I recognize the only way it would make sense is to take one of the lowest revenue teams in the league such as the Jaguars. Even if they drew 60k in existing soldier field, the added media exposure they would receive and potential for growth in fan base and merchandise sales in a much larger market is a win for the Jags and the city of Chicago.

Seems like an accounting tactic due to the stadium being half empty and every section has tix for sale throughout the year. But let's say you're right. They are still more lame in Lame LA then they are lame in Chicago. Because aren't we talking degrees of lameness?

I mean, New England was never fertile football ground the way the Great Lakes/Western PA and the South were. It's not as if the Patriots satisfied this burning desire to have professional football -- they were an afterthought for years to a region that cared way more about the Red Sox and Bruins. Being a constant shitshow in a slapped-up stadium halfway to Providence had a lot to do with that, too, in fairness, but Boston was the only place you could argue that the NFL was #4. (Detroit in the mid-2000s, maybe?)

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It's really amazing that the NFL never gave up on Jacksonville. They thought they were getting in on the next Charlotte/Raleigh/Nashville boomtown, but it ended being more like the next, I dunno, Greenville, South Carolina. It just never quite happened there.

There was a year there, 2009 or 2010, where the team got blacked out the entire year and no one was going to games, where I thought that was it for them and they were bound for Los Angeles. If I have the timeline right, I think they were circling the drain in Jacksonville right when Georgia Frontiere died. That must have given the league the idea that they could make the L.A. Rams happen instead if they were patient.

I would have preferred the Las Vegas Jaguars with the Raiders staying put, for whatever that's worth.

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Once the shine of those recent Super Bowls starts to dim, the patriots arent far from being #4 in Boston again.

Can't find the link I saw earlier but their ratings last Sunday were big. It might be Zappe fever.

I don't think so. If anything, it seems like Red Sox Nation is dying out very fast. The team is bad, except when they're not and they win the World Series, and then when they do it's kind of boring because no one knows who anyone is. Feels like the Celtics are the biggest team there now.

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Which is why I said when the recent super bowl shine dims, a few losing seasons, things will shift dramatically for that franchise. They still have Belichick and ties to the super bowl teams. That’s a TOUGH market - Sox, Celtics and Bruins all have devoted fan bases.

Big hangover among Redsox fans because of the Betts trade. On top of that they might lose Bogarts next.

Florida teams in all sports have been through this....Rays, Marlins, and Jaguars. I could be wrong, but I recall each of these "expansion" teams had solid leases in place that made it financially impossible fr these teams to pull out. I seem to recall that being the case when Bud Selig was talking about contracting and he named Minnesota and Montreal but left out Tampa, which was just as bad.

Gerogia's death and all that timed up really nice with the Rams lease in St. Louis ending and the fact there was really no penalty for the Rams to pack up and leave.

I agree....the Jaguars were a better candidate for Vegas. I find the Chargers situation much more aggravating. The league should have forced the hands of the Spanos family to figuring something out other than the ugly step-child of LA. Ridiculous. Still....I think the league has real aspirations for Europe / UK. I think it's insanity, but they probably foolishly think that's a real opportunity.

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Well, I mean, the NFL lost a lawsuit and had to pay the city like half a billion, but I don't think anyone was expecting that.


The whole San Diego situation never made sense to me. They kept arguing for an indoor stadium in the city more associated with year-round perfect weather than any other because that way it could also be a convention floor for ComicCon. Mind-boggling. They could have built a normal NFL stadium seeing as they just built a downsized one for SDSU anyway.

It's an interesting thing about the NFL vis-a-vis other leagues that so many of these teams are still just owned by families who got in early and never let go. Basically every old-line owner in the NBA who was A Guy cashed out except Reinsdorf and the guy in San Antonio. Now they're all owned by hedge fund ghouls. The NFL still has dopes like the Spanoses and the McCaskeys and Al Davis's malformed son, people who can't put pants on without an instruction manual but just keep getting gifted money because people liked their dads.

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More than any other team, the Red Sox now are the natural conclusion of sabermetrics/Moneyball. No one is allowed to mean anything to anyone outside of how they can be arbitraged for future players who won't be allowed to mean anything to anyone. Also, the games are boring and cost too much to go to. It's been a long road down from Johnny Damon's beard and Curt Schilling's sock.

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I missed that. The details of that case had to have been interesting.
$790 million....no clarification of how that was split between Kroenke and the NFL.
I'm guessing there was clear evidence that Kroenke had zero intention of ever keeping the team in St. Louis despite stringing them along for renovation and new stadium proposals. Not to mention, the league never planned on LA not having a team.
I don't hate St. Louis like most people, but I'm also not losing sleep over them not having an NFL team. That being said...clearly the NFL and Kroenke muscled their will and rightfully had to pay. Funny....according to wiki the TWA dome cost $280 million to build (equal to $498 million 2021). St. Louis got their money back and then some. Safe to say....I don't ever see an NFL team back in St. Louis.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/327 ... geles-790m

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This is why it's such a HUGE mistake for the White Sox not to re-sign Abreu. Forget that I'd bet a bunch that he will outperform whoever plays first for the Sox next season.

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Freedom is our Strength.

Agreed. Abreu is the least of the White Sox problems. He's on the downside of his career but I don't see an upgrade on the roster and there are way bigger problems and wastes of money on the team.

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It just came out that the other teams paid $7.5 million and he paid $571 million. The other teams had to kick in some because they didn't follow their own relocation rules.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Frank Thomas finished his career elsewhere, so did Buehrle. Also, Carlton Fisk was unceremoniously cut on the road. I got over it. I suspect most other Sox fans got over it as well.

I love Abreu but if they are serious about winning a championship they have to go with Vaughn at 1st base. Let Abreu go to a team that has a chance of winning a World Series. The White Sox owe that to him after screwing up the last three years.

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An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip