Jump to content

New Soldier Field stadium plans unveiled


TrueYankee26

Recommended Posts

Boy this is good. Laurence Holmes just lets Brandon Johnson paint himself as the fool and the mark over sixteen minutes without having to deploy a single zinger or gotcha. Halfway in he's talking about the great public benefit being a shiny new place for the high school girls' flag football championship and the Prep Bowl, and by the end our progressive socialist mayor is talking about how proud he is to have the opportunity to align himself with these particular billionaires.

 

 

  • Like 1
On 1/25/2013 at 1:53 PM, 'Atom said:

For all the bird de lis haters I think the bird de lis isnt supposed to be a pelican and a fleur de lis I think its just a fleur de lis with a pelicans head. Thats what it looks like to me. Also the flair around the tip of the beak is just flair that fleur de lis have sometimes source I am from NOLA.

PotD: 10/19/07, 08/25/08, 07/22/10, 08/13/10, 04/15/11, 05/19/11, 01/02/12, and 01/05/12.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, Sykotyk said:

Allegiant Stadium only held 61k for the Super Bowl. 

61k was the announced attendance.  The stadium normally holds 65k for NFL games and can reportedly expand to over 71k.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I heard in conversation last night somebody said the lakefront renderings reminded them of World's Fair artwork and Land of Tomorrow concepts.  I've never looked at stadium renderings that way before, but with this particular stadium and the wretched logistics that control it, those designs are absolutely FutureWorld goofiness.  As others have said and will continue to say, this is not going to happen, and if it does, it certainly won't be anything like this.  At this rate the Bears would be lucky to come out of this with marginal "improvements" to Soldier Field.  Likely one of which would be a statue of Kevin Warren holding hands with Jesus ala the "Partners" sculpture in Disney World.

 

 

Quote
"You are nothing more than a small cancer on this message board. You are not entertaining, you are a complete joke."

twitter

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, CS85 said:

 As others have said and will continue to say, this is not going to happen, and if it does, it certainly won't be anything like this.  

If you listened closely to Warren yesterday, you could hear that trademark Halas/McCaskey cheapness seeping through all the grandiose promises. Of course the stadium can't have a retractable roof; that would increase the project cost by three to five percent, and they're all about being "fiscally responsible." And yes, this plan needs to be approved within the next month, in the spring session of the state legislature, because construction costs might go up by the fall. Maybe the Bears have a coupon. Really solidifies who's going to be on the hook for the inevitable cost overruns.

 

Again, this team would be playing at Wrigley Field to this day had the NFL not forced their hand in 1970.

On 1/25/2013 at 1:53 PM, 'Atom said:

For all the bird de lis haters I think the bird de lis isnt supposed to be a pelican and a fleur de lis I think its just a fleur de lis with a pelicans head. Thats what it looks like to me. Also the flair around the tip of the beak is just flair that fleur de lis have sometimes source I am from NOLA.

PotD: 10/19/07, 08/25/08, 07/22/10, 08/13/10, 04/15/11, 05/19/11, 01/02/12, and 01/05/12.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Governor Pritzker had a few more words to add today after the big showcase for Divine Intervention Stadium.

 

Quote

Oh, it is more than what they put forward. I think all of you are starting to report on that. I mean, they want infrastructure dollars on top of what they’re asking for in funding.

 

They’re asking to keep all of the revenue from other events that might take place at the stadium. You know, if there’s a Beyoncé concert, they want all of that revenue too, and everything else that might happen there. So yeah, I mean, there are aspects of this that are, you know, probably non-starters.

 

Having said that, you know, always open to a conversation but as I’ve said, the priorities of the people of Illinois are not building stadiums, right?

 

It’s really about for example, birth equity and building birth centers for people in Black and Brown communities, just as one example. But we have important things we need to invest in for the future of the state and again, stadiums in my mind don’t rank up in the top tier of those.

