Close to one week ago, the Bears made their public proposal for a new stadium on Chicago's lakefront.
Bears COO and executive vice president of stadium development Karen Murphy said in a presentation last Wednesday that the team expects the entire stadium project to cost $4.7 billion: $3.2 for the stadium itself, just over $300 million for the infrastructure required to open it, and $1.2 billion for two other phases of development.
Last month, the team confirmed it would contribute $2 billion dollars to fund the majority of the project. On Wednesday, a slide in the presentation clarified that number would be closer to $2.025 billion dollars. After that, the team would look to an NFL stadium program for a $300 million loan. That leaves a $900 million gap for the stadium financing itself. The Bears plan has them looking to a bond mechanism in the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority program to make up the difference.
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But that's where things get tricky. Because the Bears are trying to refinance the debt owed on the initial bonds doled out from the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority (ISFA) for Guaranteed Rate Field and renovations to Soldier Field, the future costs of the stadium could outweigh what the team projects now, according to a report from the Chicago Sun-Times.
The Bears made “a thoughtful presentation on their plans for the new stadium and surrounding property along Chicago’s lakefront,” Frank Bilecki, executive director of the ISFA, told the Sun-Times. “This included high-level financial information. ISFA looks forward to further discussions with the Bears to gain a clear understanding of their assumptions, payment schedules, interest rates and more.”
According to the Sun-Times, Chicago taxpayers are still on the hook for $629.3 million in principal and interest for the renovations to Soldier Field and Guaranteed Rate Field. Those costs, with interest, puts taxpayers in the hole of $1.08 billion.
To this point, per the Sun-Times, Chicago and Illinois taxpayers have already paid $1 billion in bonds to renovate both Soldier Field and Guaranteed Rate Field.
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Remember, with the way the bonds work, Chicago's 2% hotel tax backs the debt of the ISFA's initial bonds. If those bonds fail to exceed 5.5% annual growth, the rest of the amount due on the bonds is left to taxpayers.
In the past three years, the hotel tax has failed to cover two of those years. The biggest deficit taxpayers were on the hook for was $27.3 million in 2022.
The Bears still need to present their proposal to the state, seeing as they'll need loads of public money to get this project done. It'll be interesting to see how that goes, seeing as Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has already thrown cold water on the project.
"The deal that was presented didn’t take into account that taxpayers really aren’t going to do well under that proposal," Pritzker said on the Friday following the Bears' press conference.
Even as the ISFA sees it, the Bears need to make clear their full financial intentions for the project.
Bilecki told the Sun-Times it was important for "decision makers, taxpayers and everyone to understand the entire financial picture being presented."
"When we consider this is taxpayer dollars — as many of our leaders across the city, county and state have said — dollars are precious right now," he said. "Making sure they’re put toward the right projects is going to be important."