The Times podcast: Coyotes go urban; humans freak out at Chicago Bears
The following are stories that ran on the Times’s weekly podcast, called the Times Talk.
The Coyotes are going urban. They’re already on the way after a vote last Saturday to move to a 45-year lease at what would become the new BBVA Compass Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. The Coyotes are now the second team in the NHL, behind the Blackhawks, to move to a dome. The other team, the New York Islanders, will follow suit after the team’s lease expires at Barclays Center in Brooklyn in 2018.
The Times’s podcast features a mix of stories and analysis on sports and sports business. The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher.
As the Coyotes move to a new sports facility, they are also creating a new culture. In a city where the Bears go back to Chicago almost as often as they are in Minnesota, and where the Timberwolves make their home in Minneapolis, the Bears have become a metaphor for a community of people, of families, of a society. The Bears are the town’s largest employer. They’re a community that embraces diversity, and where every person has a chance to succeed.
The team is not based in Chicago. Its fans are spread out around the country. But its roots are there.
As the Bears have learned in the past decade, even when their city is at the top of the sports totem pole, nothing is guaranteed. This fall, the Bears will host the Minnesota Vikings in an NFL game at Soldier Field, home of the Packers and Bears.
In February, their team will move to Minnesota. Last summer, they would have been playing at Detroit’s Ford Field. Now, they’ll be playing on a frozen lake in a city that has yet to embrace the name of a team that has been there since the 1930s.
“I think at the end of the day, the sports industry is more about branding than anything else,” said Paul Rigney, the Bears’ president and a Bears fan. “You can