The Chicago Bears Arlington Heights stadium kerfuffle has always been about — well, about bears, but aside from that — property tax breaks. Team chair George Halas McCaskey kicked off the campaign to build a stadium on the site of the old Arlington Park racetrack by saying he wanted “property tax certainty” as part of any deal; when Cook County eventually assessed the value of the property the Bears paid $197 million for at, yes, $197 million, that was not the kind of certainty Bears execs were looking for. A settlement last week cut this year’s assessment to $95 million, but that could rise again next year, and McCaskey and company were not happy.
What to do? Enter the new mayor of the far western suburb of Naperville:
[Naperville Mayor Scott] Wehrli sent [Chicago Bears President and CEO Kevin] Warren a letter explaining his interest, noting that “the city would welcome the opportunity to review your business needs and our available properties.”
“We have several available or to-be-available sites that may fit the characteristics you are looking for in your future home,” the mayor said, in part, adding “…Being the home of the Chicago Bears would unlock tremendous economic benefits for our community.”
And on Friday, the day of a meeting with Mayor Wehrli, the Bears released a statement that said in part:
“The [Arlington Heights] property’s original assessment at five times the 2021 tax value, and the recent settlement with Churchill Downs for 2022 being three times higher, fails to reflect the property is not operational and not commercially viable in its current state. We will continue the ongoing demolition activity and work toward a path forward in Arlington Heights, but it is no longer our singular focus.”
No guaranteed stadium for you, Arlington Heights, not without tax breaks and infrastructure money! Instead, the Bears will be off down the road to (throws dart at map) Naperville, whose new mayor would be glad to see if he can find a 2br w eik with room for 50,000 guests.
We have seen this sort of thing before, of course, most recently with the Los Angeles Angels and their dalliances with first Tustin, then Long Beach, neither of which ultimately went anywhere — though it was never clear if either was meant to go anywhere beyond ramping up pressure for a stadium deal in Anaheim, which Angels owner Arte Moreno ultimately got before it fell apart thanks to that whole FBI bribery investigation thing. Which isn’t to say that a Bears stadium in Naperville is impossible, but right now it lacks a site or the money to pay for it or a traffic plan or anything other than a mayor willing to hold a meeting. So, that’s all fine, I’m sure there’s no way the media will overplay that—
Sigh. It’s so easy for savvy negotiators to create leverage when no one interrogates your press releases.
Naperville has nearly zero unemployment and zero poverty. Not sure what kind of economic benefits are left to unlock.
So the mayor’s constituents are telling him, “Let’s pay some guy a lot of money to come in and mess up our nice, tranquil suburb?”
That’s not likely.
Exactly. Although Naperville is far from tranquil. It’s usually the fastest growing city in Illinois. With top rated schools, and a bunch of corporate offices. None of which would be plussed up with a giant football stadium.
What site? Everything near I-88 is built out, get sued trying to put a stadium and 20,000 parking spaces in a forest preserve. It’s nearly 50 miles from the Bears facility in Lake Forest and da Bears fans with the most $$$. The best part is that IL-59 has been gridlocked for years, a Bears game would really be fun.
There’s a few vacant corporate office parks on I-88 that could be demolished (BP Corp) for a determined owner.
But the Naperville mayor’s office doesn’t even have the authority to negotiate a deal. This is just PR.
Overall, Naperville by I-88 is a terrible location for anything except Tax breaks. No transportation, no airport, no entertainment, ect.
Regarding Bears claiming Arlington Park site “is not operational and not commercially viable in its current state”, when current governor Pritzker was seeking office, it was revealed he bought a mansion and had the toilets disconnected to claim it was uninhabitable. This reduced his property taxes by $330,000 over several years.
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/j-b-pritzker-property-tax-appeal-gold-coast-mansion-toilets/
Based on the Bears’ record from last season, the largest toilet the McCaskeys own appears to be the team itself. Clearly “not viable in its current state”.
If da Bears are going to speak in code they need to give Cook County the de-coder ring first.
DOH!
My fantasy: there is collusion among the city/suburban mayors wherein they collectively agree that providing taxpayer money to a Billion Dollar organization in the Bears, that wants a city to build them a stadium and the infrastructure around the stadium, but also wants to keep any and all revenues associated with the stadium, should be told to unequivocally they won’t receive a dime. That they want are being stewards of the public’s money and the emotional extortion of the Bears stating that Mayor so and so “allowed the Bears to leave!,” should be called the B.S. that it is. The mayors/city governments should clearly elucidate how these billion dollar giveaways NEVER, NEVER benefit the public, and then cite those instances…and bring up that once you open the purse strings, these sports teams keep demanding more and more…see 2 hours North in Milwaukee with the BS the Brewers are pulling on demanding MILLIONS for their “decrepit” stadium.
But then it’s just my fantasy, as the politicians are seemingly incapable of EVER effectively showing the public how sports teams can easily afford to build their own damn stadiums without the corporate welfare that is public financing.
There is a long history of cities trying to agree to nonaggression pacts not to try to steal each others’ businesses with subsidies. I don’t think any have lasted as long as six months before someone violated it.
The only real way to address this is for Congress to step in, since the U.S. as a whole has no reason to care which particular U.S. city sports teams move to. Unfortunately, nobody has been able to get even a hearing on bills to stop local corporate subsidies — the pair of hearings convened by Dennis Kucinich 15 years ago, one of which I testified at, may have been the high-water mark of congressional activity.
Well, they can always move back to Decatur…
Why would anyone want the Bears franchise and then have to pay through the nose for another stadium? After all maybe they should have considered the outdated nature of Soldier Field before destroying it in 2002 and turning it into a laughingstock of a stadium with barely 60,000 seats. Furthermore, the Bears are such a dumpster fire these days that I don’t even follow them anymore after being a fan since 1979 and pretty much giving up on them.
When are American politicians finally going to get smart and tell these owners worth billions and the NFL being a 14 billion dollar business to actually finance their own stadiums when the taxpayers and taxing districts cannot afford to keep giving out 1 to 2 billion dollar stadiums when fire departments, police budgets, schools and other necessities are stretched. Time for state and or federal legislation to put an end to franchise free agency and public funding of all sporting venues.