No state public money for now.
There does not seem that there is too much support from Illinois politicians to put taxpayers’ money into new stadiums in Chicago for the National Football League’s Chicago Bears franchise, Major League Baseball’s Chicago White Sox franchise and for the National Women’s Soccer League’s Chicago Red Stars franchise. The ownerships of those three franchises have put stadium proposals on the table and need public dollars to help finance the planned stadiums. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is on board with the Bears’ ownership’s plan to build a venue in the south parking lot of Soldier Field but he seems to be in the minority. Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch is not against building new stadiums but he does not plan to allocate public money to any of the proposals for the Chicago stadiums.
“Even after the election, I just think it’s, things we have to focus on: the kitchen table issues. People want to make sure their groceries are affordable, their rent is affordable, you know, that they have a roof over their head. The last thing they want us to be talking about is stadiums for sports teams. As we’ve said to the Bears over and over again, to the White Sox, and also to the Chicago Red Stars, there’s just no appetite to use taxpayer funding to fund stadiums for billionaires.” Welch issued another warning to the Chicago sports owners who want public dollars to build new venues. “This was a tough budget year. Next year is going to be another tough budget year.” Bears ownership purchased the Arlington Park horsing race facility with the hope of building a stadium-village in the northern Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights but pulled back from the project after seeing what the property tax assessment was. The White Sox and Red Stars ownership have stadium plans.
Emanuel Chris Welch
