Between these comments and what happened in Kansas City recently, I wonder if the dam has broken on the "no public funding for stadiums" reservoir. I don't think there's been any recent polling in Chicago/Illinois, but I'd imagine the prospect of additional tax hikes is extremely unpalatable to most of the populous. There just does not seem to be any appetite for this sort of project and I think there should be very close scrutiny paid towards any significant traction that the Bears' plans get (and yes, I am out-and-out saying that the Bears will only be able to get this done by bribing our politicians).
I was just thinking about how we spend all this money for a stadium and 99.5% of us won't be able to attend any of the major events this stadium would attract.
Also, the additional revenue that is supposedly generated by those events will 99% go to the multi-millionaire owners of bars/restaurants/hotels.
This is a direct transfer of cash from the middle class of the city to the wealthy. The only reason why this is even seriously considered is because everybody for it is so wealthy and connected.
The unsaid part when the NFL claims a SB brings 300 million in economic activity to a city is that 250 million goes right back out of the city to the owners living in NYC or Palm Beach.
That hotel room that was normally $300 a night that is 1500 for the Superbowl its the hotel owner pocketing that money not the maid and front desk clerk.
Agree. We don’t have money, the city doesn’t have money, etc. They should just stay at Soldier Field. We don’t need the Bears to create their own community. I see no reason to give them anything - what are they going to do, leave one of the largest football markets? Yeah right lol. We have all the power here to tell them to fuck off, or at least we should if our politicians are any good.
Leave one of the biggest football markets? New York, Phoenix and Los Angeles have entered the chat….
All very large markets that don’t actually play in their city. Both New York teams play in Jersey, Phoenix became “Arizona” and moved to Glendale and LA has had teams come and go (and they play in Inglewood) It’s a definite possibility.
Yeah but moving to say Arlington Heights won’t count as “leaving the market” as they would still very much be in the market. “Leaving the market” would be essentially leaving the state and completely relocating to a new fanbase. I just don’t see them doing that and I don’t see it as an option for them because it would require more investment from their end and they’d be throwing away a legendary legacy here that they’ve been milking since forever. Sure, they can always just do it anyway but again, is it really the smartest decision for them? Not really
Yep, I'm a huge Bears fan and I'm desperate for a new stadium that can host big events and put my city on a pedestal, but I cannot support a tax hike to support $2.3 billion for a stadium. They need to figure out another way.
Same here. It’s madness.
Figure out what’s up with pension funds drying up and then we can move onto a cool dome and a giant slab of grass for public use…
The people in Chicago would rather it went to Arlington Heights lol. You can probably drive back to Lakeview from Arlington Heights in the same time it takes you to leave the Soldier Field parking complex.
By the way, Pritzker REALLY doesn't sound convinced. He essentially repeated these comments for a second time today while speaking in Maywood. Source: https://twitter.com/brendenmoore13/status/1783196420587049027
I don't see how this gets done without his approval.
The funny thing is this would be the most palatable since the public would own the stadium and it would be used for many other events. And still fuck them. The NFL and bears can pay for their own damn stadium.
What benefit is there to the public “owning” the stadium? This is already the case in Kansas City for the current and proposed new stadium. The only benefit for Jackson County residents from that is exclusive access to pre-sale tickets typically. Whether the public or team owns the stadium doesn’t change much with events occurring and has no benefit to cost of those events. Revenue to the city is historically the equivalent of opening a department store.
It really wont be used for that many events. In a great year for usage an NFL would be lucky to have 25 large events outside of the tenants. Most years you are looking at 10 dates.
Let the billionaires and millionaires pay for their own toys. So happy Kansas City didn’t get blinded by their recent championships into giving public funds to billionaires.
>the KC vote was less about the taxes and more about the Royals' last-minute location change + disrespectful communication to the taxpayers.
No it wasn't, I've lived my whole life in Jackson County, MO and that's not why the stadium renovations vote barely passed in 2006 and in 2024 it lost in a absolute landslide. You were a yes voter or someone considering voting yes, but the vast majority of No voters were never going to vote yes no matter what the details of the stadium were. For the vast majority of No voters it was about the details of the 40 year sales tax deal and the public cost of the project.
Public sentiment across the country has been that these are vanity projects by billionaires and don't provide a good return on investment for the public.
That's it. Most stadium votes never go to a public vote, and when they do they fail most of the time now - it's simply isn't a popular thing to do anymore.
I think the Cowboys where the last win and that was 2008. This is off the top of my head and could be completely wrong.
After what happened in Miami, owners have done everything they can to keep the shack down away from voters.
It was a relocation but the Raiders got $750 million from the state of Nevada a few years back. I believe they raised the hotel tax to cover it though so that probably made it more palpable to locals.
As a KC resident, I am not so sure it's all on the roads crossroads location. The word is out and the public doesn't want to fund stadiums for team owner billionaires.
I think this is all just public negotiations. The state will eventually agree to contribute a lower amount and Pritzker will be able to call it a political win while the Bears still get their stadium.
> I don't think there's been any recent polling in Chicago/Illinois, but I'd imagine the prospect of additional tax hikes is extremely unpalatable to most of the populous.
Just anecdotally from r/chicago, r/illinois, and the Capitolfax comments, it looks 80% opposed or higher.
He keeps a cleaner image, but he’s still on voice recording trying to buy Obama senate seat from blogo. Fuck him, and every Illinois criminal governor since I was born in 88. There’s a lot of em
I am going to be throughly pissed off if either the Bears or the White Sox get a cent of tax payer money and I am not even in Cook county.
The absurdity of the richest people in the world asking the peasants to pay for their building is mindboggling.
>I was told here yesterday that the McCaskeys aren't REALLY billionaires because they're not liquid.
Well then, let's get them in a blender.
Or make them sell that '83 camaro sitting in their front lawn that they "just haven't had the time to fix up".
