All you ever hear about in Chicago is how the city is all about the Chicago Bears.
You hear it on the radio. You read it in the newspapers. You hear fans and other Chicagoans say it.
But, let me be the one to tell you that they’re all wrong.
You have two baseball teams in Chicago—the Cubs and the White Sox. But, there is only one football team.
So, theoretically, everyone is a Bears fan.
While that might be true, the difference is in the game.
Nobody would argue that if you’re talking baseball only, it’s a Cubs town. For a while, some media tried to say that Chicago was a Sox town shortly after they won the World Series.
Of course, that was proven wrong, because the Sox only draw good attendance to their games when they are winning. This brings me to the basis of my argument.
The Cubs have generally been miserable since, well, forever.
They’ve failed to win a championship since 1908. Yet, for the last eight years, they have drawn over 3 million people annually to Wrigley Field.
And, over 2 million fans have packed the park every year since 1984 except for 1986, 1994 and 1995.
Neither rain nor hail nor sleet nor snow can keep Cubs fans from passing through the turnstiles and supporting their team. A true Cubs fan is more reliable than the postman.
Bears fans could say they sell out every game, too. They’d be correct. But, how many home games do they play every year? Eight?
Football is an event played once a week. Fans plan around the game, including tailgating—it’s something they look forward to all week.
Furthermore, pro football is usually played on a Sunday, when most people are off.
Baseball teams play 81 home games a year, and game dates and times are almost always inconvenient.
And, the Cubs have more day games than any other team in the MLB, which puts them at a disadvantage for drawing the most people possible because of work and school.
And they average 37,000 at every game.
Even the night games are not much of an advantage for the Cubs, because families with kids have to send them to school the next day, or they have to go to work early.
Weather is also a factor.
In baseball, tickets are often times available the day of the game at the gate, while tickets for football games are all sold in advance. How many walk-ups are you going to get on a miserable, Spring Chicago day?
Yet, the fans keep coming and supporting a losing team year after year.
Can you imagine the Cubs being in the World Series and on the verge of winning a MLB title for the first time in a million years?
TV ratings would be through the roof. In fact, I would be willing to bet that it would be the highest-rated World Series ever.
I know fans would argue that the Super Bowl numbers would blow it away, but again, that is an event people plan far in advance.
It’s only one game, while the World Series can take up to seven.
What would the numbers be if the sports were reversed?
In 2003, when the Cubs were on the brink of making the World Series, there were thousands of people gathered outside the ballpark on Waveland Avenue ready to celebrate in the streets once the Cubs won.
They weren’t even watching the game, save for maybe a guy holding a small TV on his shoulder. They just wanted to be part of the atmosphere.
I think that the Cubs winning the World Series would be the biggest sports story of the last hundred years, with the Miracle on Ice being a very close second.
You can say that this is all speculation on my part and that I don’t know what I’m talking about, but do you really think Bears fans would support an inept franchise 81 games a year, year after year?
Is that doubt that I see creeping in? Are you starting to buy into my theory that Chicago really is a Cubs town?
I may sound crazy.
But, I might be right.
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