[Nick Douglas]

In my dream world the Bears rip out the flying saucer, dig down 50-80-100 feet and leave the outer ring/columns as the top of the stadium.

Amen, brother.

[St. Loser Fan]

Amen, brother.

I want to say the current field is at ground level or not that far down. If they do like SoFi I'm thinking they can keep the historic exterior/columns but have a nice modern full size stadium: not the ugly UFO and small stadium they have now.

The problem is the Bears are probably doomed to a move to the suburbs. They're probably jealous of the mountains of money the Ricketts are making at Wrigley with the stadium updates and the buildings/hotel they own across the streets.

[BuiltRamTough]

There goes Soldier Field

[Hacksaw]

Bummer.

[St. Loser Fan]

1) In an unheard of alignment, Illinois representatives from both parties and all over the state are moving to get bills in to committee that will severely limit the public money options for the Bears. They will either need to find friends to kill those bills before they get to chambers or a new stadium will have to be with private money.

2) Some are pointing out that Shad Khan of the Jacksonville Jaguars went to school at the University of Illinois and that a bunch of his auto parts factories are located in Illinois or the Chicagoland area of Indiana. Could the Jaguars be a co-tenant with the Bears at an Arlington Heights version of SoFi?

[St. Loser Fan]

[Nick Douglas]

The Illinois state thing is pure political BS. The Bears were never going to ask for money from the state. The public contribution will and was always going to be in the form of a TIF.

Anything can happen in the WWE, but I would be shocked if Shad moved to Illinois. It makes no sense, unless the Bears somehow can't get financing for the Arlington Heights stadium and surrounding development. With how cheap money is these days, I can't see how the Bears will have any trouble rounding up low interest cash.

1) In an unheard of alignment, Illinois representatives from both parties and all over the state are moving to get bills in to committee that will severely limit the public money options for the Bears. They will either need to find friends to kill those bills before they get to chambers or a new stadium will have to be with private money.

2) Some are pointing out that Shad Khan of the Jacksonville Jaguars went to school at the University of Illinois and that a bunch of his auto parts factories are located in Illinois or the Chicagoland area of Indiana. Could the Jaguars be a co-tenant with the Bears at an Arlington Heights version of SoFi?

[St. Loser Fan]

The Illinois state thing is pure political BS. The Bears were never going to ask for money from the state. The public contribution will and was always going to be in the form of a TIF.

Anything can happen in the WWE, but I would be shocked if Shad moved to Illinois. It makes no sense, unless the Bears somehow can't get financing for the Arlington Heights stadium and surrounding development. With how cheap money is these days, I can't see how the Bears will have any trouble rounding up low interest cash.

It is mostly political BS. State involvement for stadiums is limited to using state bonds and other low interest loans.

The Bears are rich wealth wise but liquidity poor. All of their money comes from the football team.
https://deadspin.com/meet-the-nfls-10-p ... 6/slides/4
Getting $3 billion to $5 billion to build a midwest SoFi means selling part/all of the team. Plus given Chicago's severely recessed real estate market and overall population loss I question how many banks would loan that much.

The city/town of Arlington Heights doesn't have the public money to fund a stadium. In addition the Cook County political machine won't facilitate an in-county move from the lakefront to the suburbs.

[St. Loser Fan]

Deleted

[Elvis]