The NFL Is Back, And So Are Greedy Owners Promising Riches
With history as a guide, the Chicago Bears' proposed move to suburban Cook County should be met with skepticism and doubt by residents
The rain came down fast and furious in Chicago this past Sunday, but the Bears and the NFL are back.
And we as a country rejoice.
Fans filled stadiums all over the country, including Soldier Field. The announced paid attendance was 62,159 and from television views, there didn’t appear to be all that many empty seats.
Every Bears game at Solider Field has attached to it an added sense of urgency this year. That’s because the Bears may be vacating the historic stadium within the next decade.
Just last week, representatives of the Bears held a public meeting in Arlington Heights. The Northern Cook County suburb is the site of the team’s proposed new stadium and surrounding entertainment district.
At the Thursday public meeting, owner George McCaskey and team president Ted Phillips boasted of the economic impact of the new venture. They re-iterated projections that came from the team when initially announcing plans for the project earlier this year:
Above all, the Bears organization is committed to ensuring the project serves Cook County, the Chicagoland community and people of Illinois 365 days a year. If the decision is made to develop Arlington Park, it would yield significant economic benefits commensurate with the scale of the project. Construction of the proposed project is projected to create more than 48,000 jobs, result in $9.4 billion in economic impact for Chicagoland, and provide $3.9 billion in labor income to workers across the region, while the completed project will create more than 9,750 long-term jobs, result in $1.4 billion in annual economic impact for Chicagoland and provide $601 million in annual labor income to workers across Chicagoland. We also anticipate that the development will generate $16 million in annual tax revenue in addition to property taxes for Arlington Heights, $9.8 million for Cook County, and $51.3 million for the State of Illinois.
McCaskey admitted Thursday the team had no plans to ask for public financing for the stadium. But for the remaining 365-day-a-week entertainment complex?
You betcha.
“The Bears will seek no public funding for direct stadium structure construction,” McCaskey said at the meeting held at Hersey High School in Arlington Heights. “However … we will need help.”
That help includes “property tax certainty,” and without it, “the project as described…will not be able to move forward,” McCaskey added.
When a billionaire, as McCaskey and his family are, dangle promises of economic riches in exchange for tax dollars, its best to take a buyer beware tact.
If residents of Arlington Heights and Northern Cook County remove emotion (Bears!) from the equation and take a pragmatic look at the proposal, they should be very skeptical.
With history as a guide, public financing for any professional sports stadium or complex is never a good idea. The country-wide stadium booms of the 1990’s all boasted of financial incentives to taxpayers but failed to yield promised returns.
Talk to an economist and they will rarely, if ever, endorse public funding for sports construction projects. A 2017 University of Chicago survey largely concluded the costs of such ventures are not worth the inflated projections of financial stimulus. Another research paper found how the opportunity costs of stadium projects are largely overlooked but when calculated, make for a bad investment:
Consumer spending at a sports stadium is easy to see—it is obvious and measurable. What is unseen, however, is how consumers would spend their dollars otherwise. If they were not spending on sporting events, they would instead spend on museums, movies, concerts, theater, restaurants, and so on. Because consumers tend to have limited entertainment budgets, dollars spent at a new stadium would not be new spending but rather diverted spending.
Lest we forget – the two-decade old renovations to Soldier Field cost just shy of $700 million. Taxpayers were asked to cover over 60% of the bill. Now the Bears want to bail for greener pastures?
A lesson to suburban residents – don’t be seduced by artist renderings of a modern day Chocolate Factory.
All that matters is the answer to one simple question:
Just how much is it going to cost and how are the Bears going to pay for it?
The devil is always in the details.
Learn where others have failed.
Don’t fall for the grift.
Hi Jon,good insight on this topic.Not sure the outcome but most likely a move by the Bears 🐻. All the best in your new and exciting project. Your living your dream.