Do you know why Marshall Field's was renamed Macy's? Federated could have kept the Field's name after the 2005 acquisition — it's still on plaques on the downtown flagship store anyway. I happened to be on the editorial board when the new owners came by to ballyhoo the change.
To save money on bags. If they kept "Field's," they'd need separate Field's bags, plus distinct advertising. That would cost money. Changing Field's to Macy's was simpler and cheaper.
For them. For us, well, if it left customers alienated and heartbroken, welcome to capitalism.
This came to mind as the Chicago Bears edge closer to moving to Hammond, Indiana. Prestige is trumped by parsimony. Sears fled the tallest building in the world in the heart of Chicago for a sprawling business park in Hoffman Estates. In the end, it didn't save them.
I was resigned to accept Arlington Heights, even to welcome it. I myself am a suburbanite with city pretensions, the Chicago newspaper columnist living in a leafy suburban paradise. Life happens.
But Hammond? I'm reluctant to register an opinion about Hammond, since it is filled with fine people, including loyal Chicago Sun-Times subscribers, all with interesting, rich lives. Laudable individuals, fully capable of writing angry letters to newspaper editors, explaining how wounded they are by the opinions of some clueless hack.
So let me stipulate that I visited Hammond once, nearly five years ago, for two hours, and my opinion is based entirely on that visit. I am not the Jedi Council, nor the all-seeing eye. It was an initial impression.
A... young man of my acquaintance was about to spend a year working as a humble clerk for the federal judiciary in Hammond. Taking a preliminary trip with this unnamed person to the city in question seemed the act of a loving... umm... associate. So I volunteered. He was planning to live on the near South Side of Chicago and commute.
"Why not live in Hammond?" I suggested, breezily, as we drove. On my blog, I described our arrival this way:
"Now Hammond, Indiana is not a garden spot of the world. Modest apartment buildings and town houses, homes, low industrial buildings, a trailer park as soon as you exit the freeway. A lot of liquor stores and cigarette stores and fireworks stores. Not poor, exactly, not prosperous either. Proudly hanging on. My mission was to go to the federal courthouse, a large brutalist gray concrete structure that could be used in a James Bond movie for the secret police headquarters in Bulgaria and the audience wouldn't blink."Looking for a spot to eat lunch near the courthouse, a sense of the area started to sink in.
"What I said about living in Hammond, I retract," I said. "I don't even want you stopping for gas here."
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here's the problem that Hammond doesn't understand.
ReplyDeleteThe Bears will play a guaranteed 10 games there, 8 regular season & two pre-season games. They will also be able to get some concerts in there, but there aren't that many big name acts, so maybe 10 per year.
Plus without any luxury hotels nearby, the acts will either stay in a downtown Chicago hotel or the stadium will have to build inside of it, several luxury hotel suites & contract out the running of that to a major hotel operator.
That's just 20 days of use per year.
If the Bears play well, they might get one or two playoff games & a Super Bowl every 15 years.
No one is going to build hotels, bars & restaurants for under 25 days of use per year.
If Hammond thinks this will be a windfall for them, they're living in cloud kookoo land, because from what I've read, the sales tax in Lake & Porter Counties will go up to 10% from the current 7% & the tax on food will go from zero to 2%. Then their real estate taxes, which are low now, mostly because Indiana doesn't do much in the way of social services will go up 50% to pay for this palace for the billionaire McCaskey family!
The same family that screwed Chicago taxpayers into paying for the remodel of Soldier Field 25 years ago, exactly as the rotten to the core McCaskeys wanted it. Their sole problem is Soldier Field has a capacity of 63,000 max, as seen in yesterday's soccer game & they want at least 10,000 more seats to make even more money, plus they also want to get all the parking & concession money which the Chicago park District now gets.
And one more little detail most miss, the Indiana law creating the stadium authority, gives the bears the right to buy the stadium after 40 years.
The price, One Whole Dollar, that's right, just a small green intaglio portrait of George Washington will get them a multi-billion dollar stadium.
But knowing how all the other NFL teams have acted with their stadium deals, I guarantee you, after 20 years, the Bears & the corrupt McCaskeys will be very unhappy with things & demand a multi-billion dollar remodel of the place!
The McCaskeys have always wanted a stadium large enough to host the Superbowl. But even the rich can't change Chicago weather. Not sure a move to Hammond will assuage the Superbowl selection committee. The Bears' playoff game on New Year's Eve 1988 ("The Fog Bowl") remains the most weather-disrupted game in NFL history. (The blizzard that collapsed the roof of the Metrodome in Minneapolis forced the Vikings' game to be rescheduled. That was bad, but playing conditions on the field were OK by the time they finally played).
