Staff report
It has been a rough week for Bears ownership.
First, the Bears were dubbed the NFL's most neglected brand by Forbes magazine. The scorching report labeled the Bears as "financial flatliners," noting that despite their high national recognition factor, the franchise placed ninth in the magazine's NFL valuations rankings with a worth of $1.07 billion. That made them the lowest-ranked large-market team, ranking behind even the small-market Baltimore Ravens.
Now Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports is piling on, applying the kind of heat that Jay Cutler usually feels when he fades back to pass. In his fifth annual NFL owner rankings, the Bears are fifth from the bottom, with the only worse ownerships being (from the bottom up) the Raiders, Bengals, Lions and Browns.
In noting that Michael McCaskey will step down as chairman at the end of
this season, Silver writes that he "will leave behind a financial state
of affairs that, in relative terms, can best be described as flaccid."
"It's just mismanagement," one NFL owner says. "They really should be
the tops in revenue, ahead of Dallas. Someday someone else will get a
hold of that thing and it'll be a monster."
But as Silver observes, that isn't likely to happen any time soon, given the McCaskeys' pledge to retain ownership of the franchise for the foreseeable future.
It all starts with ownership. Without competant (people who know football) or smart people (people who know how to hire football people) running the show then nothing will ever change. MaCaskey's never knew football. That is and has been apparent. Worse thing ever happened to Bears was them going to SB early in Smith's career. This gave indication that Smith knew what he was doing as a head coach. WRONG! Ownership, through their stupidity, thought he deserved a long term contract. WRONG again! One year success does not earn it. Rivera deserved the long term contract but Smith didn't want competition for power so he got rid of him. This organization has been a soap opera for years. All glamour and no substance. Can almost include the Cubs in this classification but they are in a class by themselves.
This is a poorly coached team with management that doesn't care about anything more than profit/loss and fans who will continue to support this mediocre team no matter how bad it is, so nothing has changed. I have always loved watching the preseason games to see the young new talent before Lovie Inc. ruins them. Blame the players if you want, but the truth remains it starts from the top down. The McCaskys are still laughing all the way to the bank. I know it's only pre-season, but it looks like a team that is ill prepared and never practiced. When I watch other teams' pre-season games, they have been played like regular season games. They were consistent, professional, exciting and coached with enthusiasm, emotion and a desire to win. I don't see that spirit or professionalism with the Bears. All I see is predictability with stubborn Lovie & his yes men. It's such a shame.
Wow, Creighton you hit it smack dab on the cause of this Bear disaster. What a shame that ole lady Virginia thought too much of her dumba$$ son Mikey to give him the reins of this franchise.
The majority of us would like to see Lovie gone, but clearly he isn't the cause of this drowning bird. If anything, he's an optimistic guy who is trying to do the best with what he has thanks to those above.
Your points of this teams failures and mis-management and mis-ownership are dead on. Too bad the franchise can't be foreclosed on.
I'm looking at a 4-12 Bears Season!
It's not ticket pricess or parking or any of that stuff. It's poor managment, starting with the fam and working it's way down to Phillips and Angelo.
1. The Bears have the smallest stadium in the league. Which one of them thought that would be a good idea? Fewer seast fewer sales.
2. They are horrible at marketing their own brand.
3. They are not regularly one of the better teams.
4. They are getting hammered in TV revenue, the more people that watch the more money they get. Why they are not fan friendly and are regularly a mediocre team.
5. The Bears organization as a whole is not fan friendly, the McStupids have never been tight with the fans, Phillips knows less about football than anyone on this board, however he could probably do your taxes a lot better than you. Lovie has never embrassed the fans, and his philosophy as a coach has always been us against them, them would include us fans. Take note of the Blackhawks, treat the fans well and suddenly you are popular again.
6. Three playoff apperances in a decade is not helping.
7. They are disorganized, nobody is ever really sure who is in charge.
8. They are out of touch with the fans and the nfl.
9. The last time we had an inovator working on this team it was Buddy Ryan, so they fired him.
10. The organization is over conservative in everything they do.
11. The organization is not trying to win football games they are trying to run a conservative low risk buisness that brings them decent returns. Even with the addition of Cutler and Peppers the Bears payrole has changed little in 2-3 years.
the mccaskeys need to sell this team. they apparently dont care about winning anymore, and will never hire a good gm or anything because of it. the only legitamate chance the bears have a becoming one of the landmark teams of the league like they should be (second largest market, most history, ect), is to fall into new ownership that actually cares about W's
Guess what? This is still a free society, and this is nothing more than a business. If the McCaskeys decide to run the business into the ground they get to do that. It's a shame of course, but this is still America. The Cubs have argueably, the greatest testament to the sickness of sports worship. A shrine to the futility of sports. Go God!!!
As A life long Chicago sports fan I remember all the years that fans were wishing Bill Wirtz would sell the Blackhawks. He never did and they didn't win much even though they had the best stadium in the NHL and some great players. Mr. Wirtz passes away and look what happens. The best team in the NHL and Stanley Cup Champions.
McCaskey's Plz take note. Sell the team and get out of the NFL as you have proven for decades you don't have a clue.
Be Careful what we wish for.
We could be ran by a dumbass like Matt Millen and suffer for another decade.
Selling the team doesn't mean we'll get better management overtime.
Look what happened to the Lions, Rams, Raiders...
