Chicago lost the Bears this week. A team that's been in the city since 1921.
They didn't lose them to a bigger market or a better deal. The Bears decided they'd rather be a tenant in Indiana than deal with Illinois for one more year.
Think about how badly you have to run a place for that to be the smart move.
They lost them for two reasons.
The people running Illinois would rather villainize a builder than keep one. And they're bad at their jobs.
In 2021 the Bears spent $197M on the old Arlington Park racetrack.
Before they could break ground, Cook County valued the empty lot at $192M (Bears said $60M). They were salivating at the chance to extort a building that didn't even exist yet.
That fight dragged on for years.
The Bears were ready to put $2B into the stadium. All they wanted was a promise the county wouldn't reassess them into oblivion, plus $855M for infrastructure everyone uses. Roads, transit, utilities. A $3B project, two thirds of it private money pouring into Illinois.
Springfield had since 2021 to get this done. They dragged it to the final night of session, passed it through the Senate at 3:39AM, and the House went home without voting.
So now it's all gone.
The funniest part? This started because Cook County tried to grab the tax early. They knew a built stadium would pay $53M a year. Now they get under $4M on a vacant lot. No jobs, no buildout, no new anything.
Congrats on fighting for scraps and losing the whole prize.
Pritzker: they're "an $8.5B valued business" that doesn't need propping up.
But be smart for a second. Almost every NFL city throws in public money for a stadium. Not charity. The return is real. Tourism, hotels, restaurants, jobs, game days, property tax on a huge development. The math works.
Indiana did the math. While Illinois sat on it for years, Indiana passed a bill in months, put up $1B, and took the team.
And the Bears took a worse deal to get there. In Illinois they were going to own their stadium. In Indiana they rent it from the state. A team that wanted to build its own home gave up ownership just to escape Chicago.
Nobody won but Indiana. The Bears lost their stadium. Illinois lost the team, the $2B, and $53M a year in taxes.
Pritzker after they left: "I wasn't willing to give up billions of dollars of taxpayer money to give it to a billionaire-owned family or team."
There it is. "Billionaire-owned."
That's how Democrats talk about any business right before they run it out of town. Call them a billionaire, act like you're saving working families, take a victory lap while the tax base drives across the state line.
Meanwhile they're running the whole state into the ground. And you already know how this ends. You're living in it.
Pensions are $143B in the hole, worst in the country and not close. You pay $6,285 a year in property taxes, double the $2,969 national average, for a city that's $1.15B in the red. The mayor called its finances "the point of no return."
When you run things this badly, you sell what's left.
They leased the parking meters for 75 years to Morgan Stanley and a sovereign wealth fund in Abu Dhabi. Took $1.15B and burned through it in two years. The investors already made it all back, with 58 years left to collect.
Sold the Skyway. Sold the downtown garages. Every asset that made money, gone for one check.
But a fixed property tax rate for a team that's been here 106 years? That's "propping up billionaires."
Companies are leaving. Boeing for Virginia. Caterpillar for Texas. Citadel for Miami. In 2023 alone Illinois lost 56,000 people and $6B in income to other states. The ones who left earned a third more than the ones who moved in.
Indiana didn't outbid anyone. AAA credit, 16 years straight. A $676M surplus. Fourth-lowest debt per person in the country. They just weren't a disaster.
Illinois could have collected $53M a year. It chose zero. Ignore all the bad management but make sure to stick it to those evil, pesky billionaires.
I bucked all advice from my friends (and resisted my conservative bias) and decided to fully trust the Times journalists.
As they left my home they asked that I not talk to any other outlets and I insisted then and repeatedly over the following weeks that I would keep my word and only share this story with them.
But then the weeks dragged on. They kept coming back to us saying the editors needed more. I needed to go on the record (okay). We need more screenshots (okay). I met every bench mark they set, eager to provide more sources or evidence as needed.
After the story went up I began to ask them … wait, where are the stories from the other women? Where are their accusations of sexual assault? Why am I the focus? Why are there 11 paragraphs dedicated to detailing my work history (more than has been published about Graham’s by far)?
