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The billionaire owner of the Chicago Fire FC has agreed to spend $650 million of his own money to bankroll a 22,000-seat, soccer-only stadium on the vacant South Loop parcel, but tens of millions of public dollars would be needed to ready the long-dormant site for development.
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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The presence of such large tracts of vacant land (78 & Michael Reese) in such proximity to the central business district is telling.
Part of this tract was actually a bend in the Chicago River back before it was straightened to enable commercial shipping. The rest is going to be messy when the piles of illegally dumped materials start getting scraped off. Either way, it’s going to be expensive to try and build there.
Let the WORLD watch soccer in a stadium that has more than one use. Track 78 is like that old ugly sweater you got for Christmas when you were little that you can’t even give away. It was supposed to be a ballpark, apartments, light industrial etc. With any luck, environmentalists will find some rare rat there and kill the project.
Always relying on the public dime. Another sports boondoggle.
I don’t understand why the Rock Island tracks need to be relocated. There is plenty of room for a 22,000-seat stadium west of Clark Street. Parking will be a mess no matter what.
“Once owned by convicted political power broker Tony Rezko…” That’s cute. Notice how Fran Speilman, serial NPRWBEZ/Sun-TImes author and DNC apologist, couches her language when discussing Barry Soetero’s money man. Rezko was a proverbial speed boat through a marina with his shady business dealings. Rezko mentored a young Soetero into a political career. Good to have friends, right? Convicted of what, Frannie? six counts of wire fraud six counts of mail fraud two counts of corrupt solicitation two counts of money laundering And there’s more, if one cared to look it up. Nothing stays buried forever. Leftist media types gleefully… Read more »
Soccer is very popular in the third world countries that Obama/ Biden/ Pritzger et al are seeking/ sought to turn the US into.
Soccer is the most popular sport in the WORLD. Pretty much everywhere but the US.
Is it the apocalypse? I agreed with Mr./Mrs.Ms. state pensioner twice in a week. He/she is right about football being the most popular sport in the world, caps or no caps, and not American football either.
JB the Hutt and the rest of the political animals are actively destroying Illinois. Like an oncoming headlight, the population and gross income losses to saner, perhaps better managed states should tell them they’re on the wrong track. Alas, to no avail. The ‘jackpot’ (RR slang for derailment) feels inevitable now.