Ask any Chicago Bears fan their opinion of the upper management of this franchise and safe to say the language would get pretty crude and colorful in a hurry. The McCaskey family, along with their perceived lapdog in team president Ted Phillips have become the central villains for why this franchise hasn't been able to win a Super Bowl going on 32 years now. Meanwhile they've had to watch the Patriots win five just since 2001.
That's not right, and yet there is nothing anybody can do. It's a helpless feeling. George McCaskey has gone on record stating he has zero plans to sell the team. Now, in the future or ever if he can help it. Yet in the face of this growing resentment from fans, not to mention plummeting attendance, the Bears chose to do something incredible.
Despite coming off a 3-13 season, the worst the Bears have ever had in a 16-game schedule, they somehow convinced themselves raising ticket prices was a good idea. As if angering fans even more sounded smart. Then again, one might want to take a look at the deeper implications of what that could mean.
SPEND MONEY TO MAKE MONEY
It's easy to pass off this move as nothing more than the Bears brass being greedy and trying to take advantage of fans. However, it's never that simple. It's likely part of the reason was staying competitive within the market average for ticket pricing. Then again there is another, far more plausible idea for why they're doing it. Odds are they are planning some moves this off-season. Serious moves. Blockbuster moves. Don't believe it? Ted Phillips himself dropped a major hint in that regard in his letter to the season ticket holders. Amidst the promises of not repeating what happened last season and building a team that can sustain success, he delivered a particularly interesting line.The buzz word there is "ascending." This is not a reference to the NFL draft. Ascending players are those who have been in the league a couple years and have begun to discover their talent to the fullest. In other words younger free agents who are about to become available. Remember the Bears are expected to have upwards of $53.9 million in salary cap space this coming March. Were they to cut Jay Cutler, Eddie Royal and Lamarr Houston as many expect? That would increase to over $76.5 million. That is a huge chunk of change that GM Ryan Pace would be free to spend at his leisure. He's spent three years cultivating this salary cap wealth while building through the draft. Now facing the most critical spring of his time as GM, it feels like the gloves are about to come off. This team needs to start winning, and for that they'll have to spend some money.
