After expressing reservations about a deal that will triple profits for the Chicago Bears, a Cook County judge on Thursday ruled against opponents of the Soldier Field overhaul, clearing the way for the $632 million project to proceed.
Rejecting opponents’ arguments that the overhaul illegally benefits the football team at the expense of the public, Circuit Judge John K. Madden swept away a major legal hurdle facing the Bears and the Daley administration.
While Madden noted that the Bears’ benefit would be “substantial” under the deal, he was unwilling to overturn a package approved by the state legislature that deemed tax support of the project in the public interest.
“The sentiments of the court have no place in this decision,” Madden said.
In a surprise disclosure, internal Bears projections revealed in court show their profits should nearly triple from $11.6 million in 1999 to $33.6 million in 2003, the year the new arena is scheduled to open.
The Bears’ internal documents show that nearly all of the new profit will be derived from the renovated Soldier Field, where the team will collect revenues from sources such as concessions and advertising that formerly went to the Chicago Park District, the stadium’s owner.
For instance, the Bears collected $33 million in total revenues from the stadium in 1999 and project $78 million in 2003. However, the Bears’ expenses will increase at the new stadium too, from $14 million to $21 million.
Other Bears’ revenue and expenses, such as television money and players’ salaries, were not available Thursday.Bears President Ted Phillips could not be reached for comment. In a television interview earlier this week, Phillips described the stadium deal as “average” for the National Football League.
Madden’s ruling clears the way for “a first-class stadium” to be built along the lakefront, said Michael Ficaro, an attorney for the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, the state agency that issued the bonds to pay for the stadium project. In addition to football, the stadium will be used for concerts, professional soccer games and other events.
Stadium a `dinosaur’
“What you have to look at is what this does to our lakefront and what this does to the dinosaur of a stadium that Soldier Field was,” Ficaro said. “Anybody that’s ever been in there for any event knows that it didn’t have more than a half dozen breaths left.”
Officials from Friends of the Parks and the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois, which filed the lawsuit, vowed to appeal the ruling.
Erma Tranter, president of Friends of the Parks, said the group wants to keep the stadium primarily in the hands of the public, rather than a private business.
What Madden heard on Thursday amounted to final arguments in a lawsuit that challenged the public financing for the renovation. Both sides had filed motions asking the judge to decide the case without bringing it to trial.
Crucial issue
The crucial issue was whether the financing scheme violated the state constitution by improperly spending public money on a project that the suit claims primarily benefits the Bears. The suit also claimed that the deal illegally turned over publicly owned lakefront property to a private company.
The project, approved by the state legislature in 2000, is being financed in part with $432 million in bond proceeds that will be repaid with a 2 percent tax on Chicago hotel rooms. If the hotel tax falls short, the bonds would be repaid by the city’s share of the state income tax.
Another $200 million for the project is coming from private sources, including $100 million from the NFL, about $30 million from the Bears and the remainder from the sale of personal seat licenses purchased by ticketholders.Michael Rachlis, an attorney for the plaintiffs, argued that case law gave Madden the authority to void the Soldier Field deal because the private benefits far outweighed the public.
He said the Bears’ profits would increase by $20 million a year in the new stadium, while the team’s rent to the Park District wouldn’t even pay for operating Soldier Field on game days.
“Rather than the Bears being subservient to the public, the public is now subservient to the Bears,” Rachlis told the judge.
But attorneys for the Bears and the sports authority argued Rachlis’ key point had already been settled: by passing the stadium bill, legislators had determined that the new stadium benefits the public.
Besides being a boon for football fans, the new stadium will provide a boost to the economy, provide additional lakefront parking and new parkland, the attorneys said.
Project opponents “want to supplant their subjective view of what they believe the legislature should have done,” Ficaro told the judge.
Madden didn’t elaborate on his ruling. However, in questioning the attorneys, he suggested that he was uncomfortable second-guessing the legislature’s opinion about the project’s economic benefits.
Judge uneasy
But the judge also hinted that he was uneasy with the stadium deal. Though he found that it was irrelevant to the lawsuit, Madden praised an affidavit filed by Allen Sanderson, a University of Chicago economist working for Friends of the Parks, that argued public subsidies for sports stadiums were a waste because the teams provide no real economic benefit to the public.
“This deal is not surprising because of the sheer strength of the NFL,” Madden said.
A Chicago Tribune report that appeared in Sunday’s edition found that the Daley administration and the Bears had overstated the public benefits of the stadium deal while underplaying the public costs, which is one of the largest public contributions to a stadium complex in sports history.
Captions: PHOTO (color): `(The old stadium) didn’t have more than a half dozen breaths left.’ — attorney Michael Ficaro.
PHOTO (color): Friends of the Parks general counsel Eleanor Roemer (left)
comforts the group’s president, Erma Tranter, after Thursday’s ruling. Tribune photos by Chuck Berman.
GRAPHIC: New stadium a windfall for Bears.
Thanks to an improved stadium deal, the Bears stand to make $22.5 million more in 2003 than they would have made if they continued playing in the old stadium.
WHO GETS WHAT ON GAME DAY
OLD DEAL NEW DEAL
Advertising revenue Park District Bears
Concession revenue Park District Bears
Parking revenue* Park District Bears
Days Bears can use stadium 20 116
*Bears pay Park District $1 million a year from the money they receive through
game-day parking.
THE BEARS’ BOTTOM LINE
Projected profits for 2003
OLD DEAL
$11.1 million
NEW DEAL
$33.6 million
Source: Government documents.
Chicago Tribune.
– See microfilm for complete graphic. GRAPHIC: Highlights of the new Soldier
Field.
The renovation of Soldier Field is a gut-rehab of the 78-year-old stadium. The
Bears will begin playing there in 2003.
The structure: Seats will extend 30 feet higher than the existing columns on
the east side and 45 feet higher on the west. The colonnades will remain.
Video screens: Two 84-foot-long screens will be on the north and south ends.
Sideline seats: Percentage improves from 40 to 60 percent.
Luxury suites: Four levels holding 133 skyboxes will line the east side.
Capacity: Reduced from 66,944 to about 61,500.
Club seats: The new stadium will have 8,600 of these; the old stadium had
none.
Source: Chicago Bears.
