AFL news nothing to laugh about
Fewer jobs are at stake than the 3 million in the auto industry, but local sports do impact the economy in the Chicago suburbs.
The Rush, the Wolves, the Kane County Cougars, the Schaumburg Flyers, all those teams at the Sears Centre, Arlington Park -
Please excuse me if I left out anybody, but we tend to take them all for granted. If they're here, fine; if not, life goes on just as before they arrived.
After all, they aren't the Bears, White Sox, Cubs, Bulls and Blackhawks.
So when the Arena Football League announced this week it would skip 2009, we almost could be insensitive enough to laugh at a year without the Rush.
We could chuckle Tuesday morning after receiving a serious e-mail promoting Rush investor Mike Ditka for Illinois' empty U.S. Senate seat.
"Iron Mike: The new Honest Abe - When will the good people of Illinois realize that the only politician they can trust isn't a politician at all - DITKA FOR SENATE!"
Hey, the guy will need another activity to occupy the time vacated by the Rush.
Ha, ha, right?
We also could make fun of the AFL's sabbatical being only the second-most significant sports-economy news behind the Scores strip club in New York closing in a few weeks.
The Newsday newspaper described the joint as the "second home to sports figures for more than a decade." It added that Mark Messier brought the Stanley Cup there in 1994.
"It was the first time I'd ever seen our customers eager to touch something other than our dancers," Scores spokesman Lonnie Hanover recalled.
We can laugh at that, but Rush job losses are no laughing matter. Nor would it be if any another suburban franchise shut down for any period of time. Nor was it when Arlington Park went dark after the fire in the 1980s and during a dispute with the state in the 1990s.
Just thinking about it makes you realize that sports are about real folks as much as they are about athletes.
"We employ probably 200 people on a (Rush) game day," Allstate Arena general manager Pat Nagle said.
Among them are parking attendants, cleaning people, box-office workers, security personnel, ushers, carpenters, electricians and stagehands.
What I saw at a Rush playoff game this summer were a lot of seniors supplementing their fixed incomes and young people supplementing their allowances.
They aren't out of work. Most staff some of the arena's 200 other events a year, but losing eight to 10 Rush paydays a season still is a loss.
Restaurants, hotels and other businesses near the arena also will lose revenue on those dates, and workers will lose shifts.
That doesn't even address the Rush's 30 full-time employees with shaky futures and the 100 additional workers brought in for games.
The auto industry - the airlines industry - the newspaper industry - the retail industry -
They all impact lives with job cuts, and now the suburban sports industry can join the list.
As the headline atop USA Today's "Money" section read Tuesday, "Poll: USA's a deeply worried place." As the Doors sang, "The future's uncertain and the end is always near."
In an uncertain business climate like this, games are less fun and jokes less funny.