Chicago Bears Football Wants New Statdium
FEATUREDSPORTS
Chicago Bears told to 'pay for their own damn stadium' after proposal that would have the taxpayers footing $2 billion
Gov. J.B. Pritzker, D-Ill. and financial experts are expressing skepticism at the possibility of taxpayer money being used to pay for the Chicago Bears’ proposed new stadium.
There has been hesitation towards the NFL franchise’s plans to spend $4.6 billion on building a new enclosed stadium along with an improved lakefront area, half of which would be paid by the state’s taxpayers.
The stadium itself would cost $3.2 billion to build, with another $1.4 billion in proposed infrastructure improvements. And, this sounds like a great deal for the Illinois taxpayers says Chicago mayor.
The Chicago Bears reportedly will pledge $2.3 billion, which includes funds from the NFL.
But the Bears’ plan includes an additional $2.3 billion in public financing, along with refinancing outstanding debt for prior publicly financed stadium projects for the Bears and White Sox.
Taxpayers would reportedly pay for the infrastructure improvements as well as around $1 billion in "new borrowing" to pay for the stadium.
However, considering the cost and how much debt the state already is in over similar projects, the governor, state lawmakers and finance experts believe that the money would be better spent on other priorities. Can we quote these lawmakers by name? Of course not..
"It's very important to me with all that the state needs to accomplish that we think about what the priorities are. There are a lot of priorities that the state has, and I'm not sure that is among the highest priorities for taxpayers," the governor said during a recent press conference. Wink, wink..
State Senate President Don Harmon, D, sided with Pritzker, the Courier reported. Reason for the agreement is because Senator Harmon's district (which is not Cook county) would not benefit in any way from the graft..
"At first glance, more than $2 billion in private funding is better than zero and a more credible opening offer. But there's an obvious substantial gap remaining, and I echo the governor's skepticism," Harmon reportedly said.
State House Speaker Emanuel "Chris" Welch, D, said he doesn’t expect the proposal to get enough votes among state representatives to pass. Again it all depends on how many hands get greased..
Joe Ferguson, the president of the Civic Federation, a fiscal watchdog group, said that the proposal is expensive, especially considering how much debt the state is already in thanks to similar projects. Aha, this man has actually read some government documents..
"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," Ferguson stated. "I think Gov. Pritzker has spoken to this exactly right, with a real wariness about public funding of sports stadiums. We need to see reliable, thorough revenue projections for this before we can even open the conversation."
J.C. Bradbury, a sports economist, said that the money would be better spent on different projects or not spent by the taxpayers at all.
"The Bears aren’t going to leave one of the most iconic football markets in the country. Tell the Bears to pay for their own damn stadium, and if they don’t like it, to go jump in Lake Michigan," he said.
Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson reportedly expressed support for the project.
Johnson said the plan will "result in no new taxes on the residents of Chicago."
During a recent press conference at the Bears’ current home, Soldier Field, Chicago Bears President Kevin Warren proclaimed that he and the team are still pushing forward for the new stadium.
"We feel that the time is now. I mean, every year that we wait it's another $150 million to $200 million of increased costs," he said.
Nokie Says
C: So they want the family making $60k a year and barely able to keep his kids clothed and housed and can't afford to attend the games to pony up even more money to improve the facility that people making many millions of dollars a year and actually work in for 10 days a year. Yeah, that makes no sense except to those that benefit from the associated graft, paybacks, corruption and NFL players.
C: Why should the taxpayers give these overpaid millionaire crybabies athletes who won't stand for the American flag a cent?? They are all in for BLM, Antifa, wokeness, and destruction of the American way, but least of all, don't give a damn about the average Patriotic American Tax Payer!!
C: In order for an average family to attend a football game, you need to be in the upper middle class income earners. The upper middle class is often defined as the top 15% to 20% of Americans. Okay, we'll built this new stadium with all of the taxpayers' money for the 15% to 20% of Americans who could or would possibly attend a football game. So in reality it would be less than 15% to 20% because of that group, only a very small percentage actually give a Fluck about football..
C: Most studies find that building professional stadiums do not promote local employment or per capita income growth. Secondly, No recent facility appears to have earned anything approaching a reasonable return on investment.
C: All cities officials and their mayors want new stadiums to promote their so called accomplishments while in office. Thusly it strictly for the self serving interest of sorry arse officials. Also there is the fact that city officials get to select who gets the contracts, thus benefiting their supporters only.
C: What really annoys me is that the Chicago mayor has begged for more money from the federal government to give to the illegals. So, I say, who can afford a stadium when you have tens of thousands of freeloading illegals to support and you don't even have enough money for that?
C: Here's a good question here is, approximately how much tax revenue does the stadium generate each year? If it's enough to pay the loan off in a reasonable amount of time, then you might have a reasonable cause for a new stadium. But not a single city that has built a stadium for billionaire owners has generated enough tax revenue to justify the initial loan.
C: The game makes millionaires out of everyone in the game except the fans that support it. What is wrong with that picture. The billionaires that own the teams make all the money and on top of that get the big welfare government payouts.
C: Most likely the main reason they want to build a stadium outside of Chicago is due to the declining game attendance. People don't want to go downtown in some crime ridden Blue City where they have to risk their safety just to park their vehicle. I know I would NOT bring my family to downtown Chicago for any event!! It is not a choice a sensible, responsible family man would make. Putting your family's lives in danger for a football game!!
C: Let's look at it in another light. I don't attend football games nor watch them on TV. I don't own a business in Chicago. Where I work in Chicago has no direct or in-direct connection from any sports. Can you tell me how this is going to benefit me when my tax dollars are used to pay for this stadium??
C: Consider this:
Illinois' current debt is $65.09 billion
Chicago’s current pension debt is $33.9 Billion
Illinois is a fiscally irresponsible state
Chicago is a crime-ridden city
Chicago's law enforcement is not sufficiently budgeted
Chicago's school system is woefully inadequate, lacking financial support
So, how in the world can they even be considering financing a stadium on the backs of taxpayers??
C: I'm going to move to Chicago to start a business. I think the Illinois government will buy me a new building for my business and buy all the equipment I'll need for this business using tax payer money. Oh, wait, not possible because I'm not a billionaire...
