Politician Explains Why Chicago Bears Will Never Get Any Stadium Money

The Chicago Bears have grand plans for their new stadium, and they hired team president Kevin Warren to help implement them. After careful consideration, they hope to establish a state-of-the-art domed complex on the lakefront south of Soldier Field. Video renderings of it have been impressive. Undoubtedly, the project would be a great draw for fans and tourists year-round. The problem is the same one all organizations face. How are they going to pay for it?

There was a time when sports teams didn’t have much trouble finding public money to fund new stadiums. Things have changed. Over the past decade, organizations have seen local governments becoming increasingly resistant to handing over hundreds of millions of public money for buildings that won’t do anything for the taxpayers, no matter what teams might say. That money is better spent elsewhere. Nobody put it better than Illinois House Speaker Emanuel Welch. He told Amanda Vinicky of WTTW that the Bears are highly unlikely to get any public funding, now or in the future.

It has nothing to do with greed or politics, mind you. There are just far more pressing concerns.

“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,” House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch told WTTW News in an interview Monday. “Even after the election.”…

…“You know, even after the election, I just think it’s, things we have to focus on: the kitchen table issues,” Welch said. “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.”

Already, the speaker predicts Springfield will be dealing with a surfeit of demands next year.

“This was a tough budget year. Next year is going to be another tough budget year,” Welch said. “But one of the things that we’ve been able to do as Democrats – the party in charge – we’ve been able to be fiscally responsible. We’ve been fiscally responsible and compassionate as well.”

The Chicago Bears’ timing on the stadium issue couldn’t be worse.

They decided to make their move as the American economy was still emerging from the pandemic. Since then, it has undergone one of the country’s worst bouts of inflation seen in decades. People quite simply don’t have much money to spend these days. Now, here’s an enterprise worth $5.8 billion playing in a league worth $163 billion, begging for money from people who can’t afford it. One can understand why the state government is dead set against the idea. They know the city and state are unlikely to see any of the benefits from such a construction project.

That means the Chicago Bears have three choices. They can either revamp the proposal to benefit the taxpayers more, pay for the stadium themselves with help from the NFL, or revert back to Arlington Heights, where they already own the necessary land. As battle lines are drawn, it is evident the organization is in for a major fight if it decides to push for the lakefront option. That is why many believe the Bears will end up shifting back to Arlington Heights sooner or later.