DeleteJill, I'm not sure the McCaskey's care about a Superbowl, i think they care about money; full stop. If they cared about football they would have done a lot more in the last few decades or half a century. When papa bear, George Halas died, the football did too. It's only ever been about money since them. How many of George's kids played football? how many of his grandkids?
DeleteMoney makes the McCaskey's go round... a mark a yen a buck or a pound, its all that makes their world go round. that clinking clanking sound
My husband’s dad was a friend of George Halas. He had tickets on the 40 yd line 10 rows up from the bears bench at Wrigley Field. They moved to Soldier Field same seats. First renovation same seats. Second renovation which was when they announced there would be a seat licensing fee paid prior to season ticket renewal, different seats. We paid the licensing fee and then renewed our seats only to learn that because of the extensive remodeling, the Bears were forced to assign season ticket seats using a “lottery” and that the “lottery” had assigned us to the top tier of the end zone. Our protestations fell on deaf ears. Every now and then when I am watching the game on tv I see some big shots sitting in our seats. At least we got all our money back. That’s how they treat nobodies yet they expect the nobodies to step forward and help them stay in IL.
DeleteIs that the George Halas of whom Mike Ditka proclaimed that he threw nickels around as if they were manhole covers?
DeleteI think the best thing about Hammond is the White Castle on 41..if it's still there.
And would anybody in his right mind buy a property with a history of environmental distress that would be extraordinarily difficult to get to and impossible to get away from? My bet is that they stay in Chicago.
tate
Double B... I agree $$$ is the driving, perhaps sole, force for the McC's. But a Superbowl = $$$, too. The next 3 superbowl locations have already been decided, two in stadiums built in 2020. We're experiencing a renaissance of stadium upgrades, overhauls or complete rebuilds right now. The sports world is predicting the next group of Superbowl locations (from 2030- 2033) will be awarded to franchises with brand new stadiums that have yet to open (Nashville, Wash, DC, Buffalo and Cleveland). And guess which franchise is favored for $uperbowl LXVIII in 2034?
DeleteI agree, Jill.
DeleteBut its a very important distinction to make regarding the Superbowl. You either want it, because its the Superbowl, or you want it for the money. The McCasky's are of the later. They want the money and care not about the game being played.
Not only have I not been to Hammond, I've never been to a Bears' game. I don't hate football -- although those ticket prices! -- but I do not care where they play. I do have a strong opinion about who pays for the stadium: not one tax dollar.
ReplyDeleteMoving to Hammond makes more sense to me than moving to Arlington Heights. It's literally a handful of stops away from Soldier Field on the South Shore Line, whereas from Ogilvie to Arlington Heights is 12 stops. Car traffic out to Arlington Heights feels like it would be a nightmare on game days. Hammond's probably an easier trek from downtown, even though the distance is almost the same for both destinations. Also, most people going to a Bears game in Hammond probably aren't going to spend a lot of time discovering Hammond, just like folks who go to Bears games at Soldier Field now probably don't explore the nearby parts of Chicago. Hammond's been making improvements, trying to attract folks who want to live near Chicago but pay Indiana prices. Hell, even Gary is on the upswing.
ReplyDeleteJust wait until they see that it's $8 toll on the Skyway each way, plus $4.80 for a short trip on the Indiana Toll Road each way, or will they drag through the streets of Hegewisch on the far SE Side to avoid that $25.60 round trip. Will the North suburban fans go a bit south to 80/94 & then the Illinois Tollway & have to pay over $25 each way on the Tri-State.
DeleteBears fans are not gonna be happy paying all that money just to get there.
Plus the Bears will get at least $25 a car for parking!
So at least $50 just to get there & back!
Sure they can take Metra downtown for a $10 weekend pass, not good for Monday or Thursday games & then pay the CTA another $2.50 to get to the South Shore Line & pay them $8.25 to get near it, for a total of $31.50 total, for each person.
Thinking back over the decades, watching the Bears try to put together a stadium deal is like watching Monty Python's “Upper Class Twit of the Year” sketch. All this because a company worth billions doesn't want to pay property tax to Arlington Heights. God bless JD Pritzker.
ReplyDeleteThe so-called economic benefits of publicly funded stadiums is one of the most easily and frequently debunked ideas around.
