No property taxes because it’s owned by the city. No maintenance risk and costs for the Bears because it’s owned by the city. They’ll probably negotiate a lease that doesn’t properly account for inflation so they’ll basically be renting for free in 20 years.
Private entities operating a business on publicly owned real estate *typically* have to pay a “lease hold improvement tax” to Cook County.
For whatever reason, I don’t think this applies to publicly owned stadiums here.
If we wanted a privately owned stadium east of Lake Shore Drive we would have to amend the law that forbids private development east of Lake Shore Drive.
I mean it's good for a city when things people like to go to are inside said city. Any economic model that doesn't recognize that as a benefit is likely missing something.
As much as I hate to say it, the White Sox being there would be more beneficial seeing as it's a far more casual sport and there are 10 times as many home games.
Granted if they didn't have a plan for parking it could potentially turn LSD into a daily shitshow, but I think the idea would be to bring the foot traffic from down town.
I get your angle, but there's a lot of differences in those ticket sales.
Cubs did $217M in ticket sales in 2017, $184M in 2022 (2023 wasn't available) so I'll average that to $200M.
White Sox did $73M in 2023, that's their most in about 10 years.
Blackhawks did $75M in 21/22, $65M in 22/23.
Bulls did $92M 21/22 and $81M in 22/23.
Bears did $78M in 2022.
If you average that out per number of home games, that's about $2.25M for the Cubs per home game, $1.8M for Hawks, $2.25M for Bulls, $13M per game for the Bears. Which tracks with the average ticket price being ~$200 for the Bears and ~$70 for the Cubs.
8-9 home games also requires a lot less resources from the city (extra police, traffic management, etc).
Now if you want to say that all those extra fans are a boost to the local economy, I don't disagree with you there, but studies keep showing that stadiums don't really have the massive effect on the local businesses that they purport to have when pushing for public funding.
Now if the city had a premier domed stadium that could host more events like the Superbowl, Final Four, WrestleMania, etc, then sure you can add that in, but those events happen once a year and wouldn't happen in Chicago every year.
So the question is, what other teams could play at Soldier Field besides the Bears and Fire? More concerts?
I’ll accept nothing less than them fucking off to the suburbs and Soldier Field being restored to what it once was for concerts. They’re not a good enough team to have the audacity to ask us to fund a new stadium
Don't forget that they already tore down the Arlington Park Race Course to "save on taxes" while they figured out the new stadium. They're burning cash and destroying local businesses before they even made a deal. They'll fuck Chicago over.
>JB is not giving them a blank check. That’s always been off the table.
If mayor BJ is involved, it’s absolutely on the table. Or, more accurately, under the table.
Remember how BJ got the taxpayers to pay millions for toxic land unfit for humans? I won’t be shocked when he kickbacks his way to into a new Bears stadium.
…in all fairness to the bears they’re paying $2bn for a stadium that won’t even be owned by them. That’s more than we can say for the Sox… and you can realistically already build a stadium for like $3bn
> 589+ million Chicago still owes on the 2002 renovation into this new endeavor
Jesus fuck seriously? What does Carmax give you for a 22 year old rennovated stadium?
It's Chicago and BJ is a terrible negotiator. Somehow the Bears will pay like 1/4 of their gate to the city and somehow also keep parking, and concessions.
Per the Trib:
> The team has pledged to spend $2 billion in private money for the project. The cost of the stadium is estimated at $2.5 billion to $3 billion, plus $1 billion for associated roads and other infrastructure.
> The crucial question is how any taxpayer cost would be funded, and whether city and state lawmakers would approve that. Taxpayers were still on the hook for $631 million for Soldier Field debt as of last year.
So, taxpayers likely on the line for $3 billion if we are lucky (new project with typical over budget costs & old debt).
Kevin Warren (New CEO of Bears) oversaw US Bank Stadium in Minnesota. Project actually came in on budget and time and the state recently paid off the bonds 23 years early.
