Chicago Bears Must Spend Ticket Hike Money Wisely by Cutting Peppers

Grab your wallets, Chicago Bears fans.  It’s going to cost you an average of 4% more to take in a game at Soldier Field in 2014.  The Bears raised ticket prices for season ticket holders from $2-$12 depending on your seats.  You can now get in the door for the low, low price of $81 and if you don’t sit among the commoners, you’ll be shelling out north of $275 to sit in the cushy United Club.  The main thing for the Bears to do is to use this extra money wisely.

The Bears don’t own Soldier Field and are only the Chicago Park District’s top tenant, so the added ticket revenue won’t necessarily be going into stadium improvements like getting rid of that godawful sod or streamlining the bathroom lines.  No, the money should be directed to improvement to the roster and rebuilding the franchise’s worst ever defense.

The Bears have already been spending a chunk of their 2014 budget to bring back their own, namely Tim Jennings, Matt Slauson and of course, quarterback Jay Cutler.   They still have a decent chunk of cash to spend, but their needs far exceed what they have available in cap space, which means difficult decisions will need to be made.  In my opinion, Julius Peppers, Adam Podlesh and Eric Weems headline the list of contracts which should be terminated, dead cap space be damned and the top priority is cutting Julius Peppers.