Report: Bears focusing on Chicago lakefront, not suburbs

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And I don't claim to know anything about this kind of stuff.  But it just seems to me that the Bears were trying to whittle down the taxes and didn't get a seismic change.  And they did lose a year here as this fight seemed to stall the project.  But now that this is pretty much settled (unless they want to drag the process on for another year of appeals) it's time to begin the project. 

This talk about renting something in the South lot of the old Soldier Field property, for a new lakefront stadium just seems to be a repeat of what they already have... tenants of the City again.  There would be no multi-billion dollar campus of hotels, restaurants, entertainment, gambling, etc, being built on land they would own.  All centered around their new "crown jewel" of their own stadium.  They would own a 300+ acre campus around that state-of-the-art sports venue.  I just think there is no "decision" to be made now.  They would be nuts to not move forward now with the land they own.  And yes, they will have to pay taxes.  If that is a shock to "The Family" then LOL, I don't know what they were thinking when they bought the land.  Ted Philips surely understood how this works when they committed to buying this property.   

Bears aren't building a stadium on the lakefront, folks. That's a pipe dream that only Mark Carmen on CHGO still believes in. No way that happens.

This is all the stupid political posturing, negotiating leverage, and NIMBY stuff that plagues lots of major development projects. It's particularly bad in Cook County which is notorious for graft and insider dealing.

You wonder why Vegas can build a beautiful, expensive new stadium and host a SB in just 2 years while Illinois can't? That's why.

The Bears will end up in Arlington Heights (maybe 5% chance of a different suburb) but it will take years of bs wrangling and millions of wasted dollars to finally drag it over the finish line.

All political posturing for leverage with the AH crowd.

Bears want to OWN their stadium and land and have a year-round facility complete with hotels and restaurants which can host concerts, SBs, Final 4s, conventions, etc.  

There's no room or land for sale or transportation access to accommodate a lakefront site.  SF and the surrounding area is beautiful scenically in Sept/Oct but otherwise completely sucks.  And I say that as a STH who's gone to games there for many years.  The access is terrible and the site is cramped with no creature comforts less than a 1.5 mile walk away.

And can U imagine the cost overruns and delays that would come with a city site?  The graft and red tape are way worse in the city than the suburbs and the Cook County suburbs are no picnic there. 

If Warren has a big yard, maybe we got ourselves a new location.