Brideview Scandal Tops NBC 5 News On right now. Strongarming. Owner of Soccer Dome pressured/forced to sell. Investigating. More in Sun Times tomorrow morning.
Yes, we need the mob to help soccer become more popular. Maybe they can get Denver building their stadium as well.
While I'm certainly no fan of the mob, it sounds like some guy crying because he wanted more money from the village. Something tells me he wouldn't be making a big deal about it if it wasn't the Fire, but was a "major" team. Still, this is an interesting development...
I have to agree with Acthung. Does anyone know if the proposed Rosemont casino made top story? I hope this does not get blown out of proportion. Also, it should be pointed out that it is not a soccer dome and it was primarily used as an indoor driving range. I did see the futsal markings, but it was mostly a driving range.
This worries me...even if it sounds like the Fire has absolutely no blame, I don't like the bad publicity. It'll be interesting to see how this eventually plays out.
Being that the Fire organization was never mentioned other than that they practice there and such, this publicity is not bad. It's not necessarily a case of "any publicity is good publicity," but it gets the word out that the Fire will be in Brideview...even if the city of Bridegview had to work "extra hard" to get them there. Never did you hear the words "Fire Organization" and "strongarming/illegal/complaint." The report was on the City of Brideview, it's mayor and some schmuck who looks like he's upset he got a raw deal. I guess Peter Wilt could have been behind the scenes pulling the strings and threatening to kneecap the guy, but Peter's not like that...he'd threaten him face to face.
Sun Times article: http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-dome05.html Quote: A former owner of a Bridgeview golf dome slated to be the Chicago Fire's indoor practice field claims he was forced to sell his stake in the dome during an intimidating visit from a mob-linked man and a Village of Bridgeview consultant, NBC5 reported Thursday. The allegation by John LaFlamboy threatens to taint the southwest suburb's feel-good story of luring the popular Major League Soccer franchise away from Soldier Field and into a $70 million stadium to be built at 79th and Harlem by 2006. Big money deal involving Chicago suburban businessmen and polticians, and there's mob tie allegations flying around? Unthinkable!
It's in the Sun-Times now as well, and probably eventually going to be in some other outlets. Thread title made a little broader.
I'm not saying Bridgeview did anything illegal, and I doubt they did; but damn, if the Mayor really wanted to exert pressure on anyone all he had to do was call MDSC up and we'd take him on a nice trip to the lakefront. That'll put the fear of God in anyone.
This appears to be sour grapes. The main question related to Bridgeview is, "was 1.6 million fair market value" for the dome. If the answer is yes, then why would they care which owner got what? And as noted on the news last night, they could have simply taken it for fair market value using their emminent domain powers. My guess is the City made an offer to the owners. Owner A wanted to do it. Owner B did not. Owner A found a way to convinvce Owner B to sell his position, and the Fire and Bridgeview weren't involved. The other thing that is unclear is the ownership interest of the two. The paper quotes him as saying "he didn't want to turn over his half of the business", but that doesn't mean that he owned half of the real estate. it would also be interesting to know if the "business" still operates the driving range.
thats what you get when you want to play in the most crooked county in the country.Doesnt matter if its a democratic or republican held town, its the crooked machine politics that are entrenched in the cesspool known as cook.Its no coincidence that the first republican in decades to maintain a cook county powerbase went down in scandal.another reason to never vote for anyone with a cook county address or is endorsed by a cook county politco. The fans and team better get used to it, for as long as the fire control a patch of grass that makes money there will be contreversey.Its the price you pay to make money in cook.
Crook County? I thought Fat Tony played for the Wizards. On the other hand, DJ is a lot less likely to commit another howler if he knows it'll get him whacked.
2nd Promo Mob enforcer night: Buy one full price adult enforcer ticket, get the second enforcer ticket for 1/2 price.
This brings up a number of new questions: A. Does Montoya have a green card or does he count as an SI? B. Is he a US citizen, and if so, why hasn't Bruce capped him yet?
See, when I saw that report last night, I figured MDSC had something to do with it. Now can you guys go visit Soccer House and get the damn USA-Poland match scheduled for NSF?
Re: Crook County? The original [mob guy voice]"Intimidation?!? Please, he don't know from intimidation."[/mob guy voice]
Yeah, Paulie Walnuts and Silvio Dante have been hired to help out with MetroStar's season ticket efforts as well. As for this story, well I think it may be the case of a guy crying because he didn't get the best deal. I can't see how this story can scuttle the stadium deal but until it does I have to be a bit nervous about it.