Chicago Bears: Raising Ticket Prices A Slap to Every Fans’ Face

How do the Chicago Bears repay a fan base that just witnessed a 3-13 season? By raising ticket prices, of course.

The Chicago Bears are coming off one of their worst seasons in franchise history. The second year under John Fox was supposed to be better than the first (5-11 in 2015). Instead, the team regressed to a dismal 3-13 season. Not a lot went right for the team and, by year’s end, the Soldier Field crowd began to dwindle.

Now, games in November and December were still technically “sold out,” but the number of unused tickets reached a number that has rarely been seen. There were as many as 10,000 no-shows for some of the games and, truthfully, who could blame them? Why waste four hours of your day sitting in the cold and paying astronomical prices for food, drinks, and parking? You can just as easily watch the game at home, where you can quickly reach into the fridge for food and use the restroom without seeing who-knows-what on the floor.

You would think that Bears ownership would have received the fans’ message loud and clear last season. Apparently not.

This week, the team announced that ticket prices would increase. That’s right, increase! While approximately 2,000 seats will actually see a slight price decrease, the rest of the seats will see an average markup of 2.9 percent. So next season, fans can pay even more money to watch their favorite team play. Ridiculous.

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The team has not raised ticket prices since 2014. So the question is, why raise them now? For a team that has made one playoff appearance in the past nine seasons, it’s not like the Bears are the hottest team in town. Last time I checked, the Blackhawks have won three Stanley Cups in recent years, and a little team named the Chicago Cubs just ended the longest championship drought in major league sports history. Based on last season’s attendance numbers, I don’t think people are clamoring to get into Soldier Field to watch a below average football team.

While this 2.9 percent price increase isn’t going to break the bank, it is frustrating that Bears ownership is trying to take advantage of loyal Bears fans. Without sounding biased, the Bears do have some of the best fans in all of sports, and you know that even if ticket prices were raised 10 or 15 precent, fans would still attend.

Still, it’s the principle of the thing. Instead of driving some fans away from the team, shouldn’t the Bears be trying to steer people towards the team? This latest action by the organization is just another thing for disgruntled Bears fans to get riled up about. I’m not saying the Bears will lose thousands of fans because of this move, but it’s just disappointing to see Bears fans get dumped on again.

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We all know this is an important offseason for the Bears, and they have been ballyhooing over the fact that they have a top-three draft pick and oodles of cash to spend. The team needs to improve, and they need to improve right now. With this new increase in ticket prices, it’s about time for the Chicago Bears to give their fans some bang for their buck.