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Paul Sullivan: Sure, give the Bears whatever they want for a new stadium after that pitch

Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune on

Published in Football

Maybe there will even be more bathrooms, and video boards that you won’t have to crane your neck to see?

Let’s do it.

Naturally, Gov. J.B. Pritzker immediately threw cold water on the Bears’ and Johnson’s big day, saying he was “skeptical” and wondering “whether it’s a good deal for the taxpayers.” That’s the easiest way to put the kibosh on the project without actually looking into whether it would be a good thing for the city and the McCaskeys, the public and private part of the public-private venture.

Funding should not be an issue. Warren told the Chicago Tribune editorial board that the 30-year bonds for U.S. Bank Stadium, which he got built in Minnesota, were paid off 23 years ahead of schedule because of revenues from e-pull tabs, a gambling game that’s like a lottery ticket.

If extending the 2% hotel tax for another 40 years is a problem for Pritzker, perhaps the Bears can instead propose an added 2% tax on adult-use cannabis sales in Illinois. That should pay off the bonds for the new stadium in no time, as anyone who ever got a contact high from strolling through the tailgate parties on the Waldron Deck, the proposed site of the stadium, can attest.

The nonprofit Friends of the Park likely will try to butt in, as they did when they drove away the last billionaire who wanted to build something — a “Star Wars” themed museum — on our cherished lakefront.

 

But this is not an ego-driven project promoting an overrated sci-fi movie that appeals only to nerds. This is our beloved Bears, even though they’re owned by the not-so-beloved McCaskeys. Who elected these “Friends” anyways? Can’t they find something to do inside for once in their lives?

Time is of the essence, the Bears warned us, with the cost expected to go up by $150 million or so every wasted year without a shovel in the ground.

If you can’t bear the idea of helping out the billionaire McCaskeys, do it for all the kids who would benefit from what was touted as 20% more open space from the removal of the crashed spaceship and turning the current field into a park — albeit with better sod, I’m guessing.

Or think about Johnson’s inauguration ceremony at the new stadium, as he bizarrely fantasized about Wednesday during his rambling pep-rally speech that ended with the words “God bless the greatest freaking city in the world.”

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