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.
🚨🚨THE OBAMA FILES ARE WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.
His lawyers didn’t show up to negotiate.
They showed up to BEG.
Here’s what Bondi’s team found inside the Tehran servers under Obama’s codename — RENEGADE:
— 14 wire transfers to a Swiss account linked to Hezbollah between 2014-2016. Total: $1.7 billion. The same $1.7 billion he told Congress was “frozen Iranian assets.”
— A signed directive authorizing the CIA to stand down during the Benghazi attack. Not typed. HANDWRITTEN.
— Communications with Epstein’s handler, dated March 2015, discussing “the island arrangement” and “the Chicago package.”
— A backchannel to Tehran through Valerie Jarrett, active from 2012 to 2024. Yes. 2024. Two years AFTER he left office.
He didn’t just betray America.
He was running a shadow government from his basement in D.C. while pretending to be retired.
His lawyers are now offering FULL COOPERATION in exchange for immunity.
Trump said no.
No deals. No mercy. No escape.
The man who divided America for 8 years is about to face the America he tried to destroy.
And she’s awake.
FOLLOW ME, THE NEXT DROP WILL BE SHOCKING
Hakeem Jeffries: "Why does Donald Trump always have to ruin a good thing? The Knicks haven't been in the NBA Finals for 27 years, the city is trying to celebrate this, we've embraced this team, and this guy has to inject himself."
😳 HOLD UP…….Watch it slowed down.
Dream player pretends she’s hit right in front of the ref — she blows the whistle quickly, BUT WAIT…….Watch where I zoom in on the ref’s smug/hateful look at Caitlin Clark as she protests 👀 She couldn’t hide it!!
What is this @WNBA??? 🤡
**Britney Spears alleged that Oprah Winfrey, Jeffrey Epstein, and elite insiders orchestrated events that traumatized and controlled her for years.** 🤔💭
Ladies, take omega-3 + vitamin D + Magnesium and probiotics seriously. Not next month. Not when symptoms show up. Now. Here is what they may be doing inside your body:
@otokyo And the back story here is my mother and father was married and had me when she was 17, they got divorced. 7 and 1/2 years later my sister was born, but he was beating my mom when she was pregnant. 11 years later my brother came and that was the last man she was with.
@otokyo These comments are vile. Judging someone’s actions that you know nothing about. Sometimes shitty things happen to good people. So glad everyone in here is perfect. Gotta love the internet