Ownership of the Chicago Bears presses to get a new stadium for the team. Now there’s competition with Indiana.
(OurQuadCities.com)
Fans saw the team’s surprisingly strong season end in a heartbreaking loss to the Rams in the playoffs. Questions remain about the Bears’ future.
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Beyond the team’s performance, the owners are tired of Soldier Field and want a new stadium. They’re focused on property in Arlington Heights that used to be Arlington Park. That’s not in Chicago proper.
The City of Chicago proposes a domed stadium to replace the parking lot south of Soldier Field. The latest push calls for state lawmakers and the governor to approve a bill for a megaproject and payment in lieu of taxes. That would provide tax breaks to keep the Bears in Illinois.
Then there’s Indiana, where state lawmakers introduced a bill to create a government agency intended to buy land to build a stadium as a new home for the Bears – Gary, Indiana the likely location.
Future tax bills are an issue. An article in the Daily Herald reports the Bears would have to pay between $100 million and $200 million a year in property taxes in Arlington Heights. That raises the cry for tax breaks.
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Host Jim Niedelman covered those issues with former Iowa Republican party chair Steve Grubbs and former Rock Island mayor Mark Schwiebert, a Democrat.
“Generally, expenditures for large stadiums don’t pay back to the taxpayers what they invest in it,” Schwiebert said. “This is a private business, and the private business people should bear the expense of it, especially a highly-profitable business like an NFL franchise.”
“There is a benefit to the people of Illinois,” Grubbs said. “When I look at St, Louis, who lost their NFL team to Los Angeles, and then I look at Kansas City who just made the decision to invest heavily to keep their team, there’s a cultural value to the people of this city. There is an emotional value. There are all these soft values that really matter to people.”
To hear more, click on the video above.
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