According to Crain's, Weird Jerry wants to raise the amusement tax, put up a TIF district, and build the whole thing for $2B in all taxpayer money.
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Regarding his own team's fortunes and his hopes for a state-sponsored stadium, Reinsdorf notably:
• Said financing the stadium would require not only $1.1 billion in subsidies from an existing tax on Chicago hotel rooms but also up to $900 million in infrastructure work that already has been authorized but not funded by a tax-increment financing district that covers The 78 property. Such a move, however, will require legislative and possibly City Council approval.
• Indicated he’s on a fast track, hoping to begin preliminary construction work later this year and play in the new stadium by the 2028 season.
• Conceded that the Sox and the Chicago Bears may be competing for the same public-revenue source, the hotel tax, to pay for new Chicago arenas, but said the two family-owned teams are trying to work out a mutually beneficial deal. One thing that’s off the table: Sharing a stadium. “It doesn’t work,” Reinsdorf said. “You end up having a stadium that is no good for football or baseball.”
• Said he’s unsure what will happen to Guaranteed Rate and adjoining parking lots if the Sox move downtown. Constructing hundreds of new housing units and retail space is one possibility, and converting the stadium itself into a smaller home for the soccer Chicago Fire is another possibility, he said.
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Reinsdorf said the “first phase” of The 78 project now being proposed will involve about $4 billion in investment — about half for a hotel, apartments and other projects and $1.8 billion to $2 billion for the stadium and needed infrastructure, such as parking and relocating nearby Metra tracks. Though the latter spending is already detailed in the TIF deal between the city and Related, Reinsdorf conceded the entire cost of the stadium, if his plan comes to fruition, would be financed by ISFA and the city TIF district.
Reinsdorf said the construction bond ISFA issues would be retired with proceeds from the hotel tax. The tax will pull in an estimated $52 million to $56 million this year — better than last year but still below the pre-COVID level, the ISFA disclosed at its monthly board meeting today. With ISFA still having $489 million in outstanding debt as of last June 30, it’s not clear that income is sufficient to pay off both that debt and finance a new Sox stadium.
Reinsdorf said all of those payments — retiring the old Soldier Field debt and the new Sox stadium debt — would be feasible by issuing new bonds with 30- to 35-year maturities.
As previously reported, Reinsdorf also is seeking to capture state sales tax from The 78 property. He said that would be as a backstop in case revenues from the hotel tax were insufficient to meet debt service, but that either way the proposed deal would “continue” rather than impose any new taxes.
As for the Bears, Reinsdorf said he’s had continuing “conversations” with team owners in an effort to keep from getting in each other’s way. “I don’t want to be in competition with the McCaskeys,” Reinsdorf said. He declined to elaborate, but political insiders are discussing rumors of a possible hike in the city’s amusement tax as a revenue source.
I don't care for this.
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Molly Lambert wrote:
The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.