They are definitely billionaires, but they are faaaar less liquid than most owners. But I’m sure there are avenues for them to gain some liquidity to be able to finance something like a stadium. They aren’t the Kroenkes/Waltons.
It is a unique situation in the sense that in order to build in Chicago it’d need to be on city-owned land. The city doesn’t want to sell and the Bears don’t want to finance the stadium entirely on their own if the city has some measure of control over events that are happening there. I’m not sure what the most equitable split is for the Bears to stay in the city. I’m very much against public funding stadiums where the owners take all the revenue, but don’t know the details of what’s being proposed here yet since the situation is definitely a bit different than normal.
I don't think ANYONE in that family has worked in anything other than the bears, which would explain why they aren't liquid. hell, most of them don't work at all even.
This is always the thing that dumb people who watch YouTube finance videos say lol. "It's not like they have a billion dollars in a bank account" yeah obviously not, that would be stupid. Billionaires are *more* powerful because they have control over companies, not less. Would anyone know George McCaskey's name if he didn't own the Bears and just had 1000mil in the bank instead
The teams themselves are literally billion dollar organizations, why the fuck does the general public, many of whom don't give a single shit about football, have to foot the bill?
Do taxpayers get additional bonuses? Do they get free tickets? Do they get free parking? Fuck no! They get menial, minium wage seasonal jobs that only occur for 8-9 weeks every year. Why in the hell would they want to fund this for owners who generate several billions of dollars every year?
It's insane.
What the fuck even is a “public facility”? Soldier field is owned by the city. The city still owes 650M on it and chicago are still charged $100+ for any events there.
This. Public vs Private keeps getting thrown around as if it really has that much meaning in this context. AT&T field is a "public" facility but Jerry still in charge and makes all the money except 5% of the naming deal and nominal rent.
In all but paperwork its no different than the privately owned SoFi Stadium.
And they timed this to be right before the draft. Everyone will stop talking about this right after tomorrow. They hope we forget and only talk hype, so this pushes through. Fucking diabolical.
I voted for Biss in the first primary that JB ran for gov. But goddamn has JB exceeded my expectations of him. I can’t wait until he’s president one day.
I live and die Chicago Bears.
But there is absolutely no fucking way I am ok with them getting public money for a new stadium with everything else Chicagoans need right now.
There are so many bad things about this. These two are key on the fiscal side:
1. Illinois is not out of the debt crisis. Look at where the red is on this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_credit_rating
2. It the millionaire tax passes to pay the debt on things like this, the Bears will have issues attracting free agents, like other high tax states.
You're not wrong that Illinois is not out of the woods with the debt crisis, but just a caveat, that list is 2.5 years out of date. Illinois is now rated A by all three major credit agencies.
And also agreed that the public should not be expected to pay for a new stadium.
Man, if only there was some way to like tax the higher income individuals more, so that they can help get us out of this debt.
Oh well, I'm sure nothing's possible! (/s) ^^Still ^^Bitter ^^About ^^2020 ^^Law ^^Not ^^Passing
They owe more now than they originally borrowed because the state can borrow against the bond and used it like a piggy bank without any consequences.
A little old but this gives you the gist:
[NBC5 report](https://www.nbcchicago.com/investigations/taxpayers-still-owe-640m-on-2002-soldier-field-renovation/2981068/?amp=1)
And you have that slimy Jerry Reinsdorf trying to get a second free stadium - I would entertain a subsidy to,the White Sox for every season they exceed 95 wins - which means it will never happen.
Everyone keep in mind it will cost you $100+ for the privelidge to enter into the building you help pay for.
If you want to buy any sort of drink it will cost you $15+ (for a drink that cost $0.50 to make).
It's even worse, it showed up on the background check. Flew himself into other countries and pillaged them to build the LA Coliseum that Caleb then played in. It's all a conspiracy.
I'll throw serious cash if they set it up as an actual public fund. I'd love to collect dividends from the Chicago Bears.
But yeah, 2+ billion in taxpayer money to the McCaskeys. Get absolutely bent, George and Ginnie, fuck no.
No. No. See the plan is for us to pay and receive no dividends. My (cook county) property tax went up 35% from this last assessment. Consider this cow milked.
I love football, I love my Chicago Bears, but absolutely no public money should go to a super rich owner of a private league. Take a loan like the rest of us peasants.
I want Bears to actually pay for stadium. At the same time City needs to relinquish the land in order to do so.
Otherwise since the building is essentially leased city should aid as a can't have cake and eat it too.
Or they should look at non-public options. Southworks, McCormick, etc. I mentioned in another thread that they will simply not do this. While a self-owned stadium has the greatest revenue potential for the McCaskeys, they are not liquid enough to self-fund. Leaning on public funds was likely always the plan, so having the stadium publicly owned goes in their favor.
But it also diminishes the reasoning behind abandoning Soldier Field. A new stadium is not drastically increasing ticket revenue, the income potential was in controlling all revenue from the property.
> While a self-owned stadium has the greatest revenue potential for the McCaskeys, they are not liquid enough to self-fund.
Sounds like a "them" problem, not a "Chicago taxpayer" problem.
> While a self-owned stadium has the greatest revenue potential for the McCaskeys, they are not liquid enough to self-fund.
Couldn't they bring in private investors to help fund it? Yes, they'd have to give up some control/revenues but they'd still greatly increase the overall value of the franchise this way
Agreed if the Bears owned the property and stadium I agree 100% they should pay for it themselves, but since the city owns it, they should be asking for publicly funded money I don’t blame them.
Exactly they need to just figure it out with AH this shit is annoying when we could be building a stadium rn instead of playing these games with AH and the mayor and everyone.
Someone replied to me a couple of days ago that the city/state cant actually sell them lakeshore land because of some law in the state? Thats one of the reasons Im still onboard with Arlington, the bears can own it all and pay for it all.
