Rooting for Chicago sports teams is the definition of delayed gratification. None of the five major professional baseball teams — the Bears, Cubs, Bulls, Blackhawks, and White Sox — have won a championship since 2016, when the Cubs finally won the World Series, but have since reverted to mediocrity. Ta.
Now, two of our teams, the White Sox and Bears, are testing fan loyalty in a different way by seeking new housing and the tax dollars to help fund it. This is the conundrum of modern sports. Chicago is a sports city, and its civic identity is inextricably tied to its professional franchises. But as much as we love our team, Chicagoans have no interest in giving public funds to the team's wealthy owners to build a luxurious new palace.
Untying this Gordian knot wasn't Mayor Brandon Johnson's reason for running for office, but it's his responsibility to find a way to keep Chicago sports healthy without draining the public coffers.
Our dedication to our sport runs deep. Four out of five adults in the Chicago area say they are fans of at least one major league team in the city, according to the Harris Poll. A majority of Chicago and Cook County residents (57%) call themselves die-hard Bears fans, but about half support the Bulls and Cubs, and two in five support the Blackhawks and Whites. I support the Sox.
The Bears and White Sox have been running this long and are itching to move on. The Bears have conducted an extensive search for a new home, including purchasing real estate in Arlington Heights for a dome stadium, but negotiations have stalled due to tax breaks, so they are focusing on a location in the city near Soldier Field. The Sox are planning a sports and entertainment complex in South Loops, at least for the time being, but owner Jerry Reinsdorf continues to flirt with Nashville, Tennessee, as an alternative and negotiation tool.
Both teams are reportedly seeking public funds, if not more, to build a new field.
But that's where most urban and suburban residents alike draw the line, according to our poll. Nearly everyone here (94%) says sports are an important part of Chicago's culture, and three-quarters of Chicagoland adults say losing a professional team would negatively affect the city. I agree that it extends. However, 60% also said that investing public funds in sports stadiums was the wrong use of taxpayers' money. (By the way, this conflicts with the American public as a whole, with a small majority supporting public funding of professional sports facilities.)
Chicago's discovery is significant. Even if all non-sports fans in our poll opposed public subsidies for sports owners, reaching that 60% supermajority would require half of those who self-identified to be fans. I would have to agree.
And those who are against it are not wrong. U.S. taxpayers have spent more than $4 billion on professional sports arenas since 2000, and last year the pace of new projects increased every month. Supporters say these are worthwhile investments because they create jobs and boost local economies. But three decades of economic research have debunked that claim. “This just shows that policy decisions don't seem to be connected to real-world knowledge,” Kennesaw State University economics professor J.C. Bradbury, who has researched the issue extensively, told USA Today. told.
What should cities do? The good news is there is recent precedent for the city saving both money and teams. Nearly 12 years ago, Cubs owner Ricketts and private investors spent $550 million upgrading Wrigley Field after then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel refused to commit city funds. Negotiations were contentious and the Ricketts family reportedly considered moving the team permanently, but the Cubbies stayed and famously capped off the renovation with a World Series trophy.
Certainly, things are different this year. Different mayors, different teams, different owners, different building plans, different economies. But the basics are similar enough that we can see the way forward. What we need now is creative leadership from City Hall and the civic spirit of the Bears and White Sox.
Johnson has the opportunity to work with not only his team but also Chicagoland as a community to find ways to facilitate new facilities without opening the city's coffers. The mayor should also work with the business community, which has a vested interest in ensuring Chicago remains a sports city that draws locals and tourists on game days.
If successfully implemented, these new urban stadiums could serve as a model for other areas of public-private partnerships. Then we can all get back to our usual business of bemoaning our team's on-field performance. This is still a Chicago sport, after all.
Will Johnson is the CEO of Chicago-based Harris Poll, one of the world's leading polling companies.
