While waiting for tickets...

[nut_stock]

(I live by St. Louis, so don't hold it against me)
While waiting in line for Cardinals tickets outside a local ticket-outlet, a few
things were apparent. 1st off, while good attendance is nice, having to wait
outside for 2 hours the morning tickets go on sale, just to have a shot at
opening day tickets, is not the greatest way to spend a Saturday morning. Ive
tried to get Cardinals opening day tickets for the past 2 years via internet and
phone with no luck. (I ended up getting the "best available seats" which were in
the furthest corner of the upperdeck in LF, but at least I got tickets, since
many in line Did Not!) my conclusion is that Extremly good attendance like that
is very over-rated.
The 2nd observation was that while talking to the people in line near me, I
managed to bring up the White Sox (go figure!). One guy then started to tell me
about how he HEARD (sound familiar) that Comiskey was in a bad neighborhood. I
then had to dispute that, with a smile on my face. But I got to thinking, This
is the impression many people outside of Chicago have of the Sox. It amuses me
how many of my friends are Cardinals fans but after actually going to Comiskey
with me a few times, their attitude towards the Sox change as they "sort of" root
for them, meaning they'd like to see them do well in the American League.

and finally, my favorite part of the whole day was actually buying the tickets
from the Cardinals ticket rep by handing him my WHITE SOX credit card.

[voodoochile]

One thing about internet tickets. Try using Netscape - if you can. It seems to be more successful. Maybe that is because so few people use it in relation to Explorer.

[irish rover]

This is sporta my experience with that. I remember back in the 70's and 80's it wasn't that great of an area, but the mayor was from there so it wasn't that bad either(Bridgeport is sorta the Cradle of Chicago Mayors) After college I went into the service and came back to Chicago in 1995. I was amazed at how much it changed. I saw those new homes next to lot G and those new ones on 33rd st too. However my job took me to So. Cal for a couple of years and when I came back I lived on the NW side in '98,but I also had seen how Bridgeport neigborhood was changing and I knew at that time the projects were coming down. So last year we built a new home near Comiskey. Right now the avg. home is 235K thus property value is going through the roof there. But anyway, in 1999 I went on a multicity/baseball trip through roadtrips.com. We were in NY going to a yankee game when one of the guys on the trip(he was from Cal) started to ask me about Chicago. He said that he had gone there on business and had wanted to go to wrigley to just go and see a game there. But the cubs were outa town at the time so he asked the consierge(sp) about going to Comiskey, the guy told him not to go because it was in a bad neighborhood. So it is a hugh up hill battle for the sox. Of course I told the guy it wasn't true. he emailed me later and said he had a great time and thought Comiskey was nice. I'm not sure if you guys remember this last year but there were two guys traveling around the country going to every game that was sponsered by Master Card. Well when these two guys went to Comiskey they said it was the most underrated park and the loved it.

[nut_stock]

Having people in Chicago knock going to Comiskey is a real drain.
With that said, the urban renewal on the southside is looking great, but one thing comes to mind: I've always been told the first thing you have to do to attact new homeowners to move to a particular area was to IMPROVE THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. I'll plead ignorance to the condition of southside schools, but the few things i've heard were pretty negative. Am I right, wrong or something else?

[voodoochile]

Originally posted by nut_stock
Having people in Chicago knock going to Comiskey is a real drain.
With that said, the urban renewal on the southside is looking great, but one thing comes to mind: I've always been told the first thing you have to do to attact new homeowners to move to a particular area was to IMPROVE THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. I'll plead ignorance to the condition of southside schools, but the few things i've heard were pretty negative. Am I right, wrong or something else?

If you want families that is true, but there are tons fo childrenless yuppies and yuppiewannabes who are looking for new areas to move into. Once the money from the property taxes goes up, the schools will improve and that will in turn draw couples with children to the neighborhood. Not that that really matters very much, Wrigleyville is hardly a family neighborhood and it doesn't seem to affect property prices, population density or attendance at Wrigley games at all.

[cheeses_h_rice]

Originally posted by nut_stock
Having people in Chicago knock going to Comiskey is a real drain.

Well, for so many white folks in Chicago, perception=reality. I personally know many people who pretty much refuse to do anything, period, on the south side, as if the entire swath of it is a burnt-out ghetto.

Eventually, you figure it has to change. As soon as the south loop on southward becomes "hot" (and it sort of is already), the lemmings will start to move down there, which will beget the "nice" bars and restaurants many people can't live without. And then, maybe, just maybe, idiots like that hotel concierge might actually realize that the area around Comiskey isn't in the least dangerous.

Sigh...