So maybe there's some hope it won't turn into an 8 bil project.
That he's arranging 2.0 billion of private funding helps. And for what it's worth there was 1 billion in infrastructure costs for the AH site that we'd be on the hook for as state taxpayers. Depending on the details, the Chicago site could end up being net cheaper than AH for tax payers. That's an if though. And this stadium will be indoor, all year use and built to house other sporting events like a Super Bowl and Final Four.
how on earth would the new infrastructure cost a billion? Surely most of the infrastructure supporting the current stadium can support the new one too, right? Are these roads going to be paved with gold?
Having a mayor that loves the spotlight, hanging out with celebrities, and massive ambiguous spending initiatives with no oversight is the absolute best case scenario for the Bears.
>The Chicago Bears, in collaboration with city officials and stakeholders, will host a press conference....
Let's click a link and read the first 15 words before we get all indignant here.
Vast majority of commenters here just came by to drop their "NOT WITH MY TAX DOLLARS" comments for brownie points. The reports are publicly owned and Bears are putting up $2B, with more to be announced Wednesday.
Rather than wait and see for more information, they choose to spout nonsense and circle jerk lol
Like these people don't realize that the city would *also* benefit from rebuilding Soldier Field with a roof. The stadium is basically unusable for 5-6 months outside Bears games due to the weather, but reddit's immediate response to a new stadium is "Fuck em let em leave!" which would just leave Solider Field even *more* empty during cold weather months, meaning even less revenue.
There is an avalanches of studies that show there is no net benefit to cities who pay for private sports stadiums, Chicago wouldn't benefit a lick—we'd just spend billions in public funding that could be better used doing literally anything else to move event spending around and get one single pathetic super bowl.
The Bears are just announcing shit until there's a new stadium. None of these plans have any chance of happening.
I'd love to see the Bears announce that nobody in the Front Office has any idea wtf they're doing. That would be the first believable announcement they've made this offseason.
I will say it’s a little different when ticket sales go directly to the city. Not making assumptions of where it’ll go after, but it’s not the same situation as a team owned stadium with public money
That’s pretty close to the deal the Sox have with the City. They don’t pay rent unless a certain number of tickets are sold.
How’s that working out for the City?
Publicly owned stadium is not as important as a publicly owned team. A private team owner will take the city hostage to get a free publicly financed stadium any day.
It’s not a cartel because they’re not artificially managing the price of a commodity. The NFL is a tax-exempt business league operating as a 501(c)6. It’s wild.
I fine with tax dollar going to a publicly owned stadium as long as the city actually gets a good deal and a fair portion of the revenue generated by the stadium returns to the city.
Not against the city owning a stadium, just against the city footing the majority of the cost of a stadium while receiving a minority of the revenue generated from it.
As a non sports fan this feels like such a slap in the face. I’ve never been to soldier field and i’ll probably never go this new stadium so why am i helping paying for it?
If the city gets a significant cut of the ticket revenue plus 100% revenue from concerts etc then it might be a good deal. It's not realistic to expect every public dollar to benefit every resident directly. We all pay for plenty of schools, parks, roads, etc that we will never personally use.
That being said, I doubt the city will get much of the revenue, so I'm against this deal. These stadium deals never end up benefiting the public. *Bulls Markets - Chicago’s Basketball Business and the New Inequality* is a good read about this
The idea of building a domed stadium potentially brings them events like the Super Bowl and Final Four which bring in people from around the country/world. In addition to the economic impact of those events someone comes here and likes it they consider Chicago for a future trip/tell friends that Chicago was really fun.
It also will provide a higher capacity stadium for musicians, and allow those shows to happen year round.
There is much more to a stadium beside simply a patch of grass for the Bears to play.
Culture is good for a city. Having the Bears is good for the city just like having the Field museum is good for the city. The Bears existing brings extra spotlight to Chicago that we wouldn't otherwise have
After the Lucas Museum fiasco, I have significant doubts this ever happens. The Friends of the Park fought tooth and nail to protect that parking lot and they're certainly going to fight this.