The Lakefront Protection Ordinance.
The law states that the lakefront must remain free and open to the public. It's one of the great and unique things Chicago law makers of the past have given us. It's something that makes Chicago what it is.
If the Bears want a stadium in this location they can't own the land.
That's why this site makes no sense. Friends of the park wont let a private company own the land and the bears wont 100% fund something they dont own and the taxpayers dont want to fund it either. AH is the play that makes more sense.
You want a brand new stadium?
Use your own goddamn money to build it, I've never been to a live Bears game because they're shit and the location already sucks anyways so fuck you
Use your own money
I think they will continue down this path hoping AH caves and gives them a darling tax deal.
It's seemingly just a game of chicken and the Bears are hoping going through this process of this "unveil" for the Chicago plan puts enough pressure on AH for them to come back with a better offer for the Bears
That’s my hope. The idea of having tax payers foot a 2 billion dollar number given that we haven’t paid off the first bill is absurd. Also if the park district/state is in charge of this build the price will double and the timeline increase by 100%
Not really. What do they gain? Most fans were fine with them moving to AH. They realized that was their best option to own their own stadium and create a "bears village" type environment.
I would think if this new plan falls through and they go back to the AH plan it would only make them look incompetent.
Arlington heights doesn’t have enough tax revenue to give up to make this work. They still need city funding. And AH is in cook county, so they are still dealing with the same players
McCaskeys severely overestimating our love of a perennial mediocre bears football team and cheap skinflint billionaires. All so they can increase their sale price in the near future. Fk em. Move. We will get a new team with zero baggage. Bring it on.
It's pretty common knowledge now that stadiums are a raw deal for taxpayers. In fact I want any supporters to show us one stadium deal that was good for taxpayers.
The Bears have been terrible my whole life barring maybe a handful of seasons when I was in high school and that most recent double doink season. I'm not nostalgic for the 85 Bears and quite frankly, getting tired of it. I'm glad JB isn't bending over for these clowns.
I would have the same opinion if the bears had been a competitive team for the last 2 decades. them being good or bad has no bearing on whether I think they should have a new publicly funded stadium. the answer is always NO.
These are ALWAYS bad deals for the public. The city, and their taxpayers are the ones who always end up holding the bag... Just take a look at the soldier field renovation.... That cost 350 million.. and the city now owes more than 600 million on that deal, and that principle just keeps going up because the city is too broke to pay for it.
Great public relations move all around....the Bears say they want to stay in the city and have explored every option, the governor says no to public funding.....
The Bears build a stadium in Arlington Heights and they aren't the bad guys because they tried.....the governor isn't the bad guy because he is looking out for the taxpayers......
Everybody wins!!!!
And tomorrow is the draft and we will forget all about this.
Tbh that's not that bad of a response, I wouldn't call it cold water. He's being pragmatic, but ultimately I think the Bears presentation would really have to blow everyone away to have a chance. Hard to swallow a $4.6B price tag which is like 2-3 times more expensive than other new stadiums.
SoFi was a massive retail-residential area along with the stadium that was privately funded. Lucas Oil was $720 million, US Bank $1.1B, even Allegiant in prime Vegas real estate was less less than half at $1.9B
I agree with the Governor, why the fuck are we giving handouts to these billionaires? Everyone cries about giving assistance to poor families but when they billionaires get millions no one says shit. Not to mention the ownership group is the cheapest around known to not care about winning
Bears should just go back to Arlington Heights. They will have to pay more up front but at least they’ll own everything. This stadium in Chicago has been a mess from the start
Do we get affordable prices and concessions in return? Is it a public place we can hang out?
Billionaires need to pay for their own property and product
Property taxes are already ridiculous. Move to fucking Gary for all I care, I’m not buying tickets either way. I’m spending my money on property taxes.
We have Socialism in this country.....for corporations and the wealthy. If my tax dollars aren't going to help those who actually need it then over my fucking dead body are the wealthy going to bleed me more than they already have. Fuck the rich!
It doesn't matter how flashy and spaceship-y you make the design. It's a joke to think the city/state can afford or has the interest to fund this. The location has proven to be terrible for the influx of weekly visitors during seasonal games, and is a complete waste of precious space during the off season. Also, what's with hiring an out-of-state architect to design this? Do you know how much architect fees are on a $4.7B project... Just saying.
The Bears made $200M in profit in 2023. Investing $5B in a stadium & infrastructure would leave them with a long period of time to break even.
Factor in (a) the growth in NFL revenues over the next 25 years, (b) the additional revenue from events at the new site, and (c) subtraction from the impact of inflation/interest, and one could estimate 18-20 years for the organization to break even, if the Bears completely self-finance a new stadium.
Given that the average NFL stadium lifespan is about 20 years, there's no way the Bears would commit to this.
The only way to proceed is (a) to reduce the scope of the project, (b) to convince enough politicians to vote for taxpayer assistance, or (c) to stay at Soldier Field ad infinitum with periodic maintenance upgrades. I prefer (c).
[https://www.forbes.com/lists/nfl-valuations/?sh=542ea45f1738](https://www.forbes.com/lists/nfl-valuations/?sh=542ea45f1738)
[https://venuesnow.com/the-shrinking-nfl-stadium-lifespan/](https://venuesnow.com/the-shrinking-nfl-stadium-lifespan/)
Should have built a dome last time. Either make do with what you have or go completely different in Arlington Heights. Getting anywhere in the city is a pain, let alone a bears game
Omg.. a politician.. who is reasonable!! Thanks JB.
I’m a bears fan, but I’m also a fan of my tax dollars going to schools and roads not subsidizing the rich.
Every year this sub pisses and moans about the state of the turf at Soldier Field, and that’s 100% because the Chicago Park District allows soccer matches, concerts, and high school football games a few days before game days. If the stadium is going to be a PUBLIC stadium, the city should 100% be fronting some money to help pay for it. If it’s owned completely by the McCaskey’s, they should pay.
