The Bears New Stadium Proposal Is For A $4.6 BILLION Dollar Structure, With Chicago Tax Payers Footing Half The Bill
Chicago Tribune - The Chicago Bears are set to announce a $4.6 billion plan to build a new enclosed stadium and improved lakefront area with half of the money coming from taxpayers, sources said. But the team will have to overcome serious skepticism from several directions.
The stadium itself would cost $3.2 billion to build, with another $1.4 billion in proposed infrastructure improvements, according to sources familiar with the plan who spoke to the Tribune on the condition of anonymity.
The sources said the Bears plan to pledge $2.3 billion, which includes some financing through the NFL. But the Bears’ plan includes an additional $2.3 billion in public financing, along with refinancing outstanding debt for prior publicly financed stadium projects for the Bears and White Sox, according to the sources.
Taxpayers would be on the hook for the proposed infrastructure improvements along with about $1 billion in new borrowing to finance the new stadium south of Soldier Field, the sources said.
To make the plan a reality, the Bears want the Illinois General Assembly to approve new bonding for the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, which carries the debt for prior projects at Soldier Field and Guaranteed Rate Field, sources said.
Some of the new borrowing would be used to roll over existing stadium debt, and the plan calls for the new borrowing to be paid off over 40 years, which also would require legislative approval.
Sources said the Bears’ plan calls for the debt to be repaid without raising the 2% hotel tax that currently goes to ISFA.
Our boy Chief wrote a glowing piece earlier about this announcement, complete with plenty of glitzy and glamorous renderings of what lay in store for Chicagoans and Bears fans.
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What he failed to mention however, and what Gary from Waukegan on the caller line is failing to factor in in all this, is the fucking ginormous expense this is going to be to Illinois and Chicago taxpayers.
These renderings are a fucking distraction from the fact that the motherfucking McCaskey family is expecting, (not even requesting), Illinois tax payers to foot the bill for 2 BILLION (with a B) of their new little toy.
Actually, calling this stadium and redevelopment a toy is ridiculous. This is an asset of all assets that will increase their teams value, and their bankroll by billions. All at our expense.
Sure this development looks incredible visually, don't get me wrong. But $4.6 Billion dollars for that? Are you kidding me? The Bills' new stadium is slated at $1.4 Billion. How is this 3x that? Talk about inflated price tags. Who the fuck quoted this out? Ralph Cifaretto?
(Fun Fact - Keep in mind, for that much money we could build two of the Las Vegas spheres here.)
Also keep in mind that we the taxpayer haven't even paid off Soldier fucking Field yet!
The 2% hotel tax has fallen far short of paying off the existing debt. As a result, taxpayers still owe $629 million for past renovations of Soldier Field and Guaranteed Rate Field, whose occupants, the White Sox, also are seeking a new stadium in the South Loop.
Raising ISFA’s borrowing limit and stretching repayment over 40 years could prove to be a tough sell in Springfield, however, where legislative leaders so far have given the Bears, and the Sox, a cool reception.
This is what happens when you elect idiots, who've never run an actual business or managed finances before to manage billion dollar tax budgets. Short fall city. Guaranteed every time. And what do they do? "Let's just tax the tourists and small businesses. They'll cover it." Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but thankfully, it looks like Governor Pritzker has a brain, and backbone, and is telling everybody not to get so excited so soon.
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Also not to mention, perhaps the biggest hurdle standing in the way of all of this, the Bears will still have to win over those snooty bastards at the Friends of The Parks.
Then there is the question of whether the Bears can legally build on the site. The city’s lakefront protection ordinance calls for public use of the lakefront, and the team has called for public ownership of the stadium.
The nonprofit Friends of the Parks opposes building a stadium for a privately owned team on the lakefront. The group successfully drove “Star Wars” creator George Lucas away from plans to build a movie art museum on the same site, now used for parking lots.
They told Star Wars to get fucked. They told Barry Obama to take his museum and kick rocks. What makes you think they're going to let a sorry excuse for a professional football team like the Bears carve up some of the most beautiful waterfront property in God's beautiful United States of America?
