The Arlington Park Bears

[WrigleyField 22]

Lets say the Bears do intend to build on Arlington Park. I don't think they have the wealth to finance a state of the art building themselves. How are they going to get funds from the state and local government? State funds will have heavy opposition from downstate (this is already happening). Cook County is already taxed up the wazoo and in general the states finances are in peril.

 

A friend suggested the other day that Arlington Park is so big that they can sell off plots of the land for a significant profit due to the allure of building near the stadium. Take the $200m in land, use 1/2 of it, sell the rest for $400m and you are on your way to having enough money.

 

The other thing I keep hearing is that this is a ploy to up the value of the franchise if the McCaskey's intend to sell the team. That would be my preferred option for sure.

I think I posted earlier, but I'm sure there's a path where they have a Joint Venture partner(s) with some capital backing. The equity contributions will be small enough for the McCaskeys to be able to put up their share and that venture partner will probably put up significant debt as well. They'll get some NFL money too. All they can probably count on from AH is some tax preferences for the future. I'm sure they'll try from the state, and hopefully fail. And maybe the county will do some bare minimum capital improvement help to the site whether it's roads or infrastructure.

 

That joint venture may even be someone prepared to own the franchise in time. A convertible debt like scenario perhaps (where the McCaskeys can still get a nice 12% ROI on whats there now but give up the upside of an eventual 5.5B valuation).

 

As to the rest of the site development, whether it's sold off directly or leased to developers, yes I'm sure additional development partners are brought in to add capital for hotels/condos/whatevers with some recurring revenue streams set up to go back to the team/partnership. Whether it's sold or leased is likely just a question of tax consequences.

 

But since this thing may take time and Virginia could probably go at any minute, it may just be that it's handed over to the next owner as a ready made solution and still has increased the franchise value more than the $200M they'll put up for it. And presumably that owner will still bring in developer partners, but get to keep more of the downstream revenue by financing more of it directly.

[Sammy Sofa]

Maybe Chicago can be like LA where the residents hate both teams

 

Alright, now I'm 100% sold.

[WrigleyField 22]

http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/20211013/jim-odonnell-its-a-bird-its-a-pain-x2014-its-bunker-bill-carstanjen-at-arlington-trackside

 

As expected, plans are evolving in which the new George S. Halas Stadium will be located in the northwest portion of the trapezoid, near Northwest Highway and Route 53.

 

• Further ideas are said to be under discussion in which the Regional Transportation Authority will be asked to participate in the construction of a new "event-day only" train stop on the Metra-Northwest line.

[SouthSideRyan]

Are there still dipshits who believe in horsefeathering Bear Weather?

 

How? Why?

 

Have you ever met a Bears fan?

[SouthSideRyan]

Making everyone play blindfolded would definitely be fun to watch

 

[Sammy Sofa]

Are there still dipshits who believe in horsefeathering Bear Weather?

 

How? Why?

 

Have you ever met a Bears fan?

 

I was hoping COVID knocked off enough of the meatballs.

[Soul]

Are there still dipshits who believe in horsefeathering Bear Weather?

 

How? Why?

 

Have you ever met a Bears fan?

 

I was hoping COVID knocked off enough of the meatballs.

 

It seems to have created as many as it knocked off.

[Sammy Sofa]

 

Have you ever met a Bears fan?

 

I was hoping COVID knocked off enough of the meatballs.

 

It seems to have created as many as it knocked off.

 

[Omar]

dream scenario is Bears build a monstrosity stadium in Arlington, and the city finesses some team to relocate here/expansion team. I would 100% follow a 2nd Chicago NFL team, ideally they'd sync up with the Bears so at least 1 of them was good most seasons.

NY says hi

 

2008 and 2012 say what up

[UMFan83]

dream scenario is Bears build a monstrosity stadium in Arlington, and the city finesses some team to relocate here/expansion team. I would 100% follow a 2nd Chicago NFL team, ideally they'd sync up with the Bears so at least 1 of them was good most seasons.

 

That second team would really have to carry the weight in that scenario

[jersey cubs fan]

dream scenario is Bears build a monstrosity stadium in Arlington, and the city finesses some team to relocate here/expansion team. I would 100% follow a 2nd Chicago NFL team, ideally they'd sync up with the Bears so at least 1 of them was good most seasons.

NY says hi

 

2008 and 2012 say what up

Alexa, what does the worse "most" mean?

[WrigleyField 22]

Bumping this thread as the apprpriate spot for stadium news coming later this week and not the Week 1 thread.

 

My dream:

The Bears concept is two facilities: a standalone football stadium only (either domed or open) played on real grass and not designed as a multi use stadium.

 

A separate multi use convention center designed for things like a Final 4 and Wrestlemania, but no football consideration.

