The Chicago Bears have one winning season since 2013. People often say the 1970s were the darkest period of this team’s history. This one may have it beat. It’s one thing to be losing all the time. It’s another to endure the cavalcade of gutpunches along the way. It’s the Rodgers 4th down heave, the Zach Miller touchdown that never was, the Double Doink, the Darnell Mooney dropped Hail Mary, and the Tyrique Stevenson tipped Hail Mary. Executives, coaches, and players alike have drawn blame for this team’s inability to find success.
One Bears staffer sees it differently. He thinks the fans are responsible for this. No, it isn’t because they criticize the organization and are too outspoken about its mistakes. It is because they continue rewarding it despite these problems. Tyler Dunne of Go Long had the details.
In Chicago, fans will always gobble up season tickets. Off a 5-12 season, McCaskey raised ticket prices 10 percent.
“They could go 0-16,” says one source on the support staff, “and they’re still going to make a ton of money. The McCaskeys are never going to run out of revenue. The incentive to win — to more closely monitor their operation — I’m not sure what it is. Money is falling out of the sky.”
Many don’t mention this point. Many owners in professional sports have the mentality of, “We’re making plenty of money as is. Why should I feel the need to spend unnecessarily to win?” The McCaskeys can say they’re committed to winning, but their actions over the years tell a different story.
Chicago Bears fans can absolutely impact ownership decisions.
In 2019, the team’s home attendance that season was 495,000 people. By 2021, as frustration over the Matt Nagy-Ryan Pace era peaked, that dipped to 486,000. That dip led the McCaskeys to fire both men and bring in Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus. If you think this ownership doesn’t pay close attention to attendance figures, you’re dead wrong. This team is their only source of revenue. Fans are the ones who control the purse strings. They’re just too loyal to realize it. That is the sad reality of sports. Fans don’t control the fate of an organization. The owners do, and many of them are interested less in winning and more in making money. The McCaskey family never got into the business for football reasons. That is why the Chicago Bears haven’t looked like a model franchise for decades.
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