I'll Tell You Where To Park Your Car
While having a conversation with my brother about baseball I became enraged. Specifically, we were talking about the State of Illinois buying Wrigley Field. To be even more specific the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, ISFA, buying Wrigley Field. This is the group that owns the home of the Chicago White Sox, U.S. Cellular Field, The Cell.
The current owner of Wrigley Field and the Chicago Cubs, Sam Zell, is having a garage sale. After he bought the Chicago Tribune Media Empire, which owned the Cubs, Zell decided he didn't want the Cubs so he put up a For Sale sign.
What frosts my ass is that if the ISFA has a few hundred million dollars to buy and fix up Wrigley, WHY DO I HAVE TO PAY $22 TO PARK AT U.S. CELLULAR FIELD?
The cost of parking in Chicago is always outrageous. At The Cell the price for parking has gone up every year for as long as I can remember. And now it's $22. I'm not sure why they need that much money or where it goes. Let's crunch some numbers.
Let's assume there are 2000 spots for cars at the Cell. There are 81 home games this year. Assuming each spot is taken that equates to $3,564,000.00 for the year in parking fees alone.
There are 7 lots and lets assume there are 10 parking lot helpers per lot per game. Let's give each of them $50 per game to collect our money and point to a spot. For the season that would calculate to $283,500.00.
Let's pay another $100,000.00 to paint lines and clean up the garbage.
They still make over $3 million. They could charge us $2.50 and still cover all their parking costs.
But, with the ISFA willing to buy Wrigley Field for a few hundred million dollars I want to park for free at a park I technically own.
I know two things will never happen. I'll never get to park for free at the Cell and regardless of who owns the Cubs they will never win a World Series.
While having a conversation with my brother about baseball I became enraged. Specifically, we were talking about the State of Illinois buying Wrigley Field. To be even more specific the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, ISFA, buying Wrigley Field. This is the group that owns the home of the Chicago White Sox, U.S. Cellular Field, The Cell.
The current owner of Wrigley Field and the Chicago Cubs, Sam Zell, is having a garage sale. After he bought the Chicago Tribune Media Empire, which owned the Cubs, Zell decided he didn't want the Cubs so he put up a For Sale sign.
What frosts my ass is that if the ISFA has a few hundred million dollars to buy and fix up Wrigley, WHY DO I HAVE TO PAY $22 TO PARK AT U.S. CELLULAR FIELD?
The cost of parking in Chicago is always outrageous. At The Cell the price for parking has gone up every year for as long as I can remember. And now it's $22. I'm not sure why they need that much money or where it goes. Let's crunch some numbers.
Let's assume there are 2000 spots for cars at the Cell. There are 81 home games this year. Assuming each spot is taken that equates to $3,564,000.00 for the year in parking fees alone.
There are 7 lots and lets assume there are 10 parking lot helpers per lot per game. Let's give each of them $50 per game to collect our money and point to a spot. For the season that would calculate to $283,500.00.
Let's pay another $100,000.00 to paint lines and clean up the garbage.
They still make over $3 million. They could charge us $2.50 and still cover all their parking costs.
But, with the ISFA willing to buy Wrigley Field for a few hundred million dollars I want to park for free at a park I technically own.
I know two things will never happen. I'll never get to park for free at the Cell and regardless of who owns the Cubs they will never win a World Series.
9 comments:
they go up $2 a year, every year. nice work if you can get it. lets not forget the outstanding customer service provided by the parking attendants/recent charm school graduates.
Ok, I'll throw in another $500 for charm school.
For $500 you get, "Park upfront sir," instead of, "Up there asshole!"
wait a minute, your going to need that $500 for a hotdog and a beer.
Maybe Chase could have a money vendor at the park. They could carry ATM's on their backs.
Don't forget that a lot of the money used to build Comiskey Park, and the remodel of it 10 years later when they figured out fans don't like concrete, was forced from the pockets of CUB FANS! This was after the cheap owners of the Sox threatened to leave Illinois if they didn't get a new park. That's why Jim Thompson, courtesy of Illinois tax payers, gave them a park and why he gave Sears land out in Hoffman Estates. Now we are stuck with a baseball team that the Cougars can beat and a company that's almost gone.
there you go, who says cubs fans aren't good for anything?
The remodeling was paid for by the selling the naming rights to U.S. Cellular.
I think when Zell sells the naming rights that money should pay for the park.
NBC should by buy the naming rights and call it "The Biggest Loser" Park.
You are correct that most of the remodel of Comiskey was paid for by selling the naming rights. The problem is that a 10 yr. old park shouldn't need remodeling except for patching up some of the bullet holes. It should still be called Comiskey.
If NBC bought the naming rights to Wrigley they would obviously name it "American Gladiator Park" since they are America's team........
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