Illinois State Rep. Kam Buckner -- whose district includes Soldier Field -- said that the Bears should “think big” if they want to make the most of a potential lakefront stadium, including by using a “little-known VIP busway to make the lakefront more accessible and surrounding a new stadium with an entertainment district to attract fans before and after games,” according to Fran Spielman of the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES. A new domed stadium project could help “solve several long-standing issues,” including transportation to and along the lakefront, the absence of bars, restaurants and entertainment venues around Soldier Field and the “long-standing desire to turn surface parking lots into green space.” Buckner said that the key is “forging a partnership -- not just with the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority,” which financed Soldier Field, but with the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, which has “even larger bonding powers.” He said that to entice the Bears to stay in Chicago, a new lakefront stadium “also needs surrounding restaurants, bars and even a hotel” -- which would create a “miniversion of the environment the team has dreamed of building at the 326-acre site of the old Arlington International Racecourse.” Spielman wrote that forging a partnership with the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority would "not only open the door to using the busway, but also unlock the bonding authority to finance a new stadium without forcing state lawmakers" to "choose between" the Bears and White Sox (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 3/5).
PREPARING FOR A ONE-TWO PUNCH: A SUN-TIMES editorial stated it does not “come as a huge surprise” that the White Sox and Bears might well be preparing to “double-team public officials to try and get hefty public subsidies to build two new sports stadiums at once.” But the board is “still far, very far, from convinced that a new Sox ballpark at The 78 in the South Loop makes sense from a taxpayers’ perspective” and adding on another huge gimme for a new Bears lakefront stadium “makes us even more skeptical.” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said last week that he is “reluctant" to provide public subsidies for stadiums without assurance of public benefit. The board wrote they “urge the governor to stand firm” as “questions are still to be answered, and the public will need more than picture-perfect renderings to do it” (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 3/5).
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