Bears stadium
Coverage of the Bears’ efforts to build a new home in the Chicago area.
Despite another cool reception from state lawmakers in their bid for help financing a new dome south of Soldier Field, team officials insisted they’re still making forward progress.
Longtime Bears fans were taken aback after the cost of ticket packages for some of them rose nearly 50% per game, even with one fewer game at Soldier Field.
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Gov. J.B. Pritzker needs to stand firm in the face of team’s demands for a new stadium.
With all the important priorities the state has to tackle, why should Springfield rush to help the billionaire McCaskey family build a football stadium? The answer: They shouldn’t. The arguments so far don’t convince us this project would truly benefit the public.
If these plans for new stadiums from the Bears, White Sox and Red Stars are going to have even a remote chance of passage, teams will have to drastically scale back their state asks and show some tangible benefits for state taxpayers.
Not a dollar of taxpayer money went to the renovation of Wrigley Field and its current reinvigorated neighborhood, one reader points out.
Latest Bears Stadium Updates
El gobernador J.B. Pritzker ha expresado en varias ocasiones su escepticismo sobre los planes de los Bears para el estadio, que incluyen subvenciones públicas. Este miércoles, el equipo se reúne con dos altos funcionarios de Pritzker.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker has repeatedly voiced skepticism over the Bears’ stadium plans, which include public subsidies. On Wednesday, the team will meet with two top Pritzker staffers.
The Bears put the figure at $4.7 billion. But a state official says the tally to taxpayers goes even higher when you include the cost of refinancing existing debt.
The vision laid out by the Bears on Wednesday included detailed renderings of Museum Campus upgrades, including the conversion of Soldier Field to public parkland. But all that work would be paid for by taxpayers, not the team.
The group that blocked George Lucas from building a museum on Soldier Field’s south parking lot says the stadium project could ultimately end up in court — even if filing another lawsuit is “not the first thing you want to do.”
In exchange for billions of dollars in public money, the public deserves an ownership stake in the franchises.
The city is willing to put private interests ahead of public benefit and cheer on a wrongheaded effort to build a massive domed stadium — that would be perfect for Arlington Heights — on Chicago’s lakefront.
The USC quarterback, whom the Bears are expected to pick first in the NFL draft here on Thursday night, was clear that he’s prepared to play in cold temperatures in the NFL.
The plans, according to the team, will include additional green and open space with access to the lakefront and the Museum Campus, which Bears President Kevin Warren called “the most attractive footprint in the world.”
Gov. J.B. Pritzker brushed aside the latest proposal, which includes more than $2 billion in private funds but still requires taxpayer subsidies, saying it “isn’t one that I think the taxpayers are interested in getting engaged in.”
Fans said they liked the new amenities and features in the $4.7 billion stadium proposal unveiled Wednesday, although some worried the south lakefront could become even more congested than it is now.
Two additional infrastructure phases that would “maximize the site” and bring “additional opportunities for publicly owned amenities” could bring taxpayers’ tab to $1.5 billion over about five years, according to the team.
The final project would turn the current Soldier Field site into a park-like area, but that wouldn’t necessitate playing home games elsewhere during construction.
We all love sports teams, but regular people don’t own the buildings or the land they frolic upon. We just pay homage to the teams — and to the power-laden who own them.
The Bears have hired political veteran Andrea Zopp to serve as a senior adviser on their legal team.
Gin Kilgore, acting executive director of Friends of the Parks, is not about to go along with what she called Bears President Kevin Warren’s “Buy now. This deal won’t last” sales pitch.
Frank Bilecki, executive director of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, said the Bears are eyeing the same portion of the hotel tax the White Sox hope to use to fund a new stadium in the South Loop.
Mayor Brandon Johnson did not commit to spending a specific amount of public money to lakefront infrastructure improvements, but vowed that whatever public money is invested, it must be committed to creating more housing and jobs and “a sustainable, clean economy.”
That the Bears can just diesel their way in, Bronko Nagurski-style, and attempt to set a sweeping agenda for the future of one of the world’s most iconic water frontages is more than a bit troubling.
Proposed referendum on November ballot could face opposition from Mayor Brandon Johnson, but he “should want what the people of Chicago want,” Pat Quinn said.
It was the latest declaration from the Bears that playing downtown — and not on the 326-acre property it bought in Arlington Heights — is their preferred course of action.
As the team shifts focus from Arlington Heights to a new stadium south of Soldier Field, its proposals seek major infrastructure upgrades around the Museum Campus.
The overture comes as the Bears’ focus has shifted from the former Arlington Park racetrack to a domed stadium on Chicago’s lakefront.
Based on what we’ve seen of the Bears plans so far, and given the lakefront’s civic importance, Mayor Johnson should steer the team to consider other locations in Chicago.