To me this all just seems like another case of Bears fans riding high, setting themselves up for massive letdowns, filling themselves with delusions of grandeur. Just like they are with the whole Caleb Williams disaster that officially begins on Thursday. (More on this coming tomorrow).
The cherry on top of this entire cluster fuck is what happened to Arlington Racetrack.
Chicago Tribune. Getty Images.This place was an absolutely beautiful place to watch horse racing. Home to one of the most prestigious races in the world ever year. Drew people from all over the world. AND, actually generated tax revenue for a broke ass state like Illinois.
What did the Bears do while they were busy posturing, having a dick measuring contest with Lori Lightfoot, threatening to leave Chicago? In classic Chicago Bears fashion, they bought the place, and bulldozed it to the ground.
The lot sits vacant now, no more horse racing, and the Bears have seemingly abandoned all plans for a stadium there altogether.
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I was never officially a Chicago Bears fan, but I rooted for them. It's killed me watching them flounder for 20 years, torturing and ripping the fucking hearts out of their fans on an annual basis since I've moved here. When the Bears have shown signs of success, or even just hope, it's been transformational for the city. The city comes alive. Bars and restaurants are packed. Cash registers ring. There's a buzz in the air. It's a great thing for everybody. So anybody who lives here has a common interest in seeing the Bears do well.
Well that ends for me if this stadium deal goes through.
If we end up footing the bill for George fucking McCaskey to have a brand new spiffy venue to run his franchise further into the ground in, then fuck him, fuck his team, and fuck everything.
The list of issues, real issues, this city and state needs to deal with is longer than a CVS receipt. And "new Bears stadium" is down at the very bottom just ahead of "New White Sox Stadium for Jerry". The last thing our tax dollars should be going to is a money pit as ridiculous as this.
70-80 years ago this would never happen. But sadly, people are so obsessed with sports today, and the owners and league offices know it, that they're able to extort their fans for billions of dollars by threatening to leave and go elsewhere. No mayor of governor wants that on their epitaph, or to be remembered as the guy or gal who let so and so leave for Albequerque, so they put up as much of a fight as they can, and eventually cave. It's become par for the course.
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There's no bigger bait and switch in the world than these ownership groups and cities proclaiming how many jobs their new palaces are going to create, and how much tax revenue its going to add to the tax base. It's all smoke and mirrors and never comes close to projections. I won't bore you with more facts, but Illinois Policy . org did a great piece on the fallacy of this, time and time again, and how Jerry Reinsdorf has duped the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois into doing this before and is aiming to do it again.
The Brookings institute has also done countless studies arriving at the same conclusion.
Economic research for decades has found that, by and large, the fiscal returns for residents — in the form of increased economic activity and job growth — are far smaller than public expenditures, which have recently approached or exceeded half a billion dollars per stadium.
This primer will help journalists understand the history of public financing for stadium construction and empower them to use academic research to interrogate claims that these projects mean big bucks for communities.
The research also finds:
- Journalists often report figures from press releases and economic impact statements without questioning the assumptions of those analyses.
- Of the dozens of stadiums built in the past two decades for the four largest American sports leagues, about 4 in 10 were financed at least in part with municipal bonds exempt from federal taxes — which places part of the financial burden of stadium financing on residents nationwide.
- Football and baseball stadiums may increase foot traffic to nearby businesses, but basketball and hockey arenas do not.
- Overall, stadiums tend to shift economic activity, not create new spending.
- Expansion teams are likely to favor markets that already have strong employment and business growth.
Here's an even better one on, on America as a country overall.
Fuck these billionaires and fuck their tax-funded stadiums.
p.s. - the gap between Robert Kraft and every other owner in sports continues to widen by the day. It's not even close anymore. The guy built his own stadium, on his own dime, with minimal tax-funded infrastructure back when his team was on life support playing in a glorified high school stadium. Best owner of all time and it's not even close.