What the McCaskeys have to do is hire a Better GM.
They proved us wrong the last couple of years when all we did was call them "cheap" owners. We can't do that anymore.
But better GMs make sure we don't hire complete busts.
SPECIALLY on the First Round. Where bears have STUNK ASS for aaaaaages.
Last good pick we had on First round was freaking TOMMIE HARRIS. (Jury's still out on Chris Williams).
So i don't wish bears ownership to change. I just wish they'd stay the hell out of the business part of it, and hire a new and more intelligent GM.
Should the Bears raise parking to $75 and charge $10 for popcorn in order to raise revenue and thus increase the value of the franchise- just like Dallas? Will the average fan have a better experience by paying $250 for a ticket as opposed to $100? Forbes might be happy- but where are the fans' yachts? Will the average fan be priced out of the market so that only corporations buy the seats?
So....what's the news here??? Please tell us something we don't know already.
As a San Francisco transplant (chicago born and bred) and life long bears fan, the pundit comments about the bears ownership are way off base. Just because they have decided not to go into a ton of debt (jerry jones) to build a new stadium does not mean the MC family are financial losers, maybe they are a bit conservative, but that's not a bad thing in this day and age.
In terms of the play on the field, there are three reasons why this franchise has not won more over the last 50 years:
1. No QB (Give them credit for trying to fix a long term bear problem).
2. The current regime had too much success to fast and became arrogant and wasteful with drafting.
3. Coach Mike underachieved when you look at all the talent the 84-2000 bears had. Should have won three superbowls.
Lastly, give lovie a break:
1. Last time I checked he is still a winning coach
2. Ron Rivera has not proved anything (enough with the hire chico as a coach thing) the chargers have a ton of talent on D and can barely win a playoff game.
3. I still believe this team will surprise everyone once the season is over with.
Peace out
I know some of you might not like what i have to say...but this didn't start with the McCaskey's...The old man was failing as an owner from the 50's on...I love Papa Bear, but the reality is that he didn't adapt to the changes in the game, ran the organization cheaper than what the current regime does, and alienated his stars. If you look at our history, this is how it's always been...It's not as bad in other places, and I think it's an exaggeration of how bad the team is run...they went out and got a pro bowl qb, they went out and paid for Peppers. Their problem today is the opposite of the problems of the 80's where they fired people too quickly, today their hang on to people too long.
Just my opinion...cheer up it could be worse, you could be bengals fans.
Does it make any sense to have a Team President who has no background in professional football? The man in that position is a trained accountant. Does us all a favor and sell the team to Mark Cuban and make yourselves a handsome profit at the same time.
da... losers!
maybe if they didnt blow nearly EVERY game, management would not be frowned upon.
If Mike Mc Caskey graduated from Yale I would sue Yale for graduating an inept person say outside family wouldn't qualify to run a lemonade stand yet alone a NFL team. Gold bless Virginia but Old man Halas knew his son-n-law and grand kids of Ed wouldn't be able to handle the Bears team
After the 85 run McCaskey ran out GM Jerry Vainisi, Ditka, and let Wilber Marshall (possibly the best LB on 85 team) go to the Redskins. He refused to acquire a viable backup to McMahon (the only season he stayed healthy they won it all). He's hired coaches and GM's on the cheap ever since, and they've never been an NFL heavyweight after the 80's.
As a life-long Chicago resident, the only fans I have any respect for are those who support the Hawks and Sox. At least their fans don't support poor ownership and crappy teams...and oh yea, they both won championships in the last 5 years. Go Figure. Stay away from Cubs and Bears!!
As a life-long Chicago resident, the only fans I have any respect for are those who support the Hawks and Sox. At least their fans don't support poor ownership and crappy teams...and oh yea, they both won championships in the last 5 years. Go Figure. Stay away from Cubs and Bears!!
As a life-long Chicago resident, the only fans I have any respect for are those who support the Hawks and Sox. At least their fans don't support poor ownership and crappy teams...and oh yea, they both won championships in the last 5 years. Go Figure. Stay away from Cubs and Bears!!
As a life-long Chicago resident, the only fans I have any respect for are those who support the Hawks and Sox. At least their fans don't support poor ownership and crappy teams...and oh yea, they both won championships in the last 5 years. Go Figure. Stay away from Cubs and Bears!!
With every game a sellout and a gross worth of $1.07 Billion (yes, billion with a "B"), the McCaskey's keep laughing all the way to the bank.
I used to be a Bears season ticket holder but saved my sanity and shekels a couple years ago by not renewing those tickets. It's painful enough to watch it on TV. As long as the faithful continue to show up every Sunday to see the Bears underperform and disappoint there will be no change in ownership or management for this hallowed franchise. Too bad.
Unfortunately Mikey McCaskey probably doesnt even know what the word means. Wonder what Grampa would have done?
Yawn, nothing we did not know inside and out
I will root for the Bears again, when they sell. Death tax?
As long as the stadium is full, nothing will change.
Hey...The McCaskey family got Daley and the Park District to give them "their" stadium, so what do they care what these sportswriters say, or what we taxpayers think?
Why should the McCaskey family care? It's worth over a billion dollars and they have enough money to support the next four generations of that clan.
"Winning champiuonships" only cuts into the profit margin since guys (and coaches) won't do their thing for free.
Remember with the McCaskey's profit means more than championships.
Mark Liptak
Please go away mcCaskeys