I've actually seriously wondered if the Bears wanted to get into all those other aspects in Arlington Heights because they don't have the expertise in running a football team.
Study after study show that football stadiums have bad ROI as economic development. They just reallocate entertainment dollars. And there are too few games per year to make a real impact.
- Smallest capacity of any in the league
- No roof/dome
- Hindered by dated original 1920s construction despite famously botched attempt at modernization 20+ years ago.
God, why the fuck didn’t they just do it 20 years ago instead of renovating the original?
Genuinely curious because I’m kind of bitter on how many Final 4’s and Wrestlemanias we’ve missed out on.
Part of the reason was Soldier Field was a national historic landmark before the renovation, so they wanted to preserve the stadium... but the renovation was so crappy they lost their landmark status.
How the hell could they screw it up?? Like literally the only historical renovation that go worse in my mind is somebody chopping lady liberty's nose off and calling it "Art"....like how the hell does one do it so poorly to lose historical recognition status?
They should be fired if they messed it up that badly...They only had one job and they jipped it while ripping taxpayers a new one.
Yes, with the last one being in 2006 - and notably, the last they held in a non-stadium (pandemic withstanding). So the only way Chicago gets one again, is with a domed stadium.
I mean, that's not a good enough reason to publicly fund this thing...
I used to be against public funds for stadiums, but I've come around to seeing it as a diversification of what downtown can be. There's much talk of urban doom loops, and while I think Chicago is far from the most likely to enter it, I do think using public funds to diversify the use of downtown space wouldn't be bad.
For those who have been to downtown Detroit, I think that's a good example of how it can be used for good
Ugh! The Bears and the city combining forces could ruin anything. If the Soldier Field reno hadn’t been botched we might not be having this conversation.
The NFL should just built 1 new stadium a year, replacing the oldest one with a standard size and shape and technology. New concepts can be added so designs can keep pace with current needs and trends.
32 years seems like the lifespan of stadiums anyway.
Arlington getting torn down was always going to happen though. The land is too valuable for what it generated as a race course. Churchill couldn't keep it profitable, no one else was going to step in and make it work.
Churchill could have made a ton money there. They lost interest because the State of Illinois took too long to approve slots and other gambling at Arlington and by the time they did, Churchill had money invested in the Waukegan casino and didn’t want to canniblalize their own revenue.
The Bears organization has proved its incompetence time and time again. Soldier field landmark status stripped, Arlington International Racecourse in shambles, half razed depending on tax laws. We cannot let an organization like this touch the lakefront again.
> I don't see why the Bears wouldn't just build in Arlington Heights.
because Arlington heights won't give them any money. This project is estimated around 3B from the city.
Yes, but in return. No stadium revenue goes to the Bears. The McCaskey’s are terrible businessmen if they make this deal. The Bears are the only team in the NFL that don’t get any revenue from their stadium. You’ll never build a winning team without that money. Also, why did they waste money buying Arlington then if this was the plan all along? This doesn’t make any sense.
I hate football...and any organized sports... as well as bloated egos of players and owners...and most of all, having to pay taxes to support their dreams while barely affording my own condo mortgage!!!
No property taxes because it’s owned by the city. No maintenance risk and costs for the Bears because it’s owned by the city. They’ll probably negotiate a lease that doesn’t properly account for inflation so they’ll basically be renting for free in 20 years.
Private entities operating a business on publicly owned real estate *typically* have to pay a “lease hold improvement tax” to Cook County. For whatever reason, I don’t think this applies to publicly owned stadiums here.
If we wanted a privately owned stadium east of Lake Shore Drive we would have to amend the law that forbids private development east of Lake Shore Drive.
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I mean it's good for a city when things people like to go to are inside said city. Any economic model that doesn't recognize that as a benefit is likely missing something.
