Bears’ ownership wants to build a stadium-village in Chicago.
The people who own the National Football League’s Chicago Bears franchise, the McCaskey family, have spoken and they want billions of public dollars to build some sort of stadium-village near the team’s present venue. The McCaskey family is willing to throw in about $2 billion to help finance the venture but they need the public’s support as well. That is just how it is these days whether it is in Utah or Arizona or New York or Maryland or Nevada. If locals want a major league sports franchise they better pay the ones who own a major league sports franchise.
The McCaskeys claim they will put up $2.025 billion and will get a $300 million loan from the NFL. The McCaskeys want $900 million in bonds from the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority. That funding would involve extending bonds of the existing 2% hotel tax. That means people using hotels and motels would be paying for a football stadium that more than likely the hotel and motel users will never step foot in. The McCaskeys said the project would generate $8 billion in economic impact for the region. It would be built in three phases, and construction would take up to five years. The new stadium would be constructed on a parking lot just south of Soldier Field. The Chicago Mayor, Brandon. Johnson claims that that will not be a need to create a new tax revenue stream for the project but that might just be politician talk as there will be some sort of tax mechanism activated and that might range from not paying full property taxes to establishing a special tax district where taxes collected that normally would go into a municipality ends up in the developer’s pocket. The McCaskeys still own a parcel of land in suburban Arlington Heights which could be used for a stadium-village. The stadium game in Chicago continues.
Bears planned stadium in Chicago.
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