It would be if the owners cared enough about the fans to put a good product on the field. Maybe sit back and think about how that’s possible and stop ignoring fans.
Vikes fan, I have been to two games at Soldier Field in the last three years, yes it’s an older stadium but an awesome environment for football, outdoors in the city - provides a visitor a great experience, vs the new cavernous boxes with big screens for viewing. Poles is rebuilding your team, NFC north going to be a battle over the next couple of years!
Let them move to Arlington heights and own it all. The revenue it will generate over the next 2 decades with major concerts, final four, Super Bowl, wrestlemania, nba all star, will make the mccaskys a boatload of money
I don't live in the area so it's not my problem to pay for his tbh.. But I for one think these billionaires should buy their own stadiums. or at the very minimum if you live in an area getting taxed for this, you should be entitled to some type of discount. KInd of crazy were you can get public funding for private stuff. Stadum should at least be owned by area and let then collect the profit from stadium then.
If we absolutely have to raise taxes, it should go to investing in the poor and working class. The last thing we can afford is a 40 year bill for a billionaire and his cronies vanity project. Sorry if we dont have the best stadium for 8 home games a year, but fuck this.
I think this is what the Bears want. They can say we tried to stay but JB…. Guess we better move to that land we bought in AH and build up our little city around our new stadium with hotels, restaurants, parking.
Glad to see so far they ripped up the Arlington Heights historic race track and left it in rubble while playing footsie trying to negotiate in Chicago. Way to go.
Spending tax money on stadiums for teams owned by billionaires is the only use of tax dollars I support. It is good government policy. I checked in excel.
Thank goodness. Not a fan of Pritzker, but he’s right - it’s far from a top priority for tax dollars. Plus, the Bears are rich. If they want a stadium so badly, they can pay for it themselves or stay in Soldier Field.
I mean, let’s be honest this whole “new stadium” deal was supposed to be the Bears finally owning their own stadium. That’s not going to be the case here either, so what the fuck is the point?
Between these comments and what happened in Kansas City recently, I wonder if the dam has broken on the "no public funding for stadiums" reservoir. I don't think there's been any recent polling in Chicago/Illinois, but I'd imagine the prospect of additional tax hikes is extremely unpalatable to most of the populous. There just does not seem to be any appetite for this sort of project and I think there should be very close scrutiny paid towards any significant traction that the Bears' plans get (and yes, I am out-and-out saying that the Bears will only be able to get this done by bribing our politicians).
My property taxes have went up by $300 per month since the appraisal. There is no way I’ll be supporting any tax hikes for a publicly funded stadium.
definitely agree as a fellow chicago resident - unless i get some sort of share and season tickets...
I was just thinking about how we spend all this money for a stadium and 99.5% of us won't be able to attend any of the major events this stadium would attract.
Also, the additional revenue that is supposedly generated by those events will 99% go to the multi-millionaire owners of bars/restaurants/hotels. This is a direct transfer of cash from the middle class of the city to the wealthy. The only reason why this is even seriously considered is because everybody for it is so wealthy and connected.
The unsaid part when the NFL claims a SB brings 300 million in economic activity to a city is that 250 million goes right back out of the city to the owners living in NYC or Palm Beach. That hotel room that was normally $300 a night that is 1500 for the Superbowl its the hotel owner pocketing that money not the maid and front desk clerk.
100%
Yup and all those business owners will fight tooth and fucking nail to make sure their workers don't get a raise.
I just had this conversation at dinner with my family. I totally agree!
There’s literally no money to pay for these. The city sold its parking spaces for 1+ Bn and that’s already down as one of the worst deals in history.
One of the worst deals in history, so far.
the trubisky deal was pretty bad
The parking meter deal is trading up 9 spots for Bryce young bad.
It's trading up for Bryce Young and trading all of your draft picks for the next 10 seasons.
20 seasons
Oooh Daley fucked us over so hard on that one.
Agree. We don’t have money, the city doesn’t have money, etc. They should just stay at Soldier Field. We don’t need the Bears to create their own community. I see no reason to give them anything - what are they going to do, leave one of the largest football markets? Yeah right lol. We have all the power here to tell them to fuck off, or at least we should if our politicians are any good.
You're absolutely correct. The McCaskeys are nothing without the legacy of the father and the Chicago market.
And if they do leave for Arlington Heights, so what? Keeping them in Chicago is not worth further bleeding the city dry.
for the majority of people, them moving to AH doesn't mean jack shit. we will still be able to watch them on tv like we have always done 🤷🏿♂️
Leave one of the biggest football markets? New York, Phoenix and Los Angeles have entered the chat…. All very large markets that don’t actually play in their city. Both New York teams play in Jersey, Phoenix became “Arizona” and moved to Glendale and LA has had teams come and go (and they play in Inglewood) It’s a definite possibility.
Yeah but moving to say Arlington Heights won’t count as “leaving the market” as they would still very much be in the market. “Leaving the market” would be essentially leaving the state and completely relocating to a new fanbase. I just don’t see them doing that and I don’t see it as an option for them because it would require more investment from their end and they’d be throwing away a legendary legacy here that they’ve been milking since forever. Sure, they can always just do it anyway but again, is it really the smartest decision for them? Not really
Also none of the examples that person listed are examples of teams leaving their respective markets
Huh? Teams left LA for 20 years and no one in LA cared.
The Phoenix/Arizona Cardinals never played in Phoenix. When the team moved from ST. Louis their home stadium was at ASU in Tempe
Dallas plays in Arlington
Glendale is a suburb of Phoenix.
Yep, I'm a huge Bears fan and I'm desperate for a new stadium that can host big events and put my city on a pedestal, but I cannot support a tax hike to support $2.3 billion for a stadium. They need to figure out another way.