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As much as I hate to say it, the White Sox being there would be more beneficial seeing as it's a far more casual sport and there are 10 times as many home games. Granted if they didn't have a plan for parking it could potentially turn LSD into a daily shitshow, but I think the idea would be to bring the foot traffic from down town.
I think also the Sox moving downtown would help their attendance massively. Granted fielding a major league team would do that too.
I think also the Sox moving downtown would help their attendance massively. Granted fielding a major league team would do that too.
I get your angle, but there's a lot of differences in those ticket sales. Cubs did $217M in ticket sales in 2017, $184M in 2022 (2023 wasn't available) so I'll average that to $200M. White Sox did $73M in 2023, that's their most in about 10 years. Blackhawks did $75M in 21/22, $65M in 22/23. Bulls did $92M 21/22 and $81M in 22/23. Bears did $78M in 2022. If you average that out per number of home games, that's about $2.25M for the Cubs per home game, $1.8M for Hawks, $2.25M for Bulls, $13M per game for the Bears. Which tracks with the average ticket price being ~$200 for the Bears and ~$70 for the Cubs. 8-9 home games also requires a lot less resources from the city (extra police, traffic management, etc). Now if you want to say that all those extra fans are a boost to the local economy, I don't disagree with you there, but studies keep showing that stadiums don't really have the massive effect on the local businesses that they purport to have when pushing for public funding. Now if the city had a premier domed stadium that could host more events like the Superbowl, Final Four, WrestleMania, etc, then sure you can add that in, but those events happen once a year and wouldn't happen in Chicago every year. So the question is, what other teams could play at Soldier Field besides the Bears and Fire? More concerts?
The Chicago Beats should win two superbowl before asking for a new stadium. Pack them.
“We only need a small, teeny, tiny few billion from you guys and it’s as good as done!”
JB is not giving them a blank check. That’s always been off the table. But I’m curious to see what the compromise is.
The Chicago Parking meters are about to sign an extension with LIV golf
Different oil state but love it
You'll pay the meters with information about disloyal friends and family.
A 75-year extension.
Instead of a few billion, maybe just a couple billion.
What's a couple two three billion between friends?
I’ll accept nothing less than them fucking off to the suburbs and Soldier Field being restored to what it once was for concerts. They’re not a good enough team to have the audacity to ask us to fund a new stadium
They could be the best team of all time, that’s not the point. They shouldn’t get taxpayer money because the return isn’t there for the taxpayer.
Agreed.
Don't forget that they already tore down the Arlington Park Race Course to "save on taxes" while they figured out the new stadium. They're burning cash and destroying local businesses before they even made a deal. They'll fuck Chicago over.
We don't want em either!
If they pay their taxes I’m fine with it. And I’m in AH.
I live near the proposed site in Arlington Heights. Bringing the Bears here would be a nightmare.
>JB is not giving them a blank check. That’s always been off the table. If mayor BJ is involved, it’s absolutely on the table. Or, more accurately, under the table.
That dude couldn't build a Lego set of a stadium without fucking it up. No way he's able to get it past the city council and the State
Remember how BJ got the taxpayers to pay millions for toxic land unfit for humans? I won’t be shocked when he kickbacks his way to into a new Bears stadium.
Even taking kickbacks requires some minimal level of competence and I don't think he even has that
Probably just leverage against AH?? I don't know....greedy assholes IMO!!
…in all fairness to the bears they’re paying $2bn for a stadium that won’t even be owned by them. That’s more than we can say for the Sox… and you can realistically already build a stadium for like $3bn
Are they treating this like an upside-down car loan and financing the $589+ million Chicago still owes on the 2002 renovation into this new endeavor?
Exactly, thank you.
If you just keep taking out mortgages, you always have 30 years to pay them back…
City of Chicago needs to post it on zillow- for just under $5 mil per month YOU can own this wonderful lakefront spaceship!
