Two months ago, I wrote a story that detailed how the Chicago Bears were outraged at being asked to pay the same property taxes as everyone else. To very briefly summarize, the Bears bought property in Arlington Heights for $197 million in 2022. This year, the county assessor put a value on that land reflecting the amount paid by the Bears. This angered the team because it now makes them pay more in property taxes.
The Bears are asking to value the land below $40 million, with absolutely zero justification as to why it should be that low. The last number I heard was the Bears willing to put the land at a property tax value of $52.5 million…weeks after they bought it for almost $200 million. The Bears do have points that are rational in wanting it to be lowered (as I pointed out in the story written two months ago) but the assessor is, on the whole, correct with his value increase.
Still, the Bears continue to go about this new stadium search in a way that few can understand. Every week, a new city in or around Chicago, tells the Bears how much they want any new stadium to be built in their region. This recent week, another city offered their local toxic dump yard to be the building site for the Bears new stadium. How nice!
Yet most can clearly see that when you pay $200 million for a piece of property, you will use it. The Bears want to build in Arlington Heights. So, are the Bears going to accept the new property tax amount? Are they negotiating with the county to try to push a deal through? Of course not. Instead, they continue to whine and complain about the assessor while praising any new city interested in meeting with the team. Just yesterday, the latest update involves the Bears President claiming that the team and country continue to be at a “stalemate” and “don’t know if it will be revived”. Why?
According to the team: “an ongoing tax dispute has stopped stadium development”. Yet while also complaining about the dispute, the team also admits that they aren’t talking to the county. Therefore, no progress and no ability to make any progress? Gotcha. The team looks like it is struggling to deal with the growing issues that Arlington Heights residents and, well, anyone in Illinois, continue to bring forth. The Bears are trying to act as if they are holding public listening meetings, but the questions and people are arranged by the team. Meaning, there is no chance of any actual or serious questions/topics being brought up.
Yet even with the questions and people pre-selected, the team’s GM, Kevin Warren, still got “confrontational” and threatened people who asked questions.
“Over the last few months … he’s doing or saying anything he wants, and this idea of getting a bit confrontational, as this meeting did, maybe even some veiled threats … Warren’s very aggressive, very aggressive … Everyone at Halas Hall believes that this issue with the Arlington Heights schools districts will be resolved, but this most recent meeting didn’t accomplish anything to get them closer to doing that. This was a missed opportunity where Warren’s aggressiveness is not particularly well-received” – Dan Bernstein, 670 The Score, 06/28/23
As Front Office Sports notes, the original price of the Stadium and Entertainment District for the Bears new stadium was projected around $5 billion. Billionaires don’t become billionaires without keeping every last cent that they can, and I can only guess that is the attitude that the Bears are taking.
