State only digging its own hole by preventing Bears construction

The report, based on a letter from the Bears obtained by Crain's, said the Bears promised to pay $25 million initially and then $250,000 annually to improve underfunded area parks in Chicago.

They also, of course, would need to pay off their lease at Soldier Field. It expires in 2033 but if this project keeps getting put off they eventually might not have any money remaining on the lease or even a lease itself.

The Bears are looking for a frozen tax rate which has already been negotiated with surrounding taxing bodies, and about $855 million for infrastructure, but nothing for the stadium construction itself.  They and the NFL will handle this part.

During a recent speech at the Economic Club of Chicago, Pritzker falsely depicted the Bears as attempting to get the stadium built by public funds.

He said he was open to the state paying for infrastructure for businesses, in this case the Bears, but added, “What I’m not for is that we’re responsible for building your factory, or we’re responsible for building your new headquarters. We’re not.”

But the Bears are not asking the stadium be built by public funds, only some infrastructure. It was typical circular talk by one of the state's real political heavyweights. Pritzker knows how to wield clout like Mayor Richard Daley, the original, once did.

Pritzker and the city seem focused on extorting money from the Bears to pay off the remainder of the bond for building the current Soldier Field back in 2003. The amount remaining, reported by the Sun-Times, is at $534 million. That's far more than the original $398 million.

That project originally called for the Bears and the NFL to pay $200 million and the rest, or about $398 million, would be paid through a stadium bond authority supported by tourism tax. The Bears and NFL handled their own payments already. That's all done.

But the city refinanced the bond in 2014 and 2019 according to NBC Sports, and then during the pandemic because of a lack of funds coming in to Chicago hotels. How is this on the Bears? Mayor Brandon Johnson and toady alderman Kam Buckner say it is.

Essentially the city and Pritzker think the Bears should pay off more than was agreed upon and are responsible for the debt created by public fiscal mismanagement.

All the while the Bears have been playing in the smallest stadium in the NFL on one of the worst playing fields that has always been improperly maintained by the park district, in a place notorious for bad traffic and lack of public transportation. That part is all on the Bears as they signed to play there and should have had their heads examined.

So the Bears sit with vacant land they own in Arlington Heights and it would appear the only way they'll get their indoor stadium built is by doing it without tax assurance legislation. Doing that would only be inviting disaster in the form of unrealistic and unfair future higher tax rates, like the ones they've already successfully negotiated downward with Arlington Heights area school district taxing bodies.

It's not a situation where they're ever likely to convince the city, the Illinois Democratic party and Pritzker to give them the needed legislation to construct their stadium and a surrounding business district at the old racetrack.

Stuck in this situation, the best thing for the Bears and McCaskeys would be is to play hardball the way their founder, George Halas, would have and actually did once. It's the same way Jerry Reinsdorf did before the same stadium tax authority helped with construction of what was known then as Comiskey Park.

They should threaten to leave the state.

They should try to buy more land, a little north of Halas Hall and just across the Wisconsin border, and move the team like the Giants and Jets did in New York. Then they should sell the Arlington Heights property in the process. How much can land in Wisconsin cost, anyway?

They could also consider northwest Indiana, although that might take them a bit too far from their base. It would be much cheaper, and the business climate in that state is much, much better than in Illinois.

They would no longer be "the pride and joy of Illinois" then, as their fight song from the 1940s suggests.

However, they would still be known as Chicago Bears as that's a trademarked name. Who wants to be the pride and joy of a state that loses businesses in droves and ranked third among all states in population loss from 2023-24, anyway?

It's an anti-business atmosphere in Illinois and the leaders need to be held accountable for that situation, whether it's regarding industry or a pro football team.

Load up the moving trucks.