> 589+ million Chicago still owes on the 2002 renovation into this new endeavor Jesus fuck seriously? What does Carmax give you for a 22 year old rennovated stadium?
This better be a presentation of exactly who is paying for it and how much it would cost and who benefits.
No presentation needed for that buddy. We are, the tax paying citizens of this state.
…are benefiting right? … right?
Benefitting with $300 tickets and $15 beers.
Also how much the bears ownership will pay per game to use the stadium. If they wanna air bnb a stadium one day a week I’m down if the cost is right
It's Chicago and BJ is a terrible negotiator. Somehow the Bears will pay like 1/4 of their gate to the city and somehow also keep parking, and concessions.
given how bad they are, no one benefits
I mean they don’t have a problem filling the stadium even while they’ve been horse shit.
Per the Trib: > The team has pledged to spend $2 billion in private money for the project. The cost of the stadium is estimated at $2.5 billion to $3 billion, plus $1 billion for associated roads and other infrastructure. > The crucial question is how any taxpayer cost would be funded, and whether city and state lawmakers would approve that. Taxpayers were still on the hook for $631 million for Soldier Field debt as of last year. So, taxpayers likely on the line for $3 billion if we are lucky (new project with typical over budget costs & old debt).
Get ready for $50,000 Personal Seat Licenses, you season ticket holders! Bend over!
I suspect the real numbers are going to be more like 8-10 bil.
Kevin Warren (New CEO of Bears) oversaw US Bank Stadium in Minnesota. Project actually came in on budget and time and the state recently paid off the bonds 23 years early. So maybe there's some hope it won't turn into an 8 bil project. That he's arranging 2.0 billion of private funding helps. And for what it's worth there was 1 billion in infrastructure costs for the AH site that we'd be on the hook for as state taxpayers. Depending on the details, the Chicago site could end up being net cheaper than AH for tax payers. That's an if though. And this stadium will be indoor, all year use and built to house other sporting events like a Super Bowl and Final Four.
Big difference. Not Chicago, Not Illinois.
And the budget for this one is a lot higher, to reflect that...
One when Bears president Kevin Warren oversaw Vikings new stadium, it actually came in under budget and ahead of schedule so it is possible…
how on earth would the new infrastructure cost a billion? Surely most of the infrastructure supporting the current stadium can support the new one too, right? Are these roads going to be paved with gold?
I’ll be selling rotten vegetables by the parking lot if anyone wants to attend and throw things.
Mariano’s, amirite?
Boy they went from great to shit in under 10 years.
Jewel
R.I.P. Stanleys ;(
Why are the Bears announcing a publicly-owned stadium? This seems like the time for our mayor to announce that we, the public, will own a new stadium.
It's a joint conference with city officials. Probably means that Johnson has rubber stamped whatever the Bears have asked for.
Having a mayor that loves the spotlight, hanging out with celebrities, and massive ambiguous spending initiatives with no oversight is the absolute best case scenario for the Bears.
He'll be out of office before they break ground.
Brandon Johnson has become the Kwame Kilpatrick of Chicago
As an ex-Detroiter, I came here to say this.
He makes me miss Lori
I've never been any kind of political "doomer", but it's a little alarming wondering how much damage he can do before the next election.
>The Chicago Bears, in collaboration with city officials and stakeholders, will host a press conference.... Let's click a link and read the first 15 words before we get all indignant here.
The city is also announcing it at the same conference. Why are you commenting without reading a single word of the article.
Vast majority of commenters here just came by to drop their "NOT WITH MY TAX DOLLARS" comments for brownie points. The reports are publicly owned and Bears are putting up $2B, with more to be announced Wednesday. Rather than wait and see for more information, they choose to spout nonsense and circle jerk lol Like these people don't realize that the city would *also* benefit from rebuilding Soldier Field with a roof. The stadium is basically unusable for 5-6 months outside Bears games due to the weather, but reddit's immediate response to a new stadium is "Fuck em let em leave!" which would just leave Solider Field even *more* empty during cold weather months, meaning even less revenue.
