Bears thought they got their stadium on lakefront

The Warren plan costs $7 billion to build. Bears are putting in $2 billion. They cannot possibly pay it all without some tax revenue.  The Seahawks fans concede that point, but argue that Warren should scale down the plan to only a football stadium like we have in Seattle that Bears could afford to build alone without any tax revenue.

I'd have to see what the 7B is coming from. Is that the amount for the initial stadium, or is that the amount for the stadium and part of the complex around the stadium. And how much revenue is going to be associated with each phase? will the revenue service the debt associated with that phase? And not all of it would be serviced from tax savings. Remember, this is going to be their stadium (at least if they do it in AH) and current revenues would go up. That would be used to service the debt too. You would have to do a deep dive into costs, expected revenues, margins on those revenues, etc. All I am saying is that those numbers could close the gap quite a bit.

I think it's a whole different world trying to do this in Illinois & Chicago versus the Jaguars in a smaller Florida town of 900k people.  And a reno project to boot, versus a new build from scratch here in Chicago.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.  One of the articles I was reading this morning was talking about this being the dance they do before a deal is made.  I have to figure that if the McCaskey's are really going to pony up $2-billion dollars, then that money would go further and return more on their investment in Arlington Heights where they already own the property.  And they would have a higher return on their investment with the land holdings they would own around that new sports complex.  In contrast, in Chicago where they would be renters again, there would be no 350 acres of land to be developed like in AH.  The AH real estate would be a gold mine for the family... and they'd own it.  

I have been going to games at Soldier Field for many years now.  There is zero that attracts me to that location.  It is a pain to drive there, park there - and everything is horribly overpriced.  The crime (yes, even in that area) is an issue too (and I'm a retired 30-year police officer, and even I don't want to be in that area).  The fact that it is lakefront does nothing for me... I go to watch football, not watch the waterfront.  In recent years I quit going to home games.  I go to away games just so I don't have to deal with the Chicago issues that just don't make the experience enjoyable at all for me or my family.