“Too many of their members refused to attend the show in Chicago.”
Anything big and complex, like a city, can be viewed as a system. When systems fail the various complexities interact and cause a cascade of additional failures that accelerate the process and increase the damage at the end.
Really, there are so many things wrong with the Chicago “system” that they are probably irreversible at this point. Just to name one, the underfunded government pensions are causing higher taxes. The higher taxes are accelerating the flight of companies and therefore people, which is cutting into the tax collections. The cut in tax collections is responded to by further increasing taxes. Special deals are cut for cronies which further increase the taxes on the remaining people which accelerates the flight. Similar problems and interactions exist between violence, the perception of safety, tourism, people considering moving there, etc. There are probably a huge number of these interactions and in Chicago it appears they are all tending towards a Detroit-type end.
Political issues will result in agenda items that effect voting to get extra money which will subtract that money from services like police, fire, street lights, etc. This increases crime and the perception of safety and increases flight. The spiral, at this point, is probably irreversible.