rooftop owners decided to have "Neighbors Day" in the first week. All those neighbors who are on the Lakeview citizens council were invited to a free rooftop. Too little too late Douchebags!
George Loukas will be fine. Cubby Bear, Sports Corner and about 50 other buildings. Life will go on. Occasionally you make a bad deal and this was his. The guy is 112-1 now.
I agree with most of your viewpoints on the matter.
I'm certainly not carrying water for the rooftop owners. Most of them are jag-offs. In one conversation they want to tell you how smart they are for building their little empires. In the next they're some poor, put-upon small businessmen under attack from the evil Ricketts family. They're full of shit too.
And George Loukas is a smart guy, a good businessman. But if he's going to tell you he saw "Wrigleyville" coming and knew to buy all that property, he's a liar. George was a hustling bar operator. If he hadn't gotten lucky with the way things went over there, he'd be like a million other Greek restauranteurs, hustling to get by, begging for rents in his borderline slum properties, and trying to figure out how to squeeze a few bucks out of those bars on the 284 days that the Cubs aren't playing. But he got lucky. I'm pretty sure he knows that. "Hey, Angelo, this shit really went our way, didn't it?
" Now the idiot Murphy kids, they may be another story. I believe they think they're geniuses because their dad bought a shitty bar before the neighborhood changed.