Bears Stadium news

[WrigleyField 22]

I mean the main taxing authorities are local jurisdictions and their property tax.  They all seem pretty willing to negotiate mutually beneficial tax payments but I think team wants state to override the local ability a bit to ensure low tax bills in perpetuity. 

 

When it comes to Infrastructure, the state absolutely needs to have a suspicious eye on what the number is.  The initial infrastructure ask was pretty big which means one of two things (probably both) 

1. The team is sneaking in actual site development as public infrastructure

2. The Bears chose a ****** site that needs tons of infrastructure to become viable. 

 

Needless to say the state shouldn't be jumping at making bad business investments investable if there isn't a clear payoff in terms of economic activity.  The oft-empty stadium has shown time and time again there is no payoff.  At best it's mostly displacing SF economic activity.  If it's a broader entertainment district it's also just pilfering off any other nearby entertainment venues like Rosemont or whatever. Maybe there's like 2 extra concerts and events the state/area is missing out on annually that are served by a venue of that size. 

[Sammy Sofa]

5 minutes ago, WrigleyField 22 said:

mutually beneficial tax payments

[WrigleyField 22]

6 minutes ago, Sammy Sofa said:

Look there is absolutely a potential boom for AH schools and other local tax jurisdictions with a finished AH park because they're starting at near zero now and would be taking it from another city. 

 

Unfortunately for ole Georgey boy that econ activity aint buying a stadium and development. And at both the county and state level they're negotiating against themselves on the move. 

[WrigleyField 22]

Also, 

Chicago already has top 10 grossing concert venues for both stadiums and arenas, that mostly is only being beat out by much larger metros or one mega tourism one (and one exception - Boston) 

https://www.billboard.com/top-stadiums/

 

https://www.billboard.com/top-venues-15001-capacity/

 

Also the small venues bring in way more revenue because there's so few acts selling 50k seat shows. 

 

There just isn't that much econ activity for 60k seat stadiums and SF already does pretty dang good with those and generating economic activity off it. It's just Super Bowls and Final Fours they can't host (and they'd probably get exactly 1 SB. Final Fours would be pretty rare too.) 

 

The payoff potential sucks. 

[BigSlick]

uh holy horsefeathers

 

 

[Banedon]

All yours, Indy.

[Outshined_One]

18 minutes ago, BigSlick said:

uh holy horsefeathers

 

 

As an Illinois taxpayer, Indiana is welcome to that boondoggle.  Let the Bears sell off AH to some developer who'll turn it into subdivisions and The Glen West, because everyone will be better off than a deal like that.

[BigSlick]

If that's a serious offer, and it goes through the Indiana legislature, etc. etc., well, the Bears would be stupid not to take it. And Illinois shouldn't try to match it. It's a stupidly huge giveaway from the Indiana taxpayer to the McCaskey family. 

[WrigleyField 22]

What's funny is that there's nothing said about the tax certainty if the Bears were to buy it, a supposeded key part of AH. I get that Illinois has high property tax, but something to note and gets lost in the modern stadium convos.  Publically held / minucipal stadiums have always been a key tax perk.

More critical to Indiana there, and what's not mentioned, is ancillary revenue. As much as the soldier field reno was a massive failure, the city does at least own an asset that generates revenue outside of the Bears. When Bears proposed the lakefront stadium idea they were looking to claw that back and collect all the ancillary revenue. A similar story has unfolded in KC where Chiefs will technically be tenant but get ALL revenue from all events (among other perks). 

I'm guessing Indiana will offer up something similar.  Which potentially puts them in the position as basically a bank IF the Bears did eventually buy back the property. However if the Bears don't have to take the option to buy it, why would they ever if they get all the ownership benefits without actually having to own? 

[Soul]

That cannot be real.

[minnesotacubsfan]

I'm going to zero in on this and suggest it may be more than JUST the stadium

 

2. The Bears pay off the debt and can become full owners when it’s paid off.

 

Sounds great, but the devil is in the details. No Tax? Great. Having to pay billions in infrastructure costs? not great.

 

 

[WrigleyField 22]

So Indiana's stadium authority bill passed their senate.  Still needs to pass house and be signed which I'm sure is inevitable. 

 

It doesn't do much other than create the authority and lay out what they can do. Does provide that the bonds be paid with payments from the lessee which may be paid via local excise and sales tax, but nothing about how much or which ones. So basically extremely far from any kind of material economic framework. 

 

Anyways Braun threw out a tweet and Twitter is supposedly the rw social media app and the comments and RT must be like 10:1 against this bill lol. 

[Wilson A2000]

 

[Brian707]

It's a never ending cycle 

 

[Outshined_One]

Going to be delightful two years from now when both sides point fingers over the lack of progress, the Bears go back to the Indiana legislature hat in hand, and the whole damn thing ends up in court.

[minnesotacubsfan]

Eventually, guys, we’ll get that 46 k seat nfl stadium just south of racine

 

 

Edited February 10 by minnesotacubsfan

[javy knows my name]

48 minutes ago, minnesotacubsfan said:

Eventually, guys, we’ll get that 46 k seat nfl stadium just south of racine

 

 

My grandpa grew up in Wicker Park, and when he referred to someone who was confused he'd say they were "going north on north and east on Ashland." 

[BigbadB]

8 hours ago, Outshined_One said:

Going to be delightful two years from now when both sides point fingers over the lack of progress, the Bears go back to the Indiana legislature hat in hand, and the whole damn thing ends up in court.

The good news is they do have a place to play until 2034. Seems they can build a stadium in 4 years. At least 4 more years of fun winter football. I'll take it.

[Banedon]

There's a lot of good info in this segment regarding the progress that's been made.
 

 

[gflore34]

11 hours ago, javy knows my name said:

My grandpa grew up in Wicker Park, and when he referred to someone who was confused he'd say they were "going north on north and east on Ashland." 

Awesome, of course, it only works on Chicagoan's.

[Outshined_One]

2 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

Awesome, of course, it only works on Chicagoan's.

It'd actually work better if it were north on North and west on Western, but, *shrug*

[javy knows my name]

4 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

Awesome, of course, it only works on Chicagoan's.

I thought it worked great on a non-chicago guy who seems perpetually confused and made a minor directional faux-pas

[Rcal10]

10 minutes ago, javy knows my name said:

I thought it worked great on a non-chicago guy who seems perpetually confused and made a minor directional faux-pas

Now I’m confused. I took south of Racine to mean south of the town of Racine.🤷😓

[gflore34]

6 minutes ago, javy knows my name said:

I thought it worked great on a non-chicago guy who seems perpetually confused and made a minor directional faux-pas

In the sense of a Chicagoan would immediately know Ashland runs North-South and North runs East-West.  Reminds me of a stand up comic, name escapes me, talking about how Chicagoan's measure distance.  Something along the lines of you tell a Chicagoan some place is so many miles South that person will come back with - "what is that, about 143rd street?".

[javy knows my name]

16 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

In the sense of a Chicagoan would immediately know Ashland runs North-South and North runs East-West.  Reminds me of a stand up comic, name escapes me, talking about how Chicagoan's measure distance.  Something along the lines of you tell a Chicagoan some place is so many miles South that person will come back with - "what is that, about 143rd street?".

Streets with numbers in their names? Cheating.