The Chicago Bears may need a new stadium, and as David Greising writes in his recent column ( June 7), there may be a winning argument that Chicago does, too. But not on my lakefront, please! Nothing’s supposed to be built there, remember? Chicagoans who are not football fans (yes, I speak for myself) do not want a sports team to turn the potentially beautiful stretch of lakefront between McCormick Place and the river into a franchised area, as the Rickettses have remade Wrigleyville. There are multiple locations that would serve local populations better and not scar our shore.
Leave the lake alone, please, except for true improvements that allow use for free to all, without commercialism and private profit as the motivation. If Bears President Kevin Warren did get his lakefront stadium that he falsely claims will create 43,000 construction jobs and only cost $4.7 billion, then phase one, the stadium, would get built and go over budget because $3.
2 billion is nowhere near what it would really cost. Phases 2 and 3, which would be paid by the state, would cost way more due to inflation five to 10 years down the line and probably not be done in a timely fashion due to budget constraints. The lakefront will end up with two stadiums near each other and the Bears getting all the revenue from all events as the state sinks further into debt.
This is a horrible deal set up by the same con man who made some extremely questionable maneuvers as commissioner of the Big Ten. As reported .
