Dan Pompei's article in today's Tribune comes as a welcome read to someone (namely me) who just can't muster up the strength to plunge face-first into the roster realignment efforts of the late-winter, early-spring. The Chicago Bears organization will not raise ticket prices for the 2009 season.
The basic response could be, "Of course not. How could they in this economy?" Well the truth is they can't without suffering a public relations nightmare. But this announcement is not something that should be casually discarded by fans as a symptom of the economic downturn. The Bears ARE suffering an amusement tax increase from 8 to 9 percent and accepting credit card payments for the first time - both of which will take substantial money away from Halas Hall (about a million bucks or more). The easiest solution to the problem: charge the fans.
But Ted Phillips and the Bears won't do that and I figured I'd show some appreciation. The economy is shit and it seems the Bears have realized that their organizational issues pale in comparison to those of the people who fill those seats every Sunday.
Now go get better players.
#2 Urlacher FTW said . . .First! Way to not be cheap, Virigina. For once. Bear Down!
February 6, 2009
#3 Tenacious D said . . .If this remains a face value move then I say very good. If they try to peg lack of signing talent in FA to it as a scape goat then I call bullshit. We need olineman, we need a receiver, we need a safety; I'd pay the 20 bucks increase if you're gonna build this team up and make it more fun to watch.
February 6, 2009
#4 CA BEAR FAN said . . .No ticket price increase, but beer will cost $25 a piece.
February 6, 2009
#5 jeff said . . .Im sorry but this is all? ticket prices? c'mon Jeff you couldnt post something else? I think it is great that the prices will stay the same but are you serious!!!! you didnt have to make a new Blog about it....I guess you couldnt make a Blog about Draft Picks, Free Agents, Or Mini Camp that is gonna start pretty soon...Or roster Changes ...ETC....But I guess ticket prices is the biggest issue for the bears as of today!
February 6, 2009
#6 BearDown1982 said . . .speculating about free agency with a month till it starts and the draft before the combine is the most boring shit on earth.
you want me to write that crabtree and maclin are good? how about that we should sign really good players? every team in the league thinks they're trading for boldin and signing t.j. every team in the league thinks they're signing namdi because every team loves good corners.
hell, even the newspapers have nothing to say about the team.
February 6, 2009
#7 jeff said . . .Indeed...these are the dog days of the offseason. More for speculation...which is 99% of the time bull shit.
Nice to see that tix won't go up...although, it is hard enough to get tickets anyways. Half the time I have to overpay for them on stubhub.
February 6, 2009
#8 Shady said . . .bd, the best thing to do is just treat it like a concert and get ready that first week in july. get on-line first thing that morning. and go for it.
February 6, 2009
#9 Urlacher FTW said . . .No raise in ticket prices = no big ticket FA's
February 6, 2009
#10 The Ghost of Halas said . . .My own comparison of KO to Aikman got me a little more curious, so I compared their entire first 3 seasons playing.
Troy Aikman
G Cmp Att % Yds TDs INTs sk rtd
12 237 363 65.3 2,754 11 10 32 1
15 226 399 56.6 2,579 11 18 39 1
11 155 293 52.9 1,749 9 18 19 0
38 618 1055 58% 7,082 31 46 90 2Per game yards 186 TDs 0.8 Picks 1.2
Kyle Orton
G Cmp Att % Yds TDs INTs sk rtd
15 272 465 58.5 2,972 18 12 27 3
3 43 80 53.8 478 3 2 2 0
15 190 368 51.6 1,869 9 13 30 0
33 505 913 55% 5,319 30 27 59 3
Per game yards 161 TDs 0.9 Picks 0.8So even though KO is down 5 games he has thrown only 1 less TD while throwning nearly 20 less INTs and has more rushing TDs. Aikman took off a bit in his 4th season of playing when they got him some weapons and lineman and everything started to click. I am very hopeful KO can do the same; you won't ever get a franchise QB if you don't stick with one long enough to find out how good he is.
February 6, 2009
#11 CA BEAR FAN said . . .That is truly astonishing, Urlacher. Excellent job on the number crunching!
February 6, 2009
#12 Murph said . . .Yea JEFF! well atleast that shit would be more interesting than talking about ticket prices....shit you minus well make a blog about the topics i named cause these guys are gonna talk about those topics anyway.....And the most boring shit on earth was reading your blog about ticket prices....Try sticking to what we fans are really interested in.....OK jeff!
February 6, 2009
#13 zisk said . . .You should have crunched Grossmans' stats for his only year starting the whole season. They are very similar, except more yards, more TD's , OHHHH yeah we went to the SuperBowl and this year we didnt even make the damn playoffs. I think half this blog is Ortons relatives. Don't know why we signed a backup, we have a good one in Orton.
February 7, 2009
#14 shonbear said . . .Well excuse jeff for making a small post on the only good news to come out of halas in a while. Its like getting pissed at peyton manning because he threw for 200 yards and only one touchdown.
February 7, 2009
#15 Rancid said . . .A new thread is a new thread, it's better than having everybody just go on and on with out at least the chance to discuss something else.
This is definitely the lamest time of the season, free agents, minicamp, the combine, the draft.
Getting Basanaz (whatever) is the breaking news of the day right now, let's see what happens with him. Maybe he can get some reporte with Earl Bennett for the potential future.
February 7, 2009
#16 CA BEAR FAN said . . .CA - Jeff's the man, and he can do what he wants on here. It's his blog. If you don't like, go post on a different blog.
