CHICAGO — A billion here, a billion there — pretty soon you’re talking real money. The late Sen. Everett Dirksen may not have said exactly that, but he repeatedly raised that concern about spending tax dollars.
For reference, $1 billion is more than the budgets of the Chicago Park District, Cook County Forest Preserves and Greater Chicago Food Depository combined. Annual spending for Chicago police is about $2 billion, while Chicago Public Schools’ budget exceeds $9 billion.
Now, Illinois politicians are faced with the Chicago Bears’ request to build a new, publicly owned $3.2 billion enclosed stadium on Chicago’s lakefront. The state’s top leaders expressed reluctance, but Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is all in.
So what exactly is proposed, what else is at stake, and how will this play out? Here are a few highlights.
What is proposed
Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren envisions a stadium just south of the Bears’ current home at Soldier Field, on the site of what is now a parking lot. The facility would seat about 65,000 for football, with standing room up to 70,000, and a capacity of 77,000 for basketball.
The structure would have a fixed, translucent roof, and a glass wall on the north end to take in the skyline. Unlike Soldier Field, it could hold events year-round, including concerts, soccer, college basketball playoffs, or, once in a great while, the Super Bowl.
Soldier Field would be torn down, but its colonnades would be saved and 14 acres of athletic fields and open space added in between and to the north of the colonnades, for use by local sports teams, graduations and other events. If approved this year, the stadium would open in 2028.
A little context
The stadium would be designed by Manica architects, which designed Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. That stadium, referenced by the Bears in their presentation, also has a translucent roof, and opened in 2020 at a cost of $1.9 billion, with $750 million from taxpayers.
What it could cost
The Bears say they would pay $2 billion, a huge private investment, plus $300 million requested from the NFL. The rest of the $3.2 billion cost of the stadium alone would be paid with $900 million from the state. The team said another $325 million would be needed for infrastructure, including improved road access and utilities as part of up to $1.5 billion for full build-out with extras like a hotel.
The public money would be borrowed through bonds issued by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, or ISFA, which previously financed construction of Guaranteed Rate Field, where the White Sox play, and the 2003 renovation of Soldier Field. The bonds are to be repaid over 40 years by the city’s 2% hotel tax.
Some context
The first problem is, the hotel tax has not been enough to repay even the past work on Sox park and Soldier Field. The state still owes about $430 million for that, which would have to be refinanced, with interest totaling $1.3 billion, ISFA calculates.
Borrowing $900 million in new spending would add an additional $2.6 billion in interest, plus a $160 million reserve, which would earn interest, for a total stadium cost nearing $4.8 billion.
That’s not counting the $1.5 billion in infrastructure costs, or the $1 billion already paid for both existing stadiums.
The Bears say that’s an unfair way to look at it. Home mortgages often cost twice the value of a house, but nobody cites the interest cost as part of the sales price. To be consistent, the team’s investment, to be paid by equity and debt, would also have to be figured with interest.
Unanswered
How the state would pay for the $1.5 billion in infrastructure. Officials proposed using federal and state grants, but how much they could get is unknown.
What reaction the Bears are getting
State lawmakers would have to approve such a deal to make it happen, but the leadership is against it.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker called the Bears’ proposal a “non-starter.”
“I didn’t say that there’s not ever the…
Read More: Chicago Bears’ lakefront stadium proposal: What’s been said, what we know — and what we need to know