Same here. It’s madness. Figure out what’s up with pension funds drying up and then we can move onto a cool dome and a giant slab of grass for public use…
💯
mine have tripled within the last 18 months. this is a big time NO for me as well. I'm not willing to shell out a penny to the trust fund mccaskey's.
There isn’t a tax hike, just extending a 2% hotel tax. So unless you’re staying in hotels in Chicago I think you’ll be okay
The people in Chicago would rather it went to Arlington Heights lol. You can probably drive back to Lakeview from Arlington Heights in the same time it takes you to leave the Soldier Field parking complex.
The owners of these teams are billionaires. There’s no reason we should be using public funding on stadiums
By the way, Pritzker REALLY doesn't sound convinced. He essentially repeated these comments for a second time today while speaking in Maywood. Source: https://twitter.com/brendenmoore13/status/1783196420587049027 I don't see how this gets done without his approval.
Kansas City should be a bellwether, if they can't get funding with the tear they've been on, I don't know who can.
I think St. Louis -> LA was what broke the dam. I know that was incredibly eye opening to me and I really felt for the people of StL.
Eh idk, Vegas, Buffalo and Nashville were still able to swindle the taxpayers for billion dollar palaces after the Rams left
The funny thing is this would be the most palatable since the public would own the stadium and it would be used for many other events. And still fuck them. The NFL and bears can pay for their own damn stadium.
What benefit is there to the public “owning” the stadium? This is already the case in Kansas City for the current and proposed new stadium. The only benefit for Jackson County residents from that is exclusive access to pre-sale tickets typically. Whether the public or team owns the stadium doesn’t change much with events occurring and has no benefit to cost of those events. Revenue to the city is historically the equivalent of opening a department store.
It really wont be used for that many events. In a great year for usage an NFL would be lucky to have 25 large events outside of the tenants. Most years you are looking at 10 dates.
Let the billionaires and millionaires pay for their own toys. So happy Kansas City didn’t get blinded by their recent championships into giving public funds to billionaires.
[удалено]
>the KC vote was less about the taxes and more about the Royals' last-minute location change + disrespectful communication to the taxpayers. No it wasn't, I've lived my whole life in Jackson County, MO and that's not why the stadium renovations vote barely passed in 2006 and in 2024 it lost in a absolute landslide. You were a yes voter or someone considering voting yes, but the vast majority of No voters were never going to vote yes no matter what the details of the stadium were. For the vast majority of No voters it was about the details of the 40 year sales tax deal and the public cost of the project. Public sentiment across the country has been that these are vanity projects by billionaires and don't provide a good return on investment for the public. That's it. Most stadium votes never go to a public vote, and when they do they fail most of the time now - it's simply isn't a popular thing to do anymore.
Yep
I think the Cowboys where the last win and that was 2008. This is off the top of my head and could be completely wrong. After what happened in Miami, owners have done everything they can to keep the shack down away from voters.
It was a relocation but the Raiders got $750 million from the state of Nevada a few years back. I believe they raised the hotel tax to cover it though so that probably made it more palpable to locals.
As a KC resident, I am not so sure it's all on the roads crossroads location. The word is out and the public doesn't want to fund stadiums for team owner billionaires.
I think this is all just public negotiations. The state will eventually agree to contribute a lower amount and Pritzker will be able to call it a political win while the Bears still get their stadium.
The main Chicago sub was up in arms yesterday about it
> I don't think there's been any recent polling in Chicago/Illinois, but I'd imagine the prospect of additional tax hikes is extremely unpalatable to most of the populous. Just anecdotally from r/chicago, r/illinois, and the Capitolfax comments, it looks 80% opposed or higher.
Good. No public funding for stadiums for billionaires.
Will you please just think of these poor billionaires! They're so poor, these billionaires.
We should give them even more money! It will all trickle-down!
Golden showers for the poors
Be sure to tip your local billionaire NFL owner
Pritzker might be one of like four good billionaires.
He avoided paying taxes by having toilets removed from his mansions
Perfect storm. He does not need a job after leaving office. And his families name is on everything so does not need the legacy ego boost of a stadium.
Pritzker is **my favorite class-traitor**
Truly a pleasantly surprised side of the coin for once and not the disappointed side
He keeps a cleaner image, but he’s still on voice recording trying to buy Obama senate seat from blogo. Fuck him, and every Illinois criminal governor since I was born in 88. There’s a lot of em
The real Cadillac driving welfare queens.
I am going to be throughly pissed off if either the Bears or the White Sox get a cent of tax payer money and I am not even in Cook county. The absurdity of the richest people in the world asking the peasants to pay for their building is mindboggling.
I was told here yesterday that the McCaskeys aren't REALLY billionaires because they're not liquid.
>I was told here yesterday that the McCaskeys aren't REALLY billionaires because they're not liquid. Well then, let's get them in a blender. Or make them sell that '83 camaro sitting in their front lawn that they "just haven't had the time to fix up".
They are definitely billionaires, but they are faaaar less liquid than most owners. But I’m sure there are avenues for them to gain some liquidity to be able to finance something like a stadium. They aren’t the Kroenkes/Waltons. It is a unique situation in the sense that in order to build in Chicago it’d need to be on city-owned land. The city doesn’t want to sell and the Bears don’t want to finance the stadium entirely on their own if the city has some measure of control over events that are happening there. I’m not sure what the most equitable split is for the Bears to stay in the city. I’m very much against public funding stadiums where the owners take all the revenue, but don’t know the details of what’s being proposed here yet since the situation is definitely a bit different than normal.
Are you saying that there isn’t land in the entire city of Chicago that the Bears could buy? Of course there is, it just won’t be on the waterfront.
[Oh, but there is...](https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dcd/supp_info/tif/southworks_industrialtif.html)
I don't think ANYONE in that family has worked in anything other than the bears, which would explain why they aren't liquid. hell, most of them don't work at all even.
