Sodboy13

Ah, gotcha.

The symmetry was fine. The bullpen caverns in the outfield and the openness of the upper deck (which contributed a whole lot to that "holy hell this is high and steep" feeling, I think) were not.

Apparently one of the plans was to put the new stadium in Armour Square park, north of the old park. The stadium would have faced northeast, giving it the Chicago skyline as a backdrop. The park would have been "old-time quirky" by necessity, due to the smaller parcel of land it would be built on.

Instead, they built south of 35th, oriented the ballpark so you looked out and saw the Robert Taylor Homes (until they got torn down in '05), and erected a ballmall. Not to fault utilitarian parks; I enjoy Miller Park quite a bit. But the front-office mismanagement, time and again, has soured the experience at the Cell even as the park's been vastly upgraded. My family and I had such a lousy experience there last year, we decided we'll never go back, short of being given free tickets.

Dunkin' Donuts has hot dogs now, which is great because I already go to Baskin-Robbins to get my oil changed.

Jerry Moyes claimed to lose $45 million in one season. I've always read the stipulation as $50 million after five years, though. That's why I'm tempted to think there may be a second bankruptcy in this team's future before 2018. Get out of town and default on the league loans! Super Double OITGDNHL Bonus!

I call dibs on that at the bankruptcy auction.

I just did a Google search for "Skeete probe" and now my wife is asking me to spend the weekend elsewhere what's going on here help

The NHL's already loaning them $85 million. it will be a case of, "Well, how much more do you need? Done." It's all too far gone for anything else at this point.

The "owners" (I'll remove the quote marks once they actually own the team) said the Phoenix-to-Arizona changeover wouldn't happen until 2014-15. Because the NHL can't change the name of a franchise on such short notice, even though they were set to transplant the whole damn team two months before camps open.

The RSE deal includes a $120 million loan from New York-based private equity firm Fortress Investment Group LLC (NYSE: FIG) as well as an $85 million loan from the NHL, according to a May report by Forbes.

The league, the entity selling the team, is floating half of the purchase price to the buyers, and they still might not be able to afford buying the team. Now I'm not so much interested in the inevitable invocation of the out-clause in 2018, as I am in whether this team's going to end up in bankruptcy court again before that.

I still believe RSE's going to close the deal come Monday, because if the league's willing to loan them $85 million, what's preventing them from loaning RSE $170 million? Especially when Ed Snider's reminding everyone about the super-sweet arena management deal he's got lined up.

Yes, but this entire, prolonged exercise has been about Glendale taking all of the risk while receiving none of the benefit. Why change that now?

Phoenix Cardinals sounded better, too.

Yeah. It's a pretty obvious fake.

No, this time the jersey's real, but the fandom's counterfeit.

Not sure who else is keeping tabs, but the city of Chicago is closing public schools left and right (but mostly south) while using TIFs to divert tax money into building a--you guessed it!--sports arena and surrounding shopping and entertainment district, which will host DePaul basketball in an area that is geographically incompatible with DePaul basketball because no one can get to the games if they even wanted to anyway which they don't. Government-financed arena-mall in an asinine location for a crappy sports team while cutting off essential city services. DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR.

Believe me, I am. Rahm's revenue projections for the arena are based on a stated current average attendance for DePaul of around 9,000. Except Crain's found out that there are only 2,800 people actually at a given Blue Demons game, and the university basically prints and shreds the rest of the tickets Loria-style and calls them "distributed". Worse yet, quite a few people think the arena is merely a precursor to the nightmare scenario of Chicago being handed a municipally-operated casino, which would - and can you believe this - be granted a completely irrevocable gaming license, and be exempt from oversight by the state gaming board.

We're moving to the South Loop on Saturday. As this scenario and this board have prepared me well, I look forward to attending the public meetings on the arena, assuming there are any, because operating under daylight isn't really Rahm's style.

Is that "looking towards how my local tax money goes away or jobs lost" enough for you, MOD EDIT?

Brilliant backdoor plan, really. If the NHL can't get tax dollars out of Glendale, the NHL will just have to settle for getting tax dollars out of Glendale.

The Winnipeg Jets had a compensatory draft pick at #59 on Sunday because the Thrashers failed to sign their 2008 first-round pick, whom they drafted out of Junior B. You don't want the Thrashers back.

Uh, yeah I do. I haven't watched hockey in two years, and won't until it comes back to Hotlanta.

You've got the Gwinnett Gladiators. That's all you're getting. Ever. Go support them.

If Bettman and Daly are there tonight, then you'd have to think Sherwood got the council to give the nice men their money so no one gets hurt.

They've allegedly got the votes for the plan 4-3, but if the agreement they approve still has the municipal out clause, RSE won't sign on for it.

Hope Logan Wade is there, with a five o'clock shadow on his face and a plug of Kodiak in his cheek.

SO LIGHT EM UP UP UP

Even better!

They could play in Prescott as a secondary tenant to the Sundogs.

So Glendale has revised its offer to say that, if RSE gets an out clause after 5 years, well, so does the city. Apparently this was sprung on RSE without notice, and is leading to speculation that the city has slipped in a poison pill. Delightful.

I'm racist, so all Londons look the same to me.

"The pallet was last seen in the vicinity of an older, portly Canadian gentleman in an unbuttoned dress shirt and blonde toupee, who had visible fumes of single-malt scotch trailing behind him."

RSE can move the Coyotes after 5 years if they can show $50 million in losses over the period.

Rocky Wirtz says the perpetually-sold-out, never-more-popular Blackhawks will "lose" $20 million alone in this Stanley Cup season.

YOU HAVE LEARNED NOTHING, GLENDALE.

Canadian-made Edge 2.0s are extremely nice, because they're basically CCM 6100 Air-Knits with a different cut and some stretch material added on the sides.