One day, the Chicago Bears will teach other sports teams on how not to ask for taxpayer money when wanting a new stadium. For the last few years, the Bears have decided on this odd strategy of trying to confuse the public about every detail involved in their plans. Where exactly would this stadium be built? It will be built in Arlington Heights! Maybe it will be in Aurora? Perhaps on the Museum Campus? Possibly Country Club Hills? Naperville? Richton Park? Waukegan? The Bears latest location is on the lake in downtown Chicago. Except, they are still talking to Arlington Heights?
How much would taxpayers spend on this new stadium? The Bears have an answer to this question! The Bears will “pledge $2.3 billion” and taxpayers are only being asked to give $900 million dollars through the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority (ISFA). Not even half of the amount that the team is giving. The Bears claim that this allows for taxpayers to “not carry an overwhelming weight of the costs”. That does sound enticing. Even better, the Bears will pay for 70% of the costs! The only problem was that no information given by the Bears about the stadium finances was slightly correct. To start with, the total cost of the project is about $5 billion. The Bears numbers forgot to include infrastructure costs as something that taxpayers will be asked to pay in the amount of maybe $2 billion? The Bears forgot to mention what would happen to the $430 million in existing debt that the city still owes for previous stadium renovations.
The Bears also forgot to add in the multiple billions that taxpayer would owe for stadium and infrastructure costs. This means that taxpayers would likely be paying 70% of the cost, if not more. What about the other sports teams wanting billions for their own stadiums? If the team had somehow gotten this deal to go through, the bill for taxpayers could have been so much higher than what the team claimed.
Thankfully, since the team released their plans, just about every local official, excluding the mayor, has told the Bears that if they want a new stadium, they would need to pay for it out of their own pocket. Right after the Bears publicly introduced their plan to build a new stadium, the Governor of Illinois called the proposal a “non-starter”. On top of the Bears wanting a lot of public help for their new stadium, they also want the city and state to let the team keep every revenue source that a new stadium would create. So if a concert or bowl game would happen at this new venue, the team would get every dollar made. How on earth would the city/state make money on this deal? Yet, even though city and state politicians continue to call on the Bears to release additional financial specifics, the team will not give in. The Bears ignore any financial questions and move on to citing absurd economic development numbers from a company paid to say what the Bears wanted them to claim.
Team insiders have told Crain’s Chicago site that the Bears “focus” in on “convincing state lawmakers” that its new venue is a “good investment for taxpayers”. Except, they continue to make no new ground because they keep meeting with leaders and giving zero new evidence as to why this deal isn’t a complete waste of taxpayer money. Over the last few weeks, various Bears representatives have issued statements claiming how much they can’t wait to talk to government officials. The meetings happen and the politicians say that they learned nothing new, and we are left in the same spot. Kevin Warren, Bears President, has stated in interviews that “he looks forward to having more conversations with” local leaders.
This week, Warren told the Sun-Times that the Bears could only be “authentically the Chicago Bears” if they built a new stadium on the lakefront. That is some hardcore arguing. Maybe he did better when talking to a room of business executives?
Nah, as the Chicago Daily Herald noted, nothing new was given to the crowd:
“Warren repeated talking points used at similar presentations to business and civic groups in recent months: touting the city’s lake, food and architecture; complaining about the lack of construction cranes in the sky; and saying the city is missing out on hosting mega events like the Super Bowl and Final Four” — Daily Herald, 10/06/24
The Bears seem to have unified people and groups who agree on nothing to agree on opposing the new stadium proposal. So the Bears are not any closer to getting their new stadium. How about the White Sox? Nope. They aren’t in a better place either. If anyone ever has a few minutes to kill, try to read through the ISFA’s latest White Sox report to see the absurdity of what the city/state are paying to that baseball team and its ballpark.