All of this at a cost of $30M...and would be "paid for by the San Jose Sharks." The mayor mentioned that she was "pleased" that taxpayers were being asked to spend "next to no cost" for this project. The mayor wrote a letter to the Gilroy Dispatch to again state that this project would "be paid for and operated by Sharks Sports & Entertainment."
Now, the Portland Trail Blazers would like some of that money. According to OregonLive, the Blazers want an “estimated $20 million per year” to be given to them “from the state’s general fund.” The team claims that this allows them to start a $600 million renovation of the current arena. However, as OregonLive notes, the Blazers' situation is not similar to last year's MLB giveaway. The NBA team's players/staff have already been paying “into the…
The Chicago Bears also forgot to add in the multiple billions that taxpayer would owe for stadium and infrastructure costs. This means that taxpayers would likely be paying 70% of the cost, if not more. What about the other sports teams wanting billions for their own stadiums? If the team had somehow gotten this deal to go through, the bill for taxpayers could have been so much higher than what the team claimed.
The Chicago Bears have already talked about what they want to do on this land. Was I dreaming when I read the following: “The team has sketched out designs on a new entertainment district anchored by a $5 billion domed stadium”? Why would the city, much less anyone, allow the team to peg this land as vacant or residential land? Well, the Bears have an answer for that too.
Yet even with the questions and people pre-selected, the Chicago Bears GM, Kevin Warren, still got “confrontational” and threatened people who asked questions. 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.
Yesterday, I read an interesting opinion piece in the Chicago Tribune. In it, a woman claims that the city of Chicago should just hand back naming rights money along with ownership of the Chicago Bears stadium land. Why? Because the Bears owners family is nice? I don't know. I couldn't find anything substantive or factual about her belief that the city doing this would make a single difference compared to today.
Last week, Crain’s Chicago Business had a good article discussing the financial issues that the city is facing with the current Bears stadium. Even though the Bears are trying to scam another city into paying for a new stadium, their current one continues to cost the city of Chicago millions of dollars. Basically, the city […]
The Chicago Bears publicly admitted to buying land in nearby Arlington Heights to likely build a new stadium. However, it appears that a Chicago (technically Cook County) assessor is now holding the Bears accountable for future property taxes on this land. The county assessor raised the property tax value of this land by six times (applies to tax year 2022 and beyond), and that does not even include the construction that will be done.