Why does it say “nobody could corroborate” when I offered them sources that COULD corroborate?
Why did they include an out of context quote from a friend joking “do not call Graham” after I called off my wedding? (Because she knew I would never).
Where were the screenshots they’d said they would use? Or the mention that I’d supported local democrats and that most of my family (and husband) are liberal?
The editors said it was too much, they explained.
The Times also failed to include any mention that I DID confide in multiple friends through the years that Graham had been abusive — long before he was running for office. Those friends confirm they told the Times so.
It dawned on me that this really was a set up all along. The journalists I trusted who convinced me to share a story I never wanted to tell methodically delayed and twisted this into a gift to the Platner campaign. Violating the trust of his victims. Shattering the trust I placed in them with the most vulnerable story of my life.
And at the end of my call with them I reluctantly accepted their insistence that this was still a powerful story and that I had done a brave thing. And I thanked them for all the hard work they had put into it.
Still fawning after all these years.
Hoosiers, help me welcome the Chicago Bears to our great state!
We look forward to building a partnership as strong as the '85 Bears defense, creating opportunities and economic growth that will benefit our state and the Bears organization for decades to come.
An NFL franchise in Northwest Indiana will be an economic boost to the entire region like we haven’t seen before.
Thank you to Speaker Huston, the legislature, and Mayor McDermott for their partnership. I also want to thank the entire Chicago Bears organization for their partnership and commitment in making this move a reality.
Welcome to Indiana!
@mattvanswol This is how you stop it. Start arresting and imprisoning employers, owners and CEOs who hire illegals. Illegal immigration will then amost totally disappear...VERY quickly.
@SwordOfTheRonin@mattvanswol Agree! Lots of people have been screaming this since Reagan was in office. Sure, arrest illegals. But it won’t stop until the jobs dry up and that happens when dirtbag employers get arrested.
🚨HOLY CRAP!!!
ICE has just confirmed that it ARRESTED THE EMPLOYERS of 48 illegal immigrants in South Carolina!!!
Both the Plant Manager and HR Coordinator for a casting company in Abbeville SC were ARRESTED and face years in prison.
IS THIS WHAT YOU VOTED FOR?!!!!!
🚨 TILLIS TO BESSENT: Did you tell Director Pulte you’d punch him in the face?
BESSENT: “No sir — I actually said I was going to kick his ASS!”
LMAOOOO ☠️
The West has created an utterly evil state religion where an accusation of “racism” is the gravest offense that can be committed, even worse than rape or murder!
So if police show up at a crime scene and a British boy is bleeding out and an immigrant says the British boy is racist the cops will cuff the dying British boy.
🚨 NEW: Fox’s @BritHume CALLS OUT fired CBS host Scott Pelley: “I’ve worked in this TV news business for more than half a century and I’ve worked for many different bosses, many I liked and admired, and a few I did not. But I’ve always found a way to work with every one of them as best I could.”
“I never thought myself as some great guardian of journalistic integrity who wasn’t open to the ideas of others who I might at first disagree. And I’ve never had a problem finding a way to do the work in a way to please me and whatever boss I had - or at least satisfy them.”
“These 60 Minutes correspondents, led by Scott Pelley, seem to think they are the guardians of journalistic integrity. But it’s worth remembering how that show works.”
“Like all these TV magazine shows, as prominent as the correspondents who narrate on cameras seem to be, these shows are producer driven and these correspondents become famous largely because of the good work of producers who do the interviews, writing, supervise the shooting and editing of the pieces. The correspondents get to become big stars that way on a show that has the best lead-in on TV - the NFL on Sundays.”
“So these people are a little self-important to say the least.”
@catturd2 vote counters show up to work 20 minutes late, need a 10 minute affirmation and meditation and then start counting. But don't forget a 15 minute break every hour. So the math maths - that these hero's have processed as many votes as they have is amazing. Give em a break!