Make Fun of the Bears' Stadium Woes in Here

[UMFan83]

So wait, the new stadium is only going to have a 65,000 capacity?  So they recognized the need to not have the smallest stadium in the NFL and plan to spend $4.6 billion to build....the second smallest stadium in the NFL.  Wonderful.  You need a 70,000 minimum to host the Super Bowl.

Sounds like they will have SRO to increase capacity but wtf.

[Wilson A2000]

48 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

So wait, the new stadium is only going to have a 65,000 capacity?  So they recognized the need to not have the smallest stadium in the NFL and plan to spend $4.6 billion to build....the second smallest stadium in the NFL.  Wonderful.  You need a 70,000 minimum to host the Super Bowl.

Sounds like they will have SRO to increase capacity but wtf.

The Bears do EVERYTHING wrong

[Brian707]

1 hour ago, Wilson A2000 said:

Kevin Warren stinks. Everything positive going on with the football side including tomorrow night has been clouded over by his mismanagement. He loves the city of Chicago so much he is going to ask it to pay for his team’s stadium. Renting from the city and not being in charge of your stadium and asking the taxpayers for over $1 billion just doesn’t sound like someone who really cares about the city Chicago like he says he does. 

Of course they planned it this way when all the good news is coming on Caleb etc, that the bad news of asking for 2.3 billion will be lost in the news while all the reporters are in Detroit.

I am just waiting to see when the actual stadium is built in Arlington Heights.

[Irrelevant Dude]

One problem I think the state has is, how do you tell the Bears yes and White Sox no?  So whatever they end up doing for the Bears, multiply that times two.  Which is why I think they are ultimately going to end up refusing to fund either of the projects and the Bears will still end up in Arlington Heights.  Where the White Sox end up, I have no idea and don't really care.

 

[UMFan83]

Just now, Irrelevant Dude said:

One problem I think the state has is, how do you tell the Bears yes and White Sox no?  So whatever they end up doing for the Bears, multiply that times two.  Which is why I think they are ultimately going to end up refusing to fund either of the projects and the Bears will still end up in Arlington Heights.  Where the White Sox end up, I have no idea and don't really care.

 

Well the Bears almost certainly have a much bigger economic impact to the city than the Sox do.  But on the flip side, the Bears used taxpayer funds to build/renovate Soldier Field roughly 20 years ago while the Sox were patient and waited a whole 35 years before holding their hands out.  If the state says no to the Bears, they will probably go back to Arlington Heights and build there.  They are zero threat to leaving the metro area while the Sox could easily bolt if they are told no.

[Irrelevant Dude]

2 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

Well the Bears almost certainly have a much bigger economic impact to the city than the Sox do.

That was my initial thought as well, but is that actually true?  It is 8 home games a year plus a handful of preseason/postseason games.  Compare that to 81 games on the south side.  Sure, the Bears have a MUCH larger fanbase, but does that translate to a larger overall economic impact with only 1/10 the number of games?

[Outshined_One]

It's so insulting reading press releases and puff pieces about how many billions of dollars a new stadium on the lakefront will bring to the community.

They're basically turning the existing site into a park, moving the damn thing down the street, adding a dome, and vaguely increasing seating capacity.  I don't see a business district, hotels, housing, or anything else in the renderings.  At best, this will result in a handful of new events being irregularly held at the new stadium during the NFL offseason.

[jersey cubs fan]

Reminds me of the jets proposed west side stadium over the rail yards that never stood a chance to happen 

[Rex Buckingham]

I wonder if this plan is meant to tank so that they can build in AH and say, "Well we tried to build in the city, and it got voted down."

[minnesotacubsfan]

6 hours ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

That was my initial thought as well, but is that actually true?  It is 8 home games a year plus a handful of preseason/postseason games.  Compare that to 81 games on the south side.  Sure, the Bears have a MUCH larger fanbase, but does that translate to a larger overall economic impact with only 1/10 the number of games?

Can you have a final four in a baseball stadium? Big Ten championship? The Rolling Stones? The Democratic National Convention?

that’s why the Bears are more likely to get public funding. They’ll sell the versatility of a football stadium (ie, tax income and jobs-they were in the stadiums video) to woo the political might. I don’t really agree with it, and I hate the design. But I think they build it with tax money and the white Sox go the direction if private funding (stadium as part of larger private development). If they stay in Chicago.

[Outshined_One]

Laurence Holmes interview of Brandon Johnson

Good Lord, Brandon Johnson is a dunce.

[Derwood]

20 hours ago, minnesotacubsfan said:

Can you have a final four in a baseball stadium? Big Ten championship? The Rolling Stones? The Democratic National Convention?

that’s why the Bears are more likely to get public funding. They’ll sell the versatility of a football stadium (ie, tax income and jobs-they were in the stadiums video) to woo the political might. I don’t really agree with it, and I hate the design. But I think they build it with tax money and the white Sox go the direction if private funding (stadium as part of larger private development). If they stay in Chicago.

Give us billions so we can host Wrestlemania in 2031 is so bold it just might work

[Sammy Sofa]

Bears Owners Roll Out Grotesque Stadium Plan With History’s Creepiest Launch Ceremony

https://defector.com/bears-owners-roll-out-grotesque-stadium-plan-with-historys-creepiest-launch-ceremony

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Wow, imagine an even bigger divine intervention than afflicting the people of Illinois with the compulsion to buy the McCaskeys a football stadium.

 

[SouthSideRyan]

On 4/24/2024 at 10:44 PM, minnesotacubsfan said:

Can you have a final four in a baseball stadium? Big Ten championship? The Rolling Stones? The Democratic National Convention?

that’s why the Bears are more likely to get public funding. They’ll sell the versatility of a football stadium (ie, tax income and jobs-they were in the stadiums video) to woo the political might. I don’t really agree with it, and I hate the design. But I think they build it with tax money and the white Sox go the direction if private funding (stadium as part of larger private development). If they stay in Chicago.

