DOES CHICAGO KNOW REINSDORF IS TURNING AN AGING ARENA INTO STADIUM 2.0?
The Bulls and Blackhawks want to use billions to cover a multi-level parking facility with green space and a music hall, but in the process, the United Center has become one of America’s oldest arenas
Senile and beyond ratty at 88, Jerry Reinsdorf is about to bamboozle the people of Chicago for the next three decades. Rather than discuss a new arena, he has promised to build a multi-level parking facility beside the United Center — enjoy that delay when it’s 10 degrees in mid-January — and cover the lots with green space, a music hall and mixed-use housing.
If this happens via the churlish owner of the Bulls, beside the younger owner of the Blackhawks, the building eventually will be known as Stadium 2.0. As it is, the arena ranks among the oldest in the NBA and NHL at 30. Another generation of life means it becomes the 2050s vision of the frayed, urine-stained barn on Madison Street. Any fan who visits state-of-the-art basketball and hockey arenas knows they are modernized with technological dreams, if not replaced altogether.
But by announcing a supposed $7 billion project on the West Side, Reinsdorf and Hawks boss Danny Wirtz are reminding folks that they’d better accept a building that opened in 1994. I visited the UC when it was under construction and was scolded by the landlords. Little did I know the isolated boxtop would be around for 50 years and longer, which falls into place with Reinsdorf’s fossilized view given a historically bad baseball team and a basketball team that has done nothing since the dynasty.
The idea in that city is to rub out Reinsdorf and his son, Michael, unless people want the same vile sports seasons. Too bad both newspapers, assuming either is delivered by print to the few who subscribe, trumpeted the investment Tuesday as a big deal. Do they not want to progress in life? Only Madison Square Garden, which has undergone a massive and glittering renovation, remains atop lists. Otherwise, the UC is in the basic age territory as arenas in Minnesota, Phoenix, Utah and Anaheim and might replace all as the oldest sustaining winter stage in America.
Chicago should be among the leaders in all aspects of sports. The parking facility is not what anyone has in mind as DeMar DeRozan leaves for Sacramento and the Bulls begin yet another rebuilding plan. Reinsdorf says he understands “our responsibility to give back through our charity arms and by seeking out economic opportunities for our neighbors who live and work in and around the United Center.” He added: “Today’s announcement builds on this effort led by both families to leave a lasting legacy on the West Side.”
Instead, he should have explained some sort of contemporary road for both teams. How about a new arena downtown, which needs help as Michigan Avenue loses major stores in a crime spree? How about placing a site in the area called “The 78,” where Reinsdorf would like to plan a White Sox stadium as his team slides toward 120-loss territory with the 1962 New York Mets? The West Side was helped when he bought the Bulls in 1985. These days, the Bears likely will win the new stadium by the lakefront as Jerry begins to court Nashville, where he met with the mayor. Will Carrie Underwood, Dolly Parton, Tim McGraw and Nicole Kidman boycott the losers at the city limits?
So Reinsdorf touts the West Side, where you need to walk 15 or 20 blocks from the arena to find something happening in the Fulton Market. They happily remain in the UC because both teams are financially entrenched and will keep inviting 20,000 people when snow and wind are in the air. That’s how it works in Chicago, asking people to spend money on shoddy entertainment because they’re otherwise bored. This week, I heard Carmelo Anthony say he wanted to join the Bulls with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
He must have meant the bulls in Pamplona.
My goal is to reach the ballpark when the Sox are nearing 120 losses. That could be Sept. 26 against the Angels at Guaranteed Rate Field, now known only as Rate in the mortgage world, perhaps because nothing is guaranteed on the South Side but defeat. When I’m done, I’ll find an architect and propose an arena in the South Loop at The 78. That would work because the Bulls and Hawks are sticking around.
The Sox?
Let the lease run out in 2029. By then, Reinsdorf will be 93 and won’t bother us with any more bull.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.