And what will Hammond get for all this, besides a ton of taxpayer debt stretching into future decades? The Bears will play around 12 home games a year. Fans will arrive, eat at tailgate parties or inside the facility, and when the game is over they'll get in their cars and drive home. They won't spend one dime at whatever bars and restaurants Hammond builds to serve the hordes of visitors lying liars told them they can expect.
Some would say the same things about Joliet.
ReplyDeleteI have nothing against Hammond, per se. I have driven through it on my way to somewhere else many times. But I do have a problem with the Bears/McCasky family/any multi-million/billion businesses using tax dollars to pay for their business. Tax breaks for the wealthy just mean more taxes on the average taxpayer. So let them go. I don't care. (Although I am afraid that traveling through Northwest Indiana on some Sundays will mean a snarl of traffic through an already high-traffic area. The only one this benefits is the McCaskys. Not even Hammond will benefit from this ultimately.
ReplyDeleteThe Bears aren't being kicked out of Soldier Field. They need to shut the fuck up and stay put.
ReplyDeleteI really like the photo of the raindrops on maple leaves at the top of the blog.
ReplyDeleteI generally visit Hammond for 2 reasons - observing nature, and buying gas. If I'm on the southeast side of Chicago I'll take 134th street east into Hammond. There is a mega gas station just across the stateline, and a line of cars with IL plates waiting to pump gas.
One of my favorite late summer memories is standing with a birding group along what was soon to become the Horseshoe Casino parking lot in Hammond, immersed in clouds of monarch butterflies. They were massing along the waterfront on their migratory route and were landing on our heads, arms, and binoculars. I felt like I was in a Disney movie. That said, I worry about the environmental impact on Wolf Lake if a stadium is built there.
El Taco Real and the Cavalier Inn are two really good excuses to make a day trip to Hammond.
ReplyDeleteThey have been serving lucky locals for decades.
As for the Bears, I wouldn't go to a game if they paid me.
In today's world, we the consumer is asked to give up quite a bit, while still staying true to brands.
ReplyDeleteMcDonald's is no longer the quick and cheap treat it used to be. Everyone charges extra for guac. Cars that used to drive for 100,000 miles with nothing more than an oil change every 3,000 miles now costs ten times as much, need $50,000 in maintenance costs every five years, and need to be fully replaced after a mere fender bender. everything at the store is 25% more expensive and 25% smaller. You have to rent all of your movies, TV shows, games, and programs through the subscription based modeling of today's lecherous economy.
But do you know who never give up a damn thing?
That's right, billionaires, sports-teams, and politicians' personal finances. not a single one of them seem to ever have to comprimise. Move a team, have cities and states fight over the right to pay you billions in opes of a frew hundred thousand dollars of revenue from non stadium related "things."
The rich never pay their fair share. At least they haven't since Reagan. And yet, day in and day out the papers seem to tell us how wrong we are to not give the rich all the riches.
There are a few things I believe, regarding this "bears" stadium.
1: If you want to be the Chicago Bears, you need to stay in the city limits. Otherwise, I'm calling you the "chicagoland" bears. I'm calling dibs on that copyright.
2: If you want a tax break, you should get one for every day the stadium gives back to the community on non football related days. AND that tax reduction should be directly related to how much taxes are made up in the areas directly adjacent to the stadium. For example, if the restaurants around the stadium all bring in $1,000 in taxes from sales on non game days, the team would get a .01% reduction in their taxes. Cap the percentage at something high, not like all those coke and Pepsi bottle cap donations which reads that they give away $250,000 regardless of what happens.
3: No domed stadiums for outside sports. The bears should play in the elements. the fans should be able to bundle up and brave the weather. Get heated seat warmers for the fans and heated concrete around the field, but the wind should blow, the sun should shine, the rain should fall, and the ice should form on the sidelines and the field. You should be required to play on grass.
4: The stadium should have solar panels on every single available space on the building and in the parking lots. Give back. Hell that's where you should be getting your tax breaks.
4: the Superbowl should be played at a neutral stadium that does not have an NFL team regularly. England, Germany, Hawaii, Mexico City, there are a ton of options and you can even rotate between a few. The pro bowl should be there too.
5: Multi sport facilities should have the option for additional tax breaks. Wrigley, Fenway, the Coliseum, Candlestick, Municipal Stadium, Busch, Milwaukee County Stadium, Shibe Park, The Polo Grounds, even Yankee stadium used to host multiple professional sports on the same filed. If you're going to build a giant palace to your ego, you shouldn't get everything for a building that sits empty for 340 days of the year.