Would be very dificult to get the Rolling Stones to Chicago without a new stadium.

[Irrelevant Dude]

2 hours ago, SouthSideRyan said:

Would be very dificult to get the Rolling Stones to Chicago without a new stadium.

That's why the city has to prepare now.  In 5-10 years, they are going to be HUGE!

[minnesotacubsfan]

10 hours ago, SouthSideRyan said:

Would be very dificult to get the Rolling Stones to Chicago without a new stadium.

ok. Lets replace the Stones with Taylor Swift. would her concerts be "dificult" to imagine in a football stadium or a baseball stadium?

[Sammy Sofa]

Bears’ New Stadium Proposal Includes A Lifetime Of Public Debt

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The conspirators behind the push for an expensive new lakefront stadium for the Chicago Bears began their extraordinarily tacky announcement ceremony on April 24 with a prayer. Know what they forgot? They forgot to pray that no one would look too closely at the particulars of the financing proposal for this project. The moment is now lost: The Illinois Sports Facilities Authority (ISFA), the governmental body charged with drumming up the public's portion of the debt-financed dough to pay for all this, ran the numbers, and what was already a galling proposal now looks incredibly worse.

Remember those innocent times, [checks calendar] approximately four days ago, when this project was being described as a nearly $5 billion public-private undertaking, for which the public would be asked to fund something like $2.4 billion? Per a new report from the Chicago Tribune, that number included $900 million in borrowed money to help pay for the new domed stadium, plus an additional $1.5 billion in infrastructure spending, to spruce up the area around the stadium with parks and green spaces and fully realize what Wednesday's hype video described as "a world-class destination." But included in the proposal, says the ISFA, is a refinancing of a mountain of existing debt taken on for renovations of Soldier Field way back in 2002, of which only about half has been paid off, plus the establishment of a $160 million "liquidity fund," essentially a backstop against any future effects of the dreaded economic headwinds. Turns out there's a lot more in here than meets the eye: "Counting interest and other long-term costs," reports the Tribune, via ISFA CEO Frank Bilecki, the total cost to the public will be something like $4.8 billion, and that is if the project is all paid off on schedule, without any snags or hiccups or global pandemics along the way.

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And it's a long, long way: The proposal has the city devoting tax revenue to this debt for an appalling 40-year term. The average age of the other 31 NFL stadiums is less than 24 years, a number that is inflated significantly by the stadiums of the Bills and Chiefs and Packers, two of which are in the process of being replaced. Only five NFL stadiums currently in operation are at least 40 years old; one (Soldier Field, the current home of the Bears) was basically entirely rebuilt around the turn of the century using public debt financing that even if it isn't baked into this new stadium scheme will eventually cost taxpayers approximately $1.1 billion, per the Tribune. The hotel tax revenue that the Bears are asking the city and state to use to back the public debt and secure the liquidity fund would not be redirected for the general good of the city, in this proposal, until at least 2064, or approximately 15 years after the first procreated replicant learns that her real father is Harrison Ford.

 

[WrigleyField 22]

Wait they lied?

[Brian707]

What a cluster horsefeathers.

[Old Style]

Am I the only one that thinks they never really wanted this plan? They’re trying to play a game of chicken with Arlington Heights IMO. Then again I haven’t followed this closely at all so maybe this is incredibly stupid. Lol. 

[UMFan83]

30 minutes ago, Old Style said:

Am I the only one that thinks they never really wanted this plan? They’re trying to play a game of chicken with Arlington Heights IMO. Then again I haven’t followed this closely at all so maybe this is incredibly stupid. Lol. 

I've definitely had that thought.  The astronomically high asking price, the willingness to forego ownership but also demand revenue from other events as if they owned the stadium.  Seems like a lot of things that were designed to be serious sounding enough to get AH to cave on the tax issues and ridiculous enough that they know there is no way they will be able to get their demands approved in Chicago giving them an easy out to go back to AH.

Edited April 29, 2024 by UMFan83

[jersey cubs fan]

41 minutes ago, Old Style said:

Am I the only one that thinks they never really wanted this plan? They’re trying to play a game of chicken with Arlington Heights IMO. Then again I haven’t followed this closely at all so maybe this is incredibly stupid. Lol. 

I’ve never thought they were serious about staying in Chicago. 

[Irrelevant Dude]

3 hours ago, Old Style said:

Am I the only one that thinks they never really wanted this plan? They’re trying to play a game of chicken with Arlington Heights IMO. Then again I haven’t followed this closely at all so maybe this is incredibly stupid. Lol. 

I still think the Bears end up in Arlington Heights, but if that is their ultimate goal then they would seem to be in danger of overplaying their hand.  In order to leverage the city stadium plan in any negotiations with Arlington Heights, there has to be a belief that the plan to build a new stadium in Chicago has legs.  At this point, I don't think there is any clear path to the funding they are requesting, so they might as well be threatening to build a new stadium on the moon.

[Old Style]

42 minutes ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

I still think the Bears end up in Arlington Heights, but if that is their ultimate goal then they would seem to be in danger of overplaying their hand.  In order to leverage the city stadium plan in any negotiations with Arlington Heights, there has to be a belief that the plan to build a new stadium in Chicago has legs.  At this point, I don't think there is any clear path to the funding they are requesting, so they might as well be threatening to build a new stadium on the moon.

Would the Bears overplaying their hand surprise anyone? 

[Brian707]

10 minutes ago, Old Style said:

Would the Bears overplaying their hand surprise anyone? 

The funny thing is, they should have played this game before buying the racetrack