Sports business survey: Chicago ranks 9th

While still in the top ten, a low finish should have local leaders rethinking their approach as crime scares away businesses and tourists 

While it is being painted as a positive, a survey from industry trade Sports Business Journal ranked Chicago ninth among 50 other cities when it comes to “Best Sports Business Cities”. While still in the top ten, the ranking is obviously low for a city of Chicago’s stature, who has one of the largest and most loyal fan bases in the country with iconic venues like Wrigley Field, Soldier Field, and the United Center.

Positives cited were its Midwestern hub of industry events, conferences, and networking (Fox’s Big Ten Network is based here) and its small-town feel and excitement for NASCAR’s street race through downtown Chicago this summer and has the third-most sports brand sponsors (company HQs) in the country.

But what prevents Chicago from ranking higher is that dreaded c-word: Crime.

“I can tell you for sure where a lot of people in our business don’t want to go right now — Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Detroit, Portland [Ore.] — the crime thing is very real.”, said one respondent.

Indeed, crime is a huge problem in Chicago and is the top issue in the upcoming mayoral race between Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson as polls released Friday show a near dead-heat. Another is the city’s tremendous racial segregation, a problem dating back decades and filters into every aspect of life in the nation’s third-largest media market – especially when it comes to how we consume media.

Crime has hurt the city’s image on the national and international stage, something this space has pointed out since 2007, when hometown favorite Barack Obama began running for President. The arrows have come from both sides of the political aisle; mainly from the right as Fox News and former President Trump have made it a dominant issue. Several high-profile incidents downtown in recent years – two rounds of looting and violence and a person pointing a gun at the camera during a TV crew’s live shot has businesses rethinking holding events in the city, such as conventions. These incidents have made recruiting potential workers to Chicago – in any field, let alone sports and media – much harder.

Several high-profile businesses have already left, including Boeing and Citadel Financial, as well as many residents. The Chicago Bears already announced their intentions to leave Soldier Field, the NFL’s oldest and smallest venue in the league and relocate to northwest suburban Arlington Heights to build a stadium on the site of the former Arlington Park.

Chicago suffered another prestigious blow when HBO Max’s South Side and the long-running Judge Mathis were canceled last month. Mathis’ cancellation left Chicago without a daily national show in nearly 40 years in a town where Oprah Winfrey rose to prominence (Mathis’ new show with Allen Media Group is being taped in Los Angeles.) While Chicago is building and expanding more studios and soundstages, so are Los Angeles and Atlanta.

Also cited was Chicago’s high-living costs, 25 percent above the national average.

In addition to finishing behind New York (2nd) and Los Angeles (6th), Chicago finished behind Charlotte (3rd), Atlanta (5th), Las Vegas (7th), and Nashville (8th), with many of these cities without at least one or two teams in one of the four major sports. Even the metro area rocked by destructive rioting after George Floyd was killed ranked higher than Chicago with Minneapolis-St. Paul placing fourth. The SBJ article didn’t mention the unrest at all as the Twin Cities generated the highest overall net positive vibe in the study.

Finishing first overall was The Metroplex (Dallas-Ft. Worth), thanks to the region’s low taxes, lack of unions, and better business climate.

Whomever is elected to City Hall certainly has its work cut out for him as the third-ranked media market is indeed feeling like the ninth-largest one – or much lower, and it’s something a supposedly world-class city like Chicago can not afford to settle for.