CHICAGO — The Chicago Bears are expected to unveil a multi-billion-dollar plan for a new lakefront stadium in the City of Chicago on Wednesday, and according to a new report in the Chicago Tribune, that plan will ask taxpayers to kick in about half of the costs to build the new stadium.
Per the Tribune’s reporting, sources spoke to the news outlet on conditions of anonymity, telling them the plan is estimated to cost $4.6 billion to execute, with $3.2 billion directed toward building the new stadium itself, and another $1.4 billion dedicated to infrastructure improvements around and outside the stadium.
Sources told the Tribune the Bears plan to put forward $2.3 billion in private capital, which would include some financing coming from the National Football League, But the Bears plan will also ask for $2.3 billion in public financing, along with refinancing outstanding debt from previous publicly-financed stadium projects for the Bears at Soldier Field, and the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Taxpayers would be charged with paying for the proposed infrastructure improvements to the new stadium, as well as about $1 billion in new borrowing to finance the new stadium being built south of Solder Field, according to the Tribune’s sources.
Among other interesting tidbits, Tribune sources said some of the new borrowing would be used to roll over existing stadium debts that would be paid off in 40 years (pending legislative approval), but the new borrowing and corresponding debt wouldn’t call for a raise in the 2% hotel revenue tax that already goes toward the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority and debts for previous stadium renovation projects at Soldier Field and GRF.
On top of the large ask in public money, the Tribune’s reporting also points toward multiple dubious hurdles for the Bears to overcome and make a new stadium along the lakefront a reality.
The 2% hotel revenue tax has fallen flat on its face, leaving taxpayers with more than half-a-billion dollars to make up for in existing debt at the Bears and White Sox’s current homes, due mostly to the COVID-19 pandemic’s heavy and wide-reaching effects on Chicago’s hotel and tourism industry.
Legislators and government officials across the State of Illinois have been lukewarm, at best, toward proposals that involve heavy public money investment in privately-owned sports stadium projects, with Governor JB Pritzker being among them.
40th Ward Alderman Andre Vasquez offered the following take after learning of the Bears alleged plans to propose for more than $2 billion in public money Wednesday:
“The Bears got a better chance winning an NBA Championship,” Vasquez said. “Not. Gonna. Happen.”
Questions also surround the legality of whether the Bears can build on Soldier Fields’ current lakefront site, which is protected by a city ordinance that calls for public use of the lakefront.
Friends of the Park (FOTP), a non-profit organization who has opposed large-scale developments along the lakefront in the past, could put up a legal battle that sinks the Bears stadium plans. Back in 2016, FOTP successfully ousted Star Wars creator George Lucas from plans to build a movie art museum on the same site.
There’s also the situation playing out around the Bally’s Casino development, where the city moved forward with the development proposal, only to find the project is already being scaled back and is experiencing funding issues, according to the Tribune.
Civic Federation President Joe Ferguson told the Tribune in a recent interview that the Bears and White Sox need to come together and show vetted cost and revenue projections to help push lawmakers toward making a deal.
“Everybody wants to keep the teams (in the city) — the question is, on what terms?” Ferguson told the Tribune. “There’s not a lot of information necessary to say one of these (plans) actually is viable, or whether it’s a way to take us to the cleaners when we’re already carrying hundreds of millions of dollars of debt for the last time we did something like this.”
To read the full article from the Tribune, follow this link: chicagotribune.com