 

I have idea what the economics really look like except I think I saw an article that Minny going fixed roof over retractable roof was something like 400M-500m savings and they did their whole build for only a little over 1.1B. And it seems like the multi use Football to basically another event setup has to be very inefficient. And roof or not the NFL isn't gonna give Chicago more than one token SB dome or not because it's still miserable Chicago in February and places like NO, ATL, LA, Miami are more attractive.

[NOLA]

Anyone said what would happen to Soldier Field if they move? Maybe tear It back down to the original facade, or tear it all down?

[WrigleyField 22]

Anyone said what would happen to Soldier Field if they move? Maybe tear It back down to the original facade, or tear it all down?

No idea. They have the Fire as tenets, but they could scale back by like 4 fold and still have plenty of room for what they draw.

 

No idea what maintenance looks like at current Soldier Field. The Bears revenue as is isn't crazy though. I'm sure it could hobble along for a while before it's financially beneficial for the city to do another rear down and rebuild.

 

Also possible future home to the Chicago Jaguars.

[minnesotacubsfan]

Anyone said what would happen to Soldier Field if they move? Maybe tear It back down to the original facade, or tear it all down?

 

soccer, maybe host a world cup, i doubt they'd get a 2nd nfl team to play there. concerts?

[David]

So I know they just spent a ton of money modernizing Halas Hall, but it seems like it would make a lot of sense for them to have their practice facility in their Bears town, no?

 

It would seem that there's more than enough room.

 

I wonder if they're planning on staying in Lake Forest.

[WrigleyField 22]

So I know they just spent a ton of money modernizing Halas Hall, but it seems like it would make a lot of sense for them to have their practice facility in their Bears town, no?

 

It would seem that there's more than enough room.

 

I wonder if they're planning on staying in Lake Forest.

What would the inherent advantage be?

[David]

So I know they just spent a ton of money modernizing Halas Hall, but it seems like it would make a lot of sense for them to have their practice facility in their Bears town, no?

 

It would seem that there's more than enough room.

 

I wonder if they're planning on staying in Lake Forest.

What would the inherent advantage be?

 

Nothing other than having a centralized location for all their operations and only one place for players to have to commute to. They're obviously not terribly far from each other (30-40 min drive, 25ish miles) but it just occurred to me when thinking of how the Bulls moved their operations near the UC from Deerfield. Way fewer games for the Bears, obviously. Having an even shinier and newer facility if they're investing all of this money anyway.

 

I guess it's probably not worth wasting the land on a few practice fields, though.

[WrigleyField 22]

So I know they just spent a ton of money modernizing Halas Hall, but it seems like it would make a lot of sense for them to have their practice facility in their Bears town, no?

 

It would seem that there's more than enough room.

 

I wonder if they're planning on staying in Lake Forest.

What would the inherent advantage be?

 

Nothing other than having a centralized location for all their operations and only one place for players to have to commute to. They're obviously not terribly far from each other (30-40 min drive, 25ish miles) but it just occurred to me when thinking of how the Bulls moved their operations near the UC from Deerfield. Way fewer games for the Bears, obviously. Having an even shinier and newer facility if they're investing all of this money anyway.

 

I guess it's probably not worth wasting the land on a few practice fields, though.

Yea and I'd think the business of a stadium area would be a nuisance anf possible distraction. I know Dallas combined their stadium and practice facility, but I'm not sure about any other teams who have.

[David]

What would the inherent advantage be?

 

Nothing other than having a centralized location for all their operations and only one place for players to have to commute to. They're obviously not terribly far from each other (30-40 min drive, 25ish miles) but it just occurred to me when thinking of how the Bulls moved their operations near the UC from Deerfield. Way fewer games for the Bears, obviously. Having an even shinier and newer facility if they're investing all of this money anyway.

 

I guess it's probably not worth wasting the land on a few practice fields, though.

Yea and I'd think the business of a stadium area would be a nuisance anf possible distraction. I know Dallas combined their stadium and practice facility, but I'm not sure about any other teams who have.

 

It's Green Bay but I know the Packers do. But yeah, it's Green Bay.

[sweetpeteman]

I would expect a lot of the ones that are out of city centers or in smaller cities like Green Bay would have practice and team facilities nearby while the ones in dense areas wouldn't.

[David]

Holy horsefeathers - as an aside, the Packers' practice facility looks like a damn Blaine's Farm and Fleet or something

 

 

I guess who cares when you luck into back to back HOFers at the most important position in sports.

[UMFan83]

 

Perfectly fine with this

[David]

[Cubfanintheknow]

Holy horsefeathers - as an aside, the Packers' practice facility looks like a damn Blaine's Farm and Fleet or something

 

 

I guess who cares when you luck into back to back HOFers at the most important position in sports.

 

JFC... they even have hunting blinds in the front of the building.