The Chicago Bears have been trying to make headway in their push for a downtown stadium for over a year now. Team president Kevin Warren has remained steadfast that this is his goal. He believes progress is being made. It is only a matter of reaching common ground with the state government over public funding. Thus far, Governor J.B. Pritzker has stonewalled their efforts at every turn. However, it was hoped the passing of election season would make people more open to negotiations.
Based on recent updates, it doesn’t seem as if the state is taking them seriously. In fact, one of their members had no qualms about trolling the Bears. Bob Morgan, an Illinois state representative, introduced a bill called the BEARS Act. According to Shia Kapos of Politico, this would tie any idea of public funding for a sports team to their performance in games. Undoubtedly, that is a direct shot at the Bears’ struggles over the past several years.
Insulting the Chicago Bears shouldn’t be done lightly.
Former mayor Lori Lightfoot chose to do that once it became clear the team intended to start the process of finding a new stadium. She told them to focus more on beating the Packers. By the time she realized they were serious, it was too late. She came off looking weak in her inability to handle the situation, eventually resulting in her getting voted out of office. The thing is, the Chicago Bears are always a public draw. Fans attend their games and spend lots of money even when the team is struggling. Dismissing them in such a rude fashion might be funny now, but it’s had a way of coming back around to bite people in the end. If the Bears end up improving this coming season, these shots taken at them won’t be viewed in such a positive light for long.
If I were governor, I would give the McCaskeys a billion dollars in cold, hard cash if CHI wins the Super Bowl next year, and I would use civil asset forfeiture to take possession of the franchise if it does not.
Bears winning or losing doesn’t change the fact that public funds for stadiums is a terrible investment. Ugly or not, wealthy or not, democrat or republican, it’s the right decision to not fund billionaires in their quest to keep up with the Joneses. The jobs created are mostly part time min wage servant industry. Every study over the last 50 years screams to not do this. There is nothing about Sco-Fi stadium that is worth $8 billion. Northwestern is building a great stadium for about 1 billion. No municipality should fund these public money disasters. Filling the stadium doesn’t pay… Read more »
This isn’t “trolling.” It’s justified. You ask us for funding. We ask you to invest in your product to PROVE we aren’t throwing our money away. Only successful ventures will have a significant ROI. Everything else is an albatross around the neck of investors.
And this is not a “this year” issue. It is an ongoing issue going forward for decades.
If I were Illinois, I would have whatever money is left on the bonds payable either in investment in the Bears, or repayment of the bond BY the Bears. (In other words, a incrementally forgivable loan.)
Could be the final nail George uses to build in Arlington Heights and cut the revenue stream to Chicago severely and also not to mention the lost revenues to the state when they don’t require any state funding to build the stadium in Arlington Heights…just the loss of interest on state backed loans alone would be major deficit for the state coiffeurs!
If that’s how Illinois governor feel, maybe the Bears should move to Indiana. Gary could use the influx of income. Then the white Sox and the Cubs could use their stadium as well. I sure am glad I moved out of that backwards, demoncratic state.