6: Public Transit should be required, and it needs to be better than Soldier Field's joke of a bus system. Make some tax incentives available for the percentage of scanned/punched tickets that arrived via public transit. Extra charges and taxes for people who drive to the game and are the only person in the vehicle.
7: Make contingency plans. XX amount of games played at this location through XX years, with claw backs. If certain financial metrics aren't met than the team doesn't get the breaks they "claim" would happen.
And what does it matter? the world will keep on spinning, the rich will keep on riching, and the poor will keep on believing that they will someday be billionaires and as a result we shouldn't tax billionaires because they could be one!
I don't want the bears to leave Chicago. But if they do, forget em.
First all the Brewers don't play in County Stadium now. The moved into a new stadium in 2021. American Family Field has a retractable roof. II think it is great for baseball. You are assured of not being rained out. Great when it is cold out. Since there is no heating when the roof is closed it is comfortable enough. If they could have a roof on stadiums back in the 20's they would have done it. Not that I don't like seeing games played in the elements. As for a neutral site for the Super Bowl. That is a now. I dislike playing regular season games played over seas. True the games draw big crowds. NFL says it is to grow the game. More to make more money. The cation of Soldier Field is terrible. I live in Racine and have been to a few games. The parking is terrible and it is difficult to get out of the lot. We went to a game sometime in the 90's. We took the El and then walked from the El Stop. That is a real hike. On a cold day it would be terrible. I don't know how you would make the transit system better.
DeleteI'm a Bears fan and am grateful for the teams improvement I hope they go to the playoffs and BEAT THE PACKERS!
ReplyDeleteIn my 70 years I've
been to a couple of games..
When I was a kid my dad would drive us out to Rockford so that we could watch the game it was blacked out in Chicago when they were at home. They played at Wrigley Field then
The bears are an entertainment Enterprise. The McCaskey's do a great job of making money.
Being a part of the NFL they have to follow certain rules and stadium size has a minimum capacity that they don't meet it at soldier Field. The city is still on the hook for many millions of dollars for the last renovation and their lease is up.
They bought land in Arlington heights but couldn't get the deal they wanted from that town or the state.
Chicago won't give them the deal did they want.
Indiana has agreed to. Indiana already has one football team in Indianapolis.
I've been to Hammond and it's no great shakes I've worked at that courthouse many times and live downtown Chicago it's a long drive in traffic.
It's a longer drive from where the majority of their fan base lives which is in the North and northwest suburbs.
They don't care about their fans most of the money comes from TV revenue.
The bears in the NFL do not care what we think about where the bears should have a new stadium.
I guess I don't really care anyway since I'm not going there.
Long time reader
There is no mimum seating for NFL Stadiums. The NFL reccommends 50,000 but no staium is near tha low. Soldier Field has the lowest capacity. They want a domed stadium in hopes of getting a Superbowl.
DeleteRegarding Hammond, to quote the late great John Denver “ I spent a week there one night”
ReplyDeleteI think spending some money in Hammond is good for the whole Southland region. I don’t think the bears really care about their base though. They’re sure making them drive a lot of extra miles. I prefer my football on TV.
ReplyDeleteWhen I hear "Southland", I think of either the Southeast"...the American region also known as "Dixie"...or the label that the Los Angeles Times uses for Southern California... especially the Los Angeles area...which covers a helluva lot of territory. Same way that the Tribune invented the vast region that was known as the Chicagoland area...which only newspaper people and advertising copywriters ever used. Nobody says: "I'm from Chicagoland."
DeleteHave never heard Chicago's Southeast Side, the southern suburbs, and Northwest Indiana called the Southland...not until now. Maybe it's me...I've been gone for almost 34 years.
Do remember a local newspaper called the Southtown Economist...a couple of sportswriters at the Chicago dailies also wrote for them. The Trib does have something called the Daily Southtown.
Hey, I'm in Northeast Ahia...what the hell do I know?
Chicago Southland was coined by the "Southland Chamber of Commerce" years ago and aptly describes ALL the south suburbs of Chicago.
DeleteThere are so many thoughtful responses here on the feetball situation, so allow me to comment on Macy's.
ReplyDeleteYou said: To save money on bags. If they kept "Field's," they'd need separate Field's bags, plus distinct advertising. That would cost money. Changing Field's to Macy's was simpler and cheaper.
