Hey! you ask. Hey, what’s up with the Chicago Bears? Well, they’re probably not moving to Waukegan because the proposed stadium site is contaminated with asbestos, and they’re not moving ahead right now with their proposed wonderland of bears in Arlington Heights because they’re still insisting they’re in a “stalement” over Cook County not wanting to commit to giving them a massive property tax break. Chicago’s new mayor, Brandon Johnson, has reopened talks with Bears management over the team staying put there but is unlikely to make it a priority. Naperville still exists. And most recently, the mayor of Aurora has chimed in with a letter saying his suburb “offers unparalleled key resources to take a vision and make dreams come true,” without specifying what those resources might be, exactly.
It would all seem to be a massive pile of nothing that would reduce the Bears’ owners ability to demand stadium cash — but as we’ve seen all too often, that’s not how creating leverage typically works. The point of soliciting unrequited marriage proposals is less to find new suitors than to rile up the suitors you actually want, so if hopping on Metra to pay a visit to the burbs keeps you on the meeting calendar of Chicago’s mayor even though the cost of Soldier Field renovations has been floated at a mind-boggling $2.2 billion and a majority of voters don’t wanna pay that, it’s Aurora, here we come.
All signs point to this taking a while to resolve, but if there’s one thing we’ve seen in the past, it’s that with billions of dollars at stake, team owners are willing to wait. That’s how Bears president Kevin Warren — speaker of the “stalemate” quote above — made his name in Minnesota, where the Vikings ended up having to wait close to a decade for a stadium but eventually walked away with around $1.4 billion in direct subsidies, tax breaks, and future upgrade payments. Life is long and mayoral terms are short, which is one reason the dustbin of history is full of stadium plans that went nowhere, and yet most teams end up landing new stadium subsidies in the end.
So far it doesn’t seem like the Bears are creating a serious bidding war. People are not taking their threats seriously. They seem to be saying, “even though we already own a sweet piece of land in Arlington Heights, and we have 10 more years on our downtown Chicago lease, we’re willing to listen to other offers.” It just doesn’t sound believable.
The Bears will get their money/their shiny new stadium. Whether it’s in Arlington Heights, Aurora, Naperville or staying in the city, some suburb/the city AND state will give them money in the form of tax breaks or outright awarding of billions and they will use the justification of “jobs” or “investment in a public good.” It’s disgusting. Didn’t billionaires in the past like Andrew Carnegie and JP Morgan build things like libraries with their own money for the public good? Today billionaires or billion dollar organizations go to the public to get things built, as they hold MIGHTILY to their own purse strings.
…and we allow it to happen because we think sports are more important than literally anything else you could do with $2.2B.
In 21st century America, filthy rich billionaires get more things done when they get cozy with Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
When the Bears start talking about Zion and the old nuclear site they are really desperate to stir up a bidding war. With all sites in Illinois, and all viable sites in Cook County, and an absolute zero percent chance of threatening to move to Sacramento the Bears are stuck. Governor Dayton was a total fool to give 10 cents to the Vikings when the only (terrible) options besides Downtown Minneapolis were Anoka County and the even goofier Arden Hills in Ramsey County.
Staleymates notwithstanding, the Bears should realize that the Cubs haven’t threatened to move to Schaumburg in more than a decade.
That’s gotta make it free territory, right?
Time to pull out the big guns on this thing… Bears to Schaumburg.
Bears to move to Kewanee, Illinois. Population of 13,000. Kewanee High School stadium has a fairly new artificial turf field. Already has bars and restaurants, shopping, WalMart.
Haven’t heard Peotone mentioned yet. Maybe they should consider returning to their roots – Decatur.