February 7, 2009
#17 The Ghost of Halas said . . .Yea Whatever...lets get back to football!!!!!!
February 7, 2009
#18 CA needs to chill out and get laid said . . .This part of the season isn't as lame as that stretch between late May mini-camp and Training Camp at Bourbonnais.
Remember kids, there are four seasons:
Preseason
Regular Season
Post Season
Off SeasonIt's just a lull. Thank god for Jeff for providing us with a healthy outlet for our football frustrations...lest we become NBA fans.
February 7, 2009
#19 Rancid said . . .Or if you have such amazing ideas and writing talent why don't you write your own blog. Jeff regularly brings us the current state of our Bears much more poignantly than any of the big name sports writers in Chicago. Instead of just listing some general topics, why don't you give some specific thoughts on any of those topics. We don't need a new thread to have a discussion about any of them. We do it anyways. Geez, he may have another entry written by tomorrow or in 3 days or 2 weeks. Deal with it. It's his creation. Disagree with opinions all you want, but until you write something better, back off the jedi.
And always remember:
I'm Rick James bitches.Enjoy yourselves. It's a celebration. Show Charlie Murphy your titties.
February 7, 2009
#20 I love alcohol said . . .NBA? insert vomiting noise here. The only other sporting event that even approaches Bears football for me is March Madness, and its a distant second.
February 7, 2009
#21 NBA's not so bad said . . .I love alcohol.
GO BEARS!!
If we can't be the Steelers next year, let's at least be the Cardinals.
February 7, 2009
#22 Nicole is cheerin on Da Bears in Greenville said . . .I am becoming more and more convinced that we should trade it down. We have plenty of holes to fill and plenty more holes on the horizon the next few seasons.
I think of it like Shaq. He may only shoot 45% from the foul line but the more god awful shots he takes the more points will sneak in there eventually. Except when your 2nd and 3rd round picks get cut faster than you can sneeze Bazuin.
That is how I feel about our BT and the draft. With a few noted exceptions. Shit even Shaq hits a 60% or 65% night once in awhile.
We need an Offensive draft consultant.
February 7, 2009
#23 Nicole is cheerin on Da Bears in Greenville said . . .Now watch the beers will be $25 each...
February 7, 2009
#24 Worm0922 said . . .(whoa- tenacious, we're on the same thought!)
February 7, 2009
#25 Al In WI said . . .Question: What if the BT swallows their pride and hire someone like Dan Reeves or even Chucky? With Chucky getting fired so late, he had no chance of getting a new job. Make him or Reeves a consultant knowing that, Chucky at least, will be gone after a yr or 2 for the offensive side of the draft. Hell, it might be good to have someone for Ron to bounce ideas off of.
February 7, 2009
#26 Tenacious D said . . .Here's something to get excited about: http://www.collegefootballtalk.com/2009/02/07/pitt-reaching-into-the-past-for-new-oc/
Ron Turner could be leaving boys and girls!!!! That's change I could believe in.
February 7, 2009
#27 Peoria Matt said . . .Nicole,
The sad thing is I'd be right there in line to buy them anyway.February 7, 2009
#28 Rancid said . . .http://www.profootballtalk.com/category/rumor-mill/
Hmmm.....Does Pitt have some sort of Bear-Coach quota?
February 7, 2009
#29 Murph said . . .Al - thank you so much for that ray of hope. We can only pray it happens
February 8, 2009
#30 Who's Laughing Now said . . .Rancid....just glad to hear ya aren't a Cubs fan!
February 8, 2009
#31 O-line wins games said . . .Remembering Sweetness ...
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/jeff_pearlman/02/06/payton/index.html
February 8, 2009
#32 WTF are they thinking said . . .9- Kyle had a 79.6 QB rating last year, ranked 25 of 32, here are the QBs he was better than last year- Ryan Fitzpatrick, Derek Anderson, Marc Bulger, Gus Frerotte, JaMarcus Russell, Dan Orlovsky, and Tyler Thigpen. Not an impressive groups of guys.
The 25th best starting QB in the league and you compare him to Aikman. He had 8 picks in the last 5 games, including the 39.1 QB rating and 3 pick performance in the most important game last year @MIN. Looks like he's getting worse not better. Why do you think the Bears didn't sign him long term? And Angelo is saying they need to get that position right?
February 8, 2009
#33 Z said . . .#31 I'm not saying KO is an elite QB, but he can win games. How about being reasonable enough to let the guy get some talent around him before we run him out of town?
He had better TD to INT ratio than Brees first two seasons and he had Tomlinson. Look at John Elways stats from 83-92. See Big Bens stats this season. They're really similar and he has a much better team!!! How about Eli Manning's whole career stats?
February 8, 2009
#34 Willie from Chicago said . . .This team will improve faster and can go deeper in the playoffs by upgrading OL, WR and DB's faster than by trying to upgrade QB right now and if the D-line can't return to form then they are next in line after that for an upgrade. Then 2nd RB/FB and QB are probably next most important. Then LB and then our bad ass TE's which is the only area I am satisfied with.
While KO's deep ball is suspect, we won't know shit about him truly until he has some weapons. He barely has an Offense to operate with at all. He is serviceable to good and has shown flashes of being very good. We have bigger problems to fix to get us back in the hunt before this whole Defense is full of senior citizens. Tick tock gentlemen.
February 8, 2009
#35 WTF are they thinking said . . .Sht I still cant afford to get tickets....
February 8, 2009
#34 Hey maybe if we got a second team the scalpers couldn't charge 4 times the ticket cost.
February 9, 2009
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