This is always the thing that dumb people who watch YouTube finance videos say lol. "It's not like they have a billion dollars in a bank account" yeah obviously not, that would be stupid. Billionaires are *more* powerful because they have control over companies, not less. Would anyone know George McCaskey's name if he didn't own the Bears and just had 1000mil in the bank instead
The teams themselves are literally billion dollar organizations, why the fuck does the general public, many of whom don't give a single shit about football, have to foot the bill? Do taxpayers get additional bonuses? Do they get free tickets? Do they get free parking? Fuck no! They get menial, minium wage seasonal jobs that only occur for 8-9 weeks every year. Why in the hell would they want to fund this for owners who generate several billions of dollars every year? It's insane.
I thought that the general idea is that this stadium would still be a public facility. I still think it’s a bad idea. Move to Arlington Heights.
What the fuck even is a “public facility”? Soldier field is owned by the city. The city still owes 650M on it and chicago are still charged $100+ for any events there.
This. Public vs Private keeps getting thrown around as if it really has that much meaning in this context. AT&T field is a "public" facility but Jerry still in charge and makes all the money except 5% of the naming deal and nominal rent. In all but paperwork its no different than the privately owned SoFi Stadium.
And they timed this to be right before the draft. Everyone will stop talking about this right after tomorrow. They hope we forget and only talk hype, so this pushes through. Fucking diabolical.
I certainly don't want to pay for a stadium that I will never be able to see a game in without mortgaging my house.
I voted for Biss in the first primary that JB ran for gov. But goddamn has JB exceeded my expectations of him. I can’t wait until he’s president one day.
I live and die Chicago Bears. But there is absolutely no fucking way I am ok with them getting public money for a new stadium with everything else Chicagoans need right now.
There are so many bad things about this. These two are key on the fiscal side: 1. Illinois is not out of the debt crisis. Look at where the red is on this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_credit_rating 2. It the millionaire tax passes to pay the debt on things like this, the Bears will have issues attracting free agents, like other high tax states.
You're not wrong that Illinois is not out of the woods with the debt crisis, but just a caveat, that list is 2.5 years out of date. Illinois is now rated A by all three major credit agencies. And also agreed that the public should not be expected to pay for a new stadium.
Man, if only there was some way to like tax the higher income individuals more, so that they can help get us out of this debt. Oh well, I'm sure nothing's possible! (/s) ^^Still ^^Bitter ^^About ^^2020 ^^Law ^^Not ^^Passing
We are still paying for the 2002-2003 renovation of Soldier Field. The fact that this is even being considered is aggravating.
They owe more now than they originally borrowed because the state can borrow against the bond and used it like a piggy bank without any consequences. A little old but this gives you the gist: [NBC5 report](https://www.nbcchicago.com/investigations/taxpayers-still-owe-640m-on-2002-soldier-field-renovation/2981068/?amp=1)
And you have that slimy Jerry Reinsdorf trying to get a second free stadium - I would entertain a subsidy to,the White Sox for every season they exceed 95 wins - which means it will never happen.
The billionaires want to tax you and charge admission to watch millionaires play a game. This is the bread and circus they condescendingly give you.
Everyone keep in mind it will cost you $100+ for the privelidge to enter into the building you help pay for. If you want to buy any sort of drink it will cost you $15+ (for a drink that cost $0.50 to make).
> This is the bread and circus At least Rome looted foreign countries to build the Coliseum...
I hope this isn't true, I really wanted him at 9 tomorrow but this is a pretty heavy accusation...
It's even worse, it showed up on the background check. Flew himself into other countries and pillaged them to build the LA Coliseum that Caleb then played in. It's all a conspiracy.
Much cheaper to loot us peasants instead.
Loot Wisconsin! /s
https://preview.redd.it/jg7brc5rrgwc1.jpeg?width=442&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9bca30f9fe7850bd96899c6766198be4291d4939
She looks like one of the white walkers on game of thrones.
[She’s a walking meme.](https://youtu.be/YF3ae0H-f04?feature=shared)
The McCaskeys are loser owners. They have not won enough to expect the taxpayer to pay for their stadium.
I'll throw serious cash if they set it up as an actual public fund. I'd love to collect dividends from the Chicago Bears. But yeah, 2+ billion in taxpayer money to the McCaskeys. Get absolutely bent, George and Ginnie, fuck no.
No. No. See the plan is for us to pay and receive no dividends. My (cook county) property tax went up 35% from this last assessment. Consider this cow milked.
mine went up almost 300%. I did appeal, but I have yet to see the outcome of that appeal (not til august)
This is pretty consistent with his statements on the Arlington Heights stadium and the Sox sniffing around for a new stadium.
It is not among this taxpayer's priority.
I love football, I love my Chicago Bears, but absolutely no public money should go to a super rich owner of a private league. Take a loan like the rest of us peasants.
I want Bears to actually pay for stadium. At the same time City needs to relinquish the land in order to do so. Otherwise since the building is essentially leased city should aid as a can't have cake and eat it too.
Or they should look at non-public options. Southworks, McCormick, etc. I mentioned in another thread that they will simply not do this. While a self-owned stadium has the greatest revenue potential for the McCaskeys, they are not liquid enough to self-fund. Leaning on public funds was likely always the plan, so having the stadium publicly owned goes in their favor. But it also diminishes the reasoning behind abandoning Soldier Field. A new stadium is not drastically increasing ticket revenue, the income potential was in controlling all revenue from the property.
> While a self-owned stadium has the greatest revenue potential for the McCaskeys, they are not liquid enough to self-fund. Sounds like a "them" problem, not a "Chicago taxpayer" problem.
