The NFL is fleecing Chicago for the draft
 

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/02/...ft-in-chicago/

The good ole' NFL. Completely fleecing the city of Chicago with their over-the-top demands for the NFL draft. After what happens in this draft, I can't imagine another city wanting to host it.

The NFL has been fleecing taxpayers for years. Every sports league does. Just look at the IOC.

May is a damned fine month to be in the mid west.

Or working on a prison roof in Maine.

This is good. Their going to end up losing their tax exemption because of all this bullshit. People are getting fed up with the league.

While I don't doubt the nfl has some demands, the majority of this article is an anti football rant in general. I'm not surprised people like him don't want the nfl having an event in town. These are the types of people that complain about how much college coaches make by saying "that money could have gone to the arts" like there are people lining up to watch some frog in a beret paint every Saturday.

The factthat they are tax exempt is absolutely ludicrous.

Yeah, I mean who likes to win?
And its not like having a powerhouse doesn't generate enough to cover his salary 10 times over.

This x 10000000000

It still baffles me that in this day and age, the NFL is still claiming that status.

Yep. It needs to change. There's another group I think also needs to lose that status but I'll refrain from this thread getting moved to DC. It's far past time for sports leagues to start paying taxes. The players do, why shouldn't the teams?

These aren't some demands. The NFL is asking for the moon, and they found a sucker who gave it to them. We will see how this affects the draft day experience, but this might hint at why the draft is no longer at Radio City Music Hall as it has been for umpteen years.

Ultimately, that's Chicago's fault. I am sure any city would be ecstatic about getting the draft. But it sounds to me that the NFL basically has an enormous list of demands and is forcing the city to pay for them.

Exactly. My point though to prevent a hijacking, is that this is more of an opinion piece than a list of facts showing holding the draft in town will be bad. The guy criticizes the Heads Up program for Christ's sake.

Illinois is a shitty state

Chicago is in Illinois


Therefore Chicago is a shitty state :shrug:

This isn't new for any nfl event. It is routine for the super bowl. Not saying I agree with it, but this author is obviously anti football in general. He doesn't present any of the pros to having the draft at all, and speculates that under the table deals were made with no facts.

And as bad as the NFL is, they still don't hold a candle to the kind of bullshit that the IOC and FIFA demands for their Olympics and World Cup, respectively. Multi-million dollar stadiums and event locations are built for the purpose of being used for 1-2 months and are then never used again.

I just picked the first article I can find. May not have been the best one. If you Google News it, there are plenty of Chicago news outlets picking it up. And every one of them thinks it's overbearing.

Granted... it sounds like the bigger issue is not with the NFL, but that the group in Chicago putting this on sold this in as a low cost event. When in fact, it's an event that is going to absorb an enormous amount of city resources.