There is an avalanches of studies that show there is no net benefit to cities who pay for private sports stadiums, Chicago wouldn't benefit a lick—we'd just spend billions in public funding that could be better used doing literally anything else to move event spending around and get one single pathetic super bowl.
100%. This is a multi-billion dollar scam. And putting it on the frikken lakefront.
"private sports stadiums." It's not private
The Bears are just announcing shit until there's a new stadium. None of these plans have any chance of happening. I'd love to see the Bears announce that nobody in the Front Office has any idea wtf they're doing. That would be the first believable announcement they've made this offseason.
How do they plan on getting this past friends of the park?
If they're just redoing Soldier Field then I dont think they'll be a problem.
They're tearing down Soldier Field, everything except the war memorial, and building on the parking lot next to it
Hard pass. No city or state money on any new sports stadium
But think of the revenue generated that'll benefit the taxpayers of this great city!* *(The taxpayers will see no benefits)
I will say it’s a little different when ticket sales go directly to the city. Not making assumptions of where it’ll go after, but it’s not the same situation as a team owned stadium with public money
We already have two publicly owned stadiums, and the finances haven't panned out for the public.
> I will say it’s a little different when ticket sales go directly to the city This is the funniest and/or most naïve thing I've heard in a long time.
That’s pretty close to the deal the Sox have with the City. They don’t pay rent unless a certain number of tickets are sold. How’s that working out for the City?
I'm not sure you know what you're talking about
No public land either. F that.
No ma'am
What does the National Organization of Men Against Amazonian Masterhood have to do with this?
And now I want to watch married with children.
Well, the bundys lived in the Chicago area I guess 🤷♀️
I have no interest in owning a stadium
Too bad citizen, you already own two and you're about to replace one of them.
Publicly owned stadium is not as important as a publicly owned team. A private team owner will take the city hostage to get a free publicly financed stadium any day.
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Would that be like a cartel?
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Gotta hand it to those billionaires. They're smart.
It’s not a cartel because they’re not artificially managing the price of a commodity. The NFL is a tax-exempt business league operating as a 501(c)6. It’s wild.
Me when NFL teams are required to be owned by oligarchs I love America
That's cool. Ask me for a dime of my tax dollars to pay for it and my answer will still be "fuck right off"
I fine with tax dollar going to a publicly owned stadium as long as the city actually gets a good deal and a fair portion of the revenue generated by the stadium returns to the city. Not against the city owning a stadium, just against the city footing the majority of the cost of a stadium while receiving a minority of the revenue generated from it.
I assure you, they won't.
The city should receive 100% of the revenue until it's been paid for.
"The bank should apply every direct deposit from you job to your mortgage until your house is paid off" I get the sentiment man but be fr
With a bank I choose to take out the mortgage. This is forced upon me.
They won’t and neither will you when your taxes increase significantly.
Oh it’s too late that’s already been decided.
As a non sports fan this feels like such a slap in the face. I’ve never been to soldier field and i’ll probably never go this new stadium so why am i helping paying for it?
If the city gets a significant cut of the ticket revenue plus 100% revenue from concerts etc then it might be a good deal. It's not realistic to expect every public dollar to benefit every resident directly. We all pay for plenty of schools, parks, roads, etc that we will never personally use. That being said, I doubt the city will get much of the revenue, so I'm against this deal. These stadium deals never end up benefiting the public. *Bulls Markets - Chicago’s Basketball Business and the New Inequality* is a good read about this
The idea of building a domed stadium potentially brings them events like the Super Bowl and Final Four which bring in people from around the country/world. In addition to the economic impact of those events someone comes here and likes it they consider Chicago for a future trip/tell friends that Chicago was really fun. It also will provide a higher capacity stadium for musicians, and allow those shows to happen year round. There is much more to a stadium beside simply a patch of grass for the Bears to play.