 

[Asked about state revenues for other purposes being used for the stadium]

 

You’re saying dollars that would come into the state of Illinois for other purposes and kind of making sure that those go to this? No. I mean, the truth is that if we have dollars coming in to support parks, for example, in Chicago or in the state of Illinois, it strikes me that it wasn’t contemplated that those dollars would go to a ballpark [chuckles], but rather parks for children and families and neighborhoods and making sure that the city of Chicago has beautiful places for people to go and enjoy themselves without having to spend hundreds of dollars on tickets and and other things.

 

[Asked about whether it would be preferable to use revenues rather than borrowing]

 

You mean if like manna from Heaven, a check arrived and it said ‘Give this to the Chicago Bears’ would I want to do that, is that your…?

 

[If there happened to be one of those funds, would that be preferable to borrowing money]

 

I’m unaware. If you know of one of those funds, yeah, let me know. I’m unaware of one.

 

It is bonkers that the guy born into ten-figure generational wealth is better at understanding this than the unionist semi-socialist organizer from the West Side, but here we are.

On 1/25/2013 at 1:53 PM, 'Atom said:

For all the bird de lis haters I think the bird de lis isnt supposed to be a pelican and a fleur de lis I think its just a fleur de lis with a pelicans head. Thats what it looks like to me. Also the flair around the tip of the beak is just flair that fleur de lis have sometimes source I am from NOLA.

PotD: 10/19/07, 08/25/08, 07/22/10, 08/13/10, 04/15/11, 05/19/11, 01/02/12, and 01/05/12.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Sodboy13 said:

Governor Pritzker had a few more words to add today after the big showcase for Divine Intervention Stadium.

 

 

It is bonkers that the guy born into ten-figure generational wealth is better at understanding this than the unionist semi-socialist organizer from the West Side, but here we are.

 

Do you suspect, as I do, that Pritzker is still cosmically annoyed with the Bears for their initial "we bought Arlington Park, now do as we tell you for we are the Bears" stunt and is not really going to let them get away with continuously trying to big-time everyone? It feels like the Bears have been operating under an old paradigm where the governor of Illinois only exists to officially open the state fair. Just inept at every turn.

♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, absolutely. If they had reached out to the state ahead of the land purchase and expressed their intent, things could have been facilitated and wheels could have been greased in a fashion that would have pissed off a minimum of taxpayers. Instead they just up and bought the land, shoved their hands out and said "Stadium, please. 1985!" and for a governor who's priding himself on digging the state out of the financial hole the last one got us into, that simply was not going to work. Ginny McCaskey may think Jim Thompson is still governor, but it don't work that way around here anymore. Mike Madigan isn't governor anymore, either, but the Bears are more than welcome to donate to his legal defense fund and see what that gets them.

On 1/25/2013 at 1:53 PM, 'Atom said:

For all the bird de lis haters I think the bird de lis isnt supposed to be a pelican and a fleur de lis I think its just a fleur de lis with a pelicans head. Thats what it looks like to me. Also the flair around the tip of the beak is just flair that fleur de lis have sometimes source I am from NOLA.

PotD: 10/19/07, 08/25/08, 07/22/10, 08/13/10, 04/15/11, 05/19/11, 01/02/12, and 01/05/12.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • TrueYankee26 changed the title to New Soldier Field stadium plans unveiled

I think what I still can't get past more than anything is that they tried to make a move against Chicago while staying in Cook County. Chicago and Cook County aren't officially consolidated like San Francisco or Philadelphia, but the two hardly have an adversarial relationship--broadly speaking, what's good for the city is good for the county, and losing the Bears would have been bad for the city. (Of course, keeping them under Saint Kevin's onerous terms might be even worse.) And so no one except the McCaskeys could be that surprised when the county assessor found a way to hit them with a tax bill they couldn't afford and scuttled their plans. Arlington Heights was going to be in its own county once upon a time, but then the northwest suburbs started voting Democratic and I haven't heard about it since. Maybe the Bears had bad intel there too.

 

I can still see an open-air stadium on Roosevelt with mostly private funds. Something like what the Seahawks have with covered stands. Bears, Fire, Red Stars. No ambitious surrounding development. Maybe Beyonce can split the difference and only do a ten-night residency.

♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.