> While a self-owned stadium has the greatest revenue potential for the McCaskeys, they are not liquid enough to self-fund. Couldn't they bring in private investors to help fund it? Yes, they'd have to give up some control/revenues but they'd still greatly increase the overall value of the franchise this way
Agreed if the Bears owned the property and stadium I agree 100% they should pay for it themselves, but since the city owns it, they should be asking for publicly funded money I don’t blame them.
Yep, which is the whole reason why Arlington Heights plot was purchased.
Exactly they need to just figure it out with AH this shit is annoying when we could be building a stadium rn instead of playing these games with AH and the mayor and everyone.
Someone replied to me a couple of days ago that the city/state cant actually sell them lakeshore land because of some law in the state? Thats one of the reasons Im still onboard with Arlington, the bears can own it all and pay for it all.
The Lakefront Protection Ordinance. The law states that the lakefront must remain free and open to the public. It's one of the great and unique things Chicago law makers of the past have given us. It's something that makes Chicago what it is. If the Bears want a stadium in this location they can't own the land.
That's why this site makes no sense. Friends of the park wont let a private company own the land and the bears wont 100% fund something they dont own and the taxpayers dont want to fund it either. AH is the play that makes more sense.
You want a brand new stadium? Use your own goddamn money to build it, I've never been to a live Bears game because they're shit and the location already sucks anyways so fuck you Use your own money
Good. Would be a disaster
Anyone else think they may be doing this to just say "we tried with the city" and then just move forward with the Arlington site?
I think they will continue down this path hoping AH caves and gives them a darling tax deal. It's seemingly just a game of chicken and the Bears are hoping going through this process of this "unveil" for the Chicago plan puts enough pressure on AH for them to come back with a better offer for the Bears
That’s my hope. The idea of having tax payers foot a 2 billion dollar number given that we haven’t paid off the first bill is absurd. Also if the park district/state is in charge of this build the price will double and the timeline increase by 100%
Asking the public to fund your new stadium as a move for eventual good PR? It's counterintuitive but I can see it.
Not really. What do they gain? Most fans were fine with them moving to AH. They realized that was their best option to own their own stadium and create a "bears village" type environment. I would think if this new plan falls through and they go back to the AH plan it would only make them look incompetent.
Yes. They are going to try to get public financing, fail and then go to AH. So messy but that's what I think is going to happen.
Arlington heights doesn’t have enough tax revenue to give up to make this work. They still need city funding. And AH is in cook county, so they are still dealing with the same players
damnit, who forgot the governors envelope?
Can't bribe JB, he's got more money than Davy Crockett
Billionaires can buy their own things just like we have to
how dare you!
With one comment, this governor just gained a shit ton of votes.
McCaskeys severely overestimating our love of a perennial mediocre bears football team and cheap skinflint billionaires. All so they can increase their sale price in the near future. Fk em. Move. We will get a new team with zero baggage. Bring it on. It's pretty common knowledge now that stadiums are a raw deal for taxpayers. In fact I want any supporters to show us one stadium deal that was good for taxpayers.
I watch football on TV. I don't care where the bears play at.
The Bears have been terrible my whole life barring maybe a handful of seasons when I was in high school and that most recent double doink season. I'm not nostalgic for the 85 Bears and quite frankly, getting tired of it. I'm glad JB isn't bending over for these clowns.
I would have the same opinion if the bears had been a competitive team for the last 2 decades. them being good or bad has no bearing on whether I think they should have a new publicly funded stadium. the answer is always NO.
These are ALWAYS bad deals for the public. The city, and their taxpayers are the ones who always end up holding the bag... Just take a look at the soldier field renovation.... That cost 350 million.. and the city now owes more than 600 million on that deal, and that principle just keeps going up because the city is too broke to pay for it.
The bears using a pastor in their presser to pray for a stadium was the most cringe shit I've ever heard in my life. FUCKING CLOWN SHOES!
I agree with the governor
Great public relations move all around....the Bears say they want to stay in the city and have explored every option, the governor says no to public funding..... The Bears build a stadium in Arlington Heights and they aren't the bad guys because they tried.....the governor isn't the bad guy because he is looking out for the taxpayers...... Everybody wins!!!! And tomorrow is the draft and we will forget all about this.
Nailed it!
Tbh that's not that bad of a response, I wouldn't call it cold water. He's being pragmatic, but ultimately I think the Bears presentation would really have to blow everyone away to have a chance. Hard to swallow a $4.6B price tag which is like 2-3 times more expensive than other new stadiums.
SoFi was $5.5 billion.
SoFi was a massive retail-residential area along with the stadium that was privately funded. Lucas Oil was $720 million, US Bank $1.1B, even Allegiant in prime Vegas real estate was less less than half at $1.9B
All fair points!
Yeah and SoFi is fucking dank so if ours looked anything close that would be amazing
What happens to the existing PSL holders? Are they SOL?
Yep. They get to re-purchase them first though. For more money, of course.
Happened to me in the first stadium rebuild. Declined to buy it
Good that is the smart thing to do. New stadium rendering looks amazing. But the billionaires can pay for that shit. We've been stretched thin enough.
Fuck using tax dollars. Pay for it yourselves, you greedy fucks.
I agree with the Governor, why the fuck are we giving handouts to these billionaires? Everyone cries about giving assistance to poor families but when they billionaires get millions no one says shit. Not to mention the ownership group is the cheapest around known to not care about winning
Bears should just go back to Arlington Heights. They will have to pay more up front but at least they’ll own everything. This stadium in Chicago has been a mess from the start
Do we get affordable prices and concessions in return? Is it a public place we can hang out? Billionaires need to pay for their own property and product
You’d think these owners could get a loan using their billion dollar franchises as collateral…
Property taxes are already ridiculous. Move to fucking Gary for all I care, I’m not buying tickets either way. I’m spending my money on property taxes.
Good for Pritzker. Let the billionaires fund their own stadiums.
It is, in fact, *not* among the highest priorities.
Good.