I said: This is a perfect example of a corporation misreading the room. That small gesture, of keeping the instantly recognizable dark green bags, would have softened the blow, and perhaps some wouldn't have been so hostile to the new owners. Instead, they saved money in the short run and lost customers in the long run.
The Broadway, Dayton's, Famous-Barr, I. Magnin, Hudson's, Wanamaker's, and the May Company were all fine stores in their day. However, none could compare (including Macy's) to the excellence of Marshall Field & Company.
Greed. They're wealthy ... quite wealthy ... but they want more. It really really really is that simple.
ReplyDelete"before we start lauding ourselves over the place"
ReplyDeleteSince nobody else has mentioned it, perhaps I'm wrong, NS, but I thought that "lording ourselves over the place" was the phrase.
Eric Zorn has been making the point that, as a fan, but somebody who doesn't attend games, Bears contests are a TV show and he doesn't much care where they're produced. That would be my position, as well, if I cared. (Though as someone who's not even a fan, my opinion doesn't carry much weight. When it comes right down to it, I don't even watch the TV shows he's referring to.) The billionaire McCaskey clan picked a very fraught moment to try to strongarm Illinois taxpayers into giving them a bunch of money.
Stipulated: Miller's Pub is one of our favorite downtown restaurants. Also, transplants from other places to Chicago like myself (and our gracious host, for that matter), often wonder if we've become "real Chicagoans." After living more than 2/3 of my life here, I thought I had, and enjoying Miller's Pub is a small part of that.
Alas, here's a quote from the owner of Miller's Pub from yesterday's S-T: "'The Bears belong in Chicago,' he said. 'Some people are Cubs fans, some are Sox. Some like basketball, and some like hockey. But every true Chicagoan is a Bears fan.'" Uh, as somebody who couldn't care less about the Bears, that leaves me on the outside, looking in. D'oh!
I grew up in South Shore and moved to the south suburbs for high school. Like most of the Southeast Side, Hammond was a steel mill town. Local tavern, 24 hour shifts, brick bungalow and a Chevrolet. The historic Hammond Civic Center hosted most of Rock's stars in the 60's through 80's. Phil Schmidt's in East Chicago (nearby) was the classic "boned and buttered" perch restaurant. When the mills shut down so did that lifestyle. "Proudly hanging on..." is my takeaway from today's column. As to the Bears...I welcome them to Hammond/Gary. Let Indiana subsidize the McCaskey's and let the North and West siders travel south for a change!
ReplyDeleteLet them pay the taxes that the rich should be paying.
ReplyDeletegood points, Clark
ReplyDeleteHave no dog in this fight. Never cared about the Bears all that much. Saw one game, at Wrigley, in late November of 1960. They beat an expansion team with what I thought was a stupid name at thirteen...the Dallas Cowboys. Froze my ass off. Did not really have a very good time. Never had the opportunity or the desire to see another game.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm dealing with the Cleveland Browns, who have been the Clowns for decades. Stopped watching and stopped caring...quite a few years ago. Their carpetbagger owner, who's a zillionaire from Tennessee, is moving the team from the lakefront. He's building a big barn, with a big barn roof, a few miles from my house. Next to the airport! How stupid is that?
His Palace of Pain will ruin my neighborhood on game days and event days, and will make catching a plane a nightmare. Maybe there will be construction delays, and maybe I won't be around when it's finally finished. I am very disgusted. Most city dwellers in Greater Cleveland agree with me...about 70%. I conducted an online survey last year.
Hammond was the label on our Deco-style electric clock when I was very young. They competed with GE and other brands. Hammond was always a place to be endured in the Fifties, during trips to Detroit, in the days before the expressways and interstates and the Skyway. We would shlep down to Indiana along the lakeshore, and it took forever.
Hammond meant you were about to travel through industrial smog and chemical smells and waste gases being burned off by the refineries. My sister and I called those jets of flame "torches"...like the Standard Oil logo. And above all, there was the stink. My mother would put a handkerchief over her nose and mouth and swear she was about to throw up. But she never did.
Hammond was later a South Shore stop when my first wife and I would take the train to the Dunes. It seemed like a sad, dreary, nowhere place. Always assumed that there was no good reason to live there unless you worked in the mills or the refineries. But Hammond people commute to Chicago on the train. Maybe they were born there,
Sorry the Bears couldn't work out a deal to remain in Chicago. But I'm not surprised. The greedheads will always be more greedy. It's a sickness. There's never enough moolah for them. The truth is, the older I get, the less I like or care about pro football at all. Far too many reasons to list all of them here,