The Chicago Bears are lobbying for public help in building a new stadium on the city’s lakefront, but they’re encountering opposition from a variety of places as they press that case.
The team is aiming to build a domed stadium just south of their current home at Soldier Field, and while Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office has called the ambitious request for public assistance a “non-starter,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson says that the situation requires a solution as soon as possible.
“You have a 100-year-old building that has millions of dollars in debt. So you have this asset that is not getting the full benefit for the people of the state of Illinois,” Johnson said during a media availability in Springfield. “As the Bears continue to have these conversations with leadership, as well as the rank-and-file members, that’s the case that they will have to make, but understanding that we have a structurally-damaged situation that really needs a solution. That’s what this is about. Providing solutions to a problem like everything else I’ve inherited.”
The Bears’ project is facing opposition from multiple angles, including the public financing component.
Community activist Father Michael Pfleger took to Facebook to criticize that portion of the plan, but also took aim at Friends of the Parks, a Chicago group that has voiced opposition to new construction on the city’s lakefront.
“I am against funding the Bears’ stadium with tax dollars, but am also sick of the Friends of the Parks deciding what can be done in this city,” he said. “We already lost the Lucas Museum.”
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Friends of the Parks filed a lawsuit against filmmaker George Lucas’ proposed museum project on the lakeshore during the 2010s, with the museum ultimately relocating to California after the filmmaker dropped plans to locate it within the city.
The group dismissed Pfleger’s criticism, saying that they are not a monolith and that they didn’t single-handedly end Lucas’ plans in the city.
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“We joke that in this situation we’re both the David and the Goliath,” FOTP said in a response to Pfleger’s comments. “No, we don’t control the city. Even with Lucas, we didn’t kick Lucas out of Chicago. He decided he did not want to work through the litigation process. He decided not to pursue other alternatives.”
The group went on to say that they were “not the one shining voice for Chicago,” and that they are open to all continued negotiations in the stadium planning process.
Lucas did not take such a view of their actions during the negotiations over the proposed museum.
“No one benefits from continuing their seemingly unending litigation to protect a parking lot,” Lucas said in a statement in 2016. “The actions initiated by Friends of Parks and their recent attempts to extract concessions from the city have effectively overridden approvals received from numerous democratically elected bodies of government.”
Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel also criticized the organization’s opposition to the museum.
“We tried to find common ground to resolve the lawsuit – the sole barrier preventing the start of the museum’s construction,” he said. “But despite our best efforts to negotiate a common solution that would keep this tremendous cultural and economic asset in Chicago, Friends of the Parks chose to instead negotiate with themselves while Lucas negotiated with cities on the West Coast.’
The group dismissed the criticism from Lucas and Emanuel, saying that the land “belongs to the residents of Illinois” and that they were adhering to the public trust doctrine, which holds that new private construction should not be permitted on the shores of Lake Michigan.
“There’s more than a 100-year history here in Chicago of protecting our lakefront from development, based on this public trust doctrine, which actually goes back to British law and beyond,” former Executive Director Juanita Irizarry said in 2016. “The land belongs to the residents of Illinois, not the government. There has to be a very serious inquiry into the balance between the public interest and the private benefit if there is to be development on that land.”
They also put things bluntly when it came to Lucas’ decision to end negotiations.
“The decision to leave Chicago was that of Mr. Lucas, not of Friends of the Parks,” Irizarry said.
As for the current project, the Bears’ plan includes preserving the historic columns from Soldier Field, but calls for the stadium to be demolished to make way for “open spaces for families, fans and the general public,” according to the team.
Friends of the Parks says the plan is a start, but that there are a lot of unanswered questions.
“There’s a lot of ‘trust us, we’ll figure it out.’ That’s fine, but that’s why we keep the process slow,” acting Executive Director Gin Kilgore said. “We’re being told phase one, in terms of public money and infrastructure, is redesigning Lake Shore Drive, which we find somewhat surprising considering that usually major roadway projects take years if not decades to plan.”
Kilgore also criticized the team’s urgency in pursuing public funding and approvals for the stadium, saying they are designed as a negotiating tactic to short-circuit the critical planning of a new endeavor along the lakeshore.
“We use the analogy of ‘every project gets more expensive over time,’ so just because the Bears are concerned about the conditions of Soldier Field, like everyone else, you have to take your time and figure out your plan,” Kilgore said.
The Bears are committed to continuing discussions with the city and state over stadium plans.
“We had a productive conversation with the governor’s office,” the team said in a statement. “We share a commitment to protecting the taxpayers of Illinois and look forward to further discussions.”