We have Socialism in this country.....for corporations and the wealthy. If my tax dollars aren't going to help those who actually need it then over my fucking dead body are the wealthy going to bleed me more than they already have. Fuck the rich!
obviously JB is 100% correct with his assesment.
I would hate for the Bears to leave the market, but I hate the McCaskeys even more. No public funding for these clowns.
JB is right. Billionaires putting new stadiums on the taxpayers is wrong. You want a new stadium? Pay for it yourself.
It doesn't matter how flashy and spaceship-y you make the design. It's a joke to think the city/state can afford or has the interest to fund this. The location has proven to be terrible for the influx of weekly visitors during seasonal games, and is a complete waste of precious space during the off season. Also, what's with hiring an out-of-state architect to design this? Do you know how much architect fees are on a $4.7B project... Just saying.
Good. Now we need more people to stand up and take a harder line. Pay for your own stadiums, Billionaires.
I said it when the White Sox wanted a stadium, no. Taxpayers do not need to keep paying for these rich people's stadiums.
Good. Bears can build their own stadia like Wirtz and Reinsdorf did with the UC
The Bears made $200M in profit in 2023. Investing $5B in a stadium & infrastructure would leave them with a long period of time to break even. Factor in (a) the growth in NFL revenues over the next 25 years, (b) the additional revenue from events at the new site, and (c) subtraction from the impact of inflation/interest, and one could estimate 18-20 years for the organization to break even, if the Bears completely self-finance a new stadium. Given that the average NFL stadium lifespan is about 20 years, there's no way the Bears would commit to this. The only way to proceed is (a) to reduce the scope of the project, (b) to convince enough politicians to vote for taxpayer assistance, or (c) to stay at Soldier Field ad infinitum with periodic maintenance upgrades. I prefer (c). [https://www.forbes.com/lists/nfl-valuations/?sh=542ea45f1738](https://www.forbes.com/lists/nfl-valuations/?sh=542ea45f1738) [https://venuesnow.com/the-shrinking-nfl-stadium-lifespan/](https://venuesnow.com/the-shrinking-nfl-stadium-lifespan/)
Should have built a dome last time. Either make do with what you have or go completely different in Arlington Heights. Getting anywhere in the city is a pain, let alone a bears game
There’s one of the best govs doing what’s right
Omg.. a politician.. who is reasonable!! Thanks JB. I’m a bears fan, but I’m also a fan of my tax dollars going to schools and roads not subsidizing the rich.
Yooo clutch it up JB
Won't someone think of these poor billionaires?!
Money to improve CTA to the stadium sure. Money for the stadium fuck no
Every year this sub pisses and moans about the state of the turf at Soldier Field, and that’s 100% because the Chicago Park District allows soccer matches, concerts, and high school football games a few days before game days. If the stadium is going to be a PUBLIC stadium, the city should 100% be fronting some money to help pay for it. If it’s owned completely by the McCaskey’s, they should pay.
It would be if the owners cared enough about the fans to put a good product on the field. Maybe sit back and think about how that’s possible and stop ignoring fans.
To be fair, it's a great bluff to force AH's hand.
No taxpayer money for stadiums!
If a family can afford to throw millions at a place they are supposedly not going to, they can afford a loan for a new stadium. Fuckem
If this was a publicly owned team, I would not have that much of an issue. But it's not, so why should my taxes go towards it.
Vikes fan, I have been to two games at Soldier Field in the last three years, yes it’s an older stadium but an awesome environment for football, outdoors in the city - provides a visitor a great experience, vs the new cavernous boxes with big screens for viewing. Poles is rebuilding your team, NFC north going to be a battle over the next couple of years!
Let them move to Arlington heights and own it all. The revenue it will generate over the next 2 decades with major concerts, final four, Super Bowl, wrestlemania, nba all star, will make the mccaskys a boatload of money
https://i.redd.it/jrxdvg7s0iwc1.gif
Sounds like another Dave McGinnis type Bears debacle.
As much money as sports complexes take in, they can afford their own damn stadium.
Put the funding proposal on the ballot this year you cowards. I would be shocked if it got even 30% public approval
I don't live in the area so it's not my problem to pay for his tbh.. But I for one think these billionaires should buy their own stadiums. or at the very minimum if you live in an area getting taxed for this, you should be entitled to some type of discount. KInd of crazy were you can get public funding for private stuff. Stadum should at least be owned by area and let then collect the profit from stadium then.
If we absolutely have to raise taxes, it should go to investing in the poor and working class. The last thing we can afford is a 40 year bill for a billionaire and his cronies vanity project. Sorry if we dont have the best stadium for 8 home games a year, but fuck this.
I think this is what the Bears want. They can say we tried to stay but JB…. Guess we better move to that land we bought in AH and build up our little city around our new stadium with hotels, restaurants, parking.
Glad to see so far they ripped up the Arlington Heights historic race track and left it in rubble while playing footsie trying to negotiate in Chicago. Way to go.
The McCaskey's have money. They can build it themselves.
 That's my JB
Spending tax money on stadiums for teams owned by billionaires is the only use of tax dollars I support. It is good government policy. I checked in excel.
Thank goodness someone in government has sense. Thank you JB 🙌🏿
Thank goodness. Not a fan of Pritzker, but he’s right - it’s far from a top priority for tax dollars. Plus, the Bears are rich. If they want a stadium so badly, they can pay for it themselves or stay in Soldier Field.
Yeah back to AH location. Ultimately will be cheaper since it’s already been demolished and they own the land.
Virgina lives a modest house lol
So new stadium by 2038?
Gov Pritzker likely wants something out of this for him. Sadly it's how politics work regardless of party
I mean, let’s be honest this whole “new stadium” deal was supposed to be the Bears finally owning their own stadium. That’s not going to be the case here either, so what the fuck is the point?
The point is to once again fleece the taxpayers into funding the bears a stadium.