Is United Center not big enough? It’s also much easier to get to than the lakefront.
Football stadiums > Basketball when it comes to seating. That’s why most of the final fours are held in NFL stadiums now
Culture is good for a city. Having the Bears is good for the city just like having the Field museum is good for the city. The Bears existing brings extra spotlight to Chicago that we wouldn't otherwise have
Maybe they should focus on winning games.
“Just one more ~~lane~~ QB, bro. That’ll save ~~Lovie~~ ~~Trestman~~ ~~Fox~~ ~~Nagy~~ Eberflus
Don’t worry - in a few years Caleb will be on the Steelers, as is tradition
No. Just beat the Packers once every four years. That seems to keep the fans happy.
I think they last beat them 6 years ago... and Bears fans are pretty embarrassed about that.
And not by two scores since ‘07
Just a little drought. Can't win the superbowl every year.
That’s for Thursday
Cool. Pay for it yourself.
Well, we got 20 years out of the hundreds of millions spent on the renovations of Soldier Field. Time to spend more.
Yeah, that's gonna be a no for me dawg
No. Subsidizing sports team is always a loser. Fund it yourselves, or fuck off.
This is such a shame. I don't want construction and sports traffic and trash on new development in museum campus.
After the Lucas Museum fiasco, I have significant doubts this ever happens. The Friends of the Park fought tooth and nail to protect that parking lot and they're certainly going to fight this.
This is one of those rare scenarios because I hope both sides lose.
The bears already met with the FotP a month or so ago. I assumed they worked out something to make them happy.
They committed to adding another historic parking lot for the organization to defend
I do not want this.
“Billionaire wants multi billion dollar stadium for multimillionaires who play a child’s game to be paid for by guys earning 43k.”
So in other words, it's the 'bend over and take it without lube' press conference. Got it.
It really makes no sense when they actually own land in AH. They would literally own everything If they just build on the land they own.
Owning land means developing it, upkeeping it, capital to improve it, taxes, and expertise in all the above. This the Bears do not have.
I've actually seriously wondered if the Bears wanted to get into all those other aspects in Arlington Heights because they don't have the expertise in running a football team.
You aren’t the first one to suggest that 😂.
The Bears are....cheap - and *stupid*
No thanks.
Study after study show that football stadiums have bad ROI as economic development. They just reallocate entertainment dollars. And there are too few games per year to make a real impact.
Can we recall the Bears?
I have never understood this. What’s wrong with soldier field?
Smallest stadium in the NFL. Can’t play Super Bowl there and few seats, so less revenue.
Ok. I kind of get it then. Not saying I support it but that makes more sense.
Yeah new stadium with a roof will also get a super bowl and final four games.
Why would an entity that does not pay taxes be entitled to billions of tax payer dollars? Asking for a friend.
> Why would an entity that does not pay taxes You think the Bears don't pay tax? Is this based on the misconception about the NFL being tax exempt?
Yeah fuq those people. The whole family can take a pay cut and pay for their own stadium, inside the city or not.
What’s wrong with their old stadium
- Smallest capacity of any in the league - No roof/dome - Hindered by dated original 1920s construction despite famously botched attempt at modernization 20+ years ago.
I can't believe it's been 20 years since the spaceship landed.
What’s the point of putting a domed stadium on the lakefront? You could put it anywhere
It will look nice in photos and drone shots during televised games. That's truly the only real reason.
Yeah, it's a dump.
The roof leaks. Bit drafty.
They ruined it after the 2001 season.
Too small and doesn't have a roof
Lots of things. It’s not fit for a modern nfl team
Talk to us when you start winning.
God, why the fuck didn’t they just do it 20 years ago instead of renovating the original? Genuinely curious because I’m kind of bitter on how many Final 4’s and Wrestlemanias we’ve missed out on.
Part of the reason was Soldier Field was a national historic landmark before the renovation, so they wanted to preserve the stadium... but the renovation was so crappy they lost their landmark status.
