CROWDS GROWING AS THE NEW BASEBALL SEASON CONTINUES AT WRIGLEY
Almost 395,000 fans have cheered with the Cubs during the last 10 games at Wrigley Field, and if this spirit continues a new attendance record might be achieved.
Staff reporter Toni Ginnetti from the Chicago Suntimes wrote on
one of his recent articles that "the atmosphere in and around Wrigley Field is more like a continuation of 2003 than a new season." Ginnetti interviewed Cubs pitcher Matt Clement and their manager Dusty Baker and they both told him they feel fans are supporting the team like they did last year.
Sportsnework's website reports say, last season the Cubs set a record attendance of 3,200,872 people in 86 games at Wrigley. This season the Cubs might have a greater number of fans cheering for them at the ball park, but the attendance outcome depends on many factors.
Baker said to the Suntimes "People are saying to me, 'Dusty, in the past the Cubs would get behind, and the game was over.' Now, the Cubs get behind and people feel like they will come back.'' From Bakers point of view Cub fans have become more supportive since the past season, but former
Daily Herald sports reporter
Howard Schlossberg says,"people go to Cub games to party, to get drunk, to hang out in the neighborhood before and after the games, to see Sammy homer, and, only till recently, not really care of the Cubs win or lose."
External factors that fans might look at when deciding to attend a Cubs game include, "[the] party atmosphere,[the] Yuppie neighborhood, [and the] opportunity [to] meet [the] opposite sex," says Schlossberg and they might consider problematic issues such as "parking, prices [and the] trashing of neighborhood, especially after a night game."
This year Wrigley Field has 210 new premium seats, number that can influence the attendance outcome positively. However, "tickets are scarce this year especially...because of the great expectations on the Cubs. That just drives up ticket prices," says Schlossberg, who now teaches journalism courses at Columbia College, " think about it: A typical
household's average monthly disposable income is less than the cost of taking a family of four to a game, any game, not just the Cubs."
Schlossberg points out an important factor; how much does a family of 4 spend going to a game at Wrigley?
Team Marketing Report's web site presents a detailed Major League Baseball
Fan Cost index Chart that reveals a Cubs fan family of 4 will be spending almost $200 this year while White Soxs fans spend around $160 (amount includes tickets and random items purchased at the ball park). Cub games are the second most expensive on the Fan Cost Index Chart; the first place belongs to the Boston Red Soxs with a $264 average, and the least expensive games according to the TMR site report are those of the Montreal Expos where their family of 4 fans spends about $110 at the ball park.
MORE HISPANIC IMMIGRANTS ATTAINING HIGHER EDUCATION LEVELS
As many young immigrants come to this country, they find a new culture with a different language, more or less family values, intricate politics, and a complex educational system where not everyone can survive.
In fact,
an article from Genaro Armas of the Chicago Suntimes says even though immigrants are completing higher degrees in school, "the education gap with native-born Americans remains wide." He shows that percentage of graduating high school immigrants "increased from 28 to 59...between 1970 and 2000. However, in residents born in the U.S. it went up "from 53 to 87 percent."
But why does such gap exist? Armas' attributes it to the high cost of college education, teens and young adults that come to this country for labor purposes only, and for undocumented students the lack of financial aid. Other reasons have to do with English, if an immigrant student had little or no exposure to the language previously it will be harder for this person to learn and complete school assignments, says
Ana Maria Soto, Director of Latino Cultural Affairs at Columbia College. Also, parental pressure towards females over 15 to stay home and take care of their younger siblings could be the only option because "some parents might think girls are not going to need education as much as boys," Soto says.
Armas' article reports recent findings of the
Pew Hispanic Center, which states in its web site it specializes in research "to improve the understanding of the diverse Hispanic population in the United States." One of the researchers said to the Suntimes "undocumented immigrants from Mexico tend to be less educated and don't have to travel far to get to the United States." However, according to Soto "you can't paint such a large stroke on Mexican immigrants; they come on all education levels and for various reasons." The researcher also said to the Suntimes " those [immigrants] from South America typically have to pay more money to come to the country"; Soto agrees and says college enrollment and completion is low in general "only 18 percent of the enrolled Hispanics graduate from college compared to 38 percent of white students...that's a 20 percent difference."
Many organizations are interested in supporting Latino Students to obtain higher education levels. Locally, Upward Bound is one of them "it provides high school minority students tutoring helping them stay in school," says Soto. At Columbia College the office of Latino Cultural Affairs Office plays a big role when it comes to mentoring minorities; Soto runs "a program that creates a community of people that watch out for each other." She does several preventive programs to keep Latinos in school, and offers a limited number of scholarships oriented to Hispanic students through her department.
AIRLINES CUT ON FLIGHTS AT O'HARE
IN AN EFFORT TO REDUCE TRAFFIC CONGESTION AT O'HARE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT...TWO MAJOR AIRLINES ARE CUTTING FLIGHT OPERATIONS THIS SUMMER.
TOGETHER...AMERICAN AND UNITED WILL DROP 29 FLIGHTS DURING PEAK TRAVEL HOURS.
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS WELCOME THESE REDUCTIONS BUT THEY SAY MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE TO ENSURE ON-TIME FLIGHT PERFORMANCE.
