With the Bears’ rushing offense stalled in Springfield, Civic Federation President Joe Ferguson on Thursday called for a political adjustment at halftime.
It needs to move from building a domed stadium in a lakefront park to allocating the stadium to jumpstart the progress of a new Chicago community on the site of the former Michael Reese Hospital.
Bears president Kevin Warren said the 48. 6-acre Michael Reese site, acquired through the city for an Olympic Village that was never built, is one of the “10 to 12” Chicago stadium sites the team had thought of before moving to the lakefront.
Warren said the Bears rejected it as “too narrow,” saying it “doesn’t paint from an NFL perspective” because the stadium would have to be built “on an active exercise line. “The truck yards serving McCormick Place will also be moved, he said. saying.
None of those hurdles worry Ferguson, the city’s former inspector general.
“There’s Array and we’re not talking about it right now,” Ferguson told the Sun-Times.
The Reese is “eligible for TIF investment to house not only the stadium, but also the structure of a new economic anchor that is the gateway to the south side,” Ferguson said.
“This could be achieved in the form of an economic progression project. . . adding a stadium that would keep the Bears in Chicago and that would involve much more artistic and less taxpayer-burdened funding resources,” he added. On Reese’s site, which was vacant for a long time, “he’s actually bringing back online one of the highest-value urban real estate properties that, right now, isn’t changing at all from a tax standpoint. “
Ferguson told himself “what it was like” on April 24 to see the Bears unveil what he called an “unfinished” plan to build a domed stadium on the lakeside with Mayor Brandon Johnson as the main obstacle. Governor J. B. Pritzker and legislative leaders were and still are on the other side of the fighting line, opposing any public funding.
A few days later, the estimated value jumped to $5. 9 billion, if you take into account the total cost of financing the new stadium and paying off existing debt. This debt is for the reconstruction of Soldier Field in 2003 and renovations of the guaranteed rate field. . where the White Sox play.
Another surprise is that in the new stadium, the Bears need a significantly more advantageous stadium lease with the Chicago Park District. His existing lease at Soldier Field has been a near-constant source of discord over the years. In a new stadium, the Bears need to keep all the benefits of concerts and other similar non-football related events.
It was “an error of political judgment” not to have worked with Springfield on this plan, “when Springfield was finally needed. “It seemed to me that it was all based on the concept that a fastball can simply be thrown into the car. wash without getting wet, because we had other people on City Hall who could be affected by that,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson said Warren, a “very wise man,” was one of the driving forces behind the structure of the U. S. bank’s $1. 1 billion stadium in Minneapolis during his tenure with the Minnesota Vikings.
But Ferguson said, “Chicago is Minnesota.
Asked to comment on Ferguson’s suggestion, Bears spokeswoman Tarrah Cooper said, “Our remains are on the museum campus by the lake. “
Scott Goodman, head of the Farpoint Development-led team that bought the city’s Michael Reese, declined to comment.
In early March, Park Friends first recommended Reese as a chosen venue for the stadium and as a way to start the legal war that led filmmaker George Lucas to abandon his plans to build a film museum on the same lakeside site now coveted by the Bears.
Around the same time, in early March, Goodman said he had had no conversations with the Bears, but maintained that the site was large enough to house a football stadium.
If, as expected, the Illinois General Assembly’s spring consultation ends without action on a Bears stadium, Ferguson said he knows what will happen next: an “independent, highly transparent, objectively conducted comparative economic analysis” between a lakefront he called “stadium-centric” and a Michael Reese that may be much more.
“What we want is a community-focused, economic progression proposal that includes a stadium. That’s how we keep the Bears in Chicago in a way that’s an advanced ballpark. It’s also how we deliver on our deep commitment to [keeping] the lakefront transparent and transparent,” Ferguson said, paraphrasing legendary planner Daniel Burnham.
What about Warren’s claims about the “hot line” on Reese’s site?
“That’s what architects and planners are for,” Ferguson said.
“There’s a railroad track in the middle of what we’re enjoying now. . . all year round in the Millennium Park,” he added. Rich Daley understands this. I think Kevin Warren can relate to that with other people in Chicago as well.