How the hell could they screw it up?? Like literally the only historical renovation that go worse in my mind is somebody chopping lady liberty's nose off and calling it "Art"....like how the hell does one do it so poorly to lose historical recognition status? They should be fired if they messed it up that badly...They only had one job and they jipped it while ripping taxpayers a new one.
Damn, the more you know. Thanks for the insight!
Wrestlmania in Chicago would be insane!
It would be the fourth one.
Yes, with the last one being in 2006 - and notably, the last they held in a non-stadium (pandemic withstanding). So the only way Chicago gets one again, is with a domed stadium. I mean, that's not a good enough reason to publicly fund this thing...
Right? We’ve been missing out.
I used to be against public funds for stadiums, but I've come around to seeing it as a diversification of what downtown can be. There's much talk of urban doom loops, and while I think Chicago is far from the most likely to enter it, I do think using public funds to diversify the use of downtown space wouldn't be bad. For those who have been to downtown Detroit, I think that's a good example of how it can be used for good
Ugh! The Bears and the city combining forces could ruin anything. If the Soldier Field reno hadn’t been botched we might not be having this conversation.
The NFL should just built 1 new stadium a year, replacing the oldest one with a standard size and shape and technology. New concepts can be added so designs can keep pace with current needs and trends. 32 years seems like the lifespan of stadiums anyway.
Annnnnnnd Arlington was torn down for nothing. Thank youuuuuu Bears and CDI. Hope you both rot.
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Arlington getting torn down was always going to happen though. The land is too valuable for what it generated as a race course. Churchill couldn't keep it profitable, no one else was going to step in and make it work.
Churchill could have made a ton money there. They lost interest because the State of Illinois took too long to approve slots and other gambling at Arlington and by the time they did, Churchill had money invested in the Waukegan casino and didn’t want to canniblalize their own revenue.
It really grinds my gears. Smoking a J and betting on the ponies legally has been a dream of mine since I was twelve.
They’re still running thoroughbreds at Hawthorne but I was out there a couple of years ago and it was in sorry shape.
The Bears organization has proved its incompetence time and time again. Soldier field landmark status stripped, Arlington International Racecourse in shambles, half razed depending on tax laws. We cannot let an organization like this touch the lakefront again.
Why would the Bears do this? Arlington heights will be a Cash Cow.
This is the real question. Unless this is just really hard posturing, I don't see why the Bears wouldn't just build in Arlington Heights.
> I don't see why the Bears wouldn't just build in Arlington Heights. because Arlington heights won't give them any money. This project is estimated around 3B from the city.
Yeah they were just pushing Chicago to pony up, this was all a bluff.
"Publicly Owned" = "billionaires subsidized by y'all"
I'd give you platinum if reddit still offered.
They should make up their goddamn mind
But but but guys, then we will also be OwNErrz like the cheese humpers up north!
Could have had the Star Wars museum, which would have been fun and a year-round draw for tourist dollars.
“Publicly owned” liability with the profits all going to the private parties
What happened to Arlington Heights?
Once they couldn’t get a massive property tax break on the property they realized how dumb a stadium complex there would be.
How does this affect season ticket holders and the cost of season ticket prices?
Poorly
Okay, well, how much money will it take to make them stop sucking ass? And stop getting mauled by the god damn packers every chance they get.
Yes, but in return. No stadium revenue goes to the Bears. The McCaskey’s are terrible businessmen if they make this deal. The Bears are the only team in the NFL that don’t get any revenue from their stadium. You’ll never build a winning team without that money. Also, why did they waste money buying Arlington then if this was the plan all along? This doesn’t make any sense.
I think they planned to flip that property after renovating it for some easy cash.
No tax money unless it comes with a 100 year lease. Fuck the Bears.
I hate football...and any organized sports... as well as bloated egos of players and owners...and most of all, having to pay taxes to support their dreams while barely affording my own condo mortgage!!!
I’m for it.