Bears, Chicago at Loggerheads Over Proposed Stadium

flv2

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SoFi stadium was part funded by significant tax breaks. Los Angeles was also given a Super Bowl to generate income as part of the deal. The stadium financing is complex, but it isn't 100% funded by Mr. Kroenke and the NFL.
 
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RiverDog

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Here's an interesting article about the Chiefs attempts to blackmail the taxpayers into building them a $3B stadium:

Kansas makes first steps in trying to get Chiefs to come play in their state

The proposal says it will be a combination of a sales tax increase, as well as a 30-year bonds to help finance the new stadium in Kansas. Florio estimates that it will cost at least $3 billion to get a new stadium built in either state. This is the going rate for something state-of-the-art. The big sticking point in this proposal would be the 30-year bonds to front the entire bill, and the Chiefs ... nothing!

I hate to say it, but we all know how this is going to turn out in the end. Hunt loves to not spend money. He gets to have his family sit in the nicest suite in whatever Kansas Chiefs-sponsored stadium those bonds can provide. I mean, the man won't even pay for halfway decent facilities for his players. His team doesn't even get good places to sit in the locker room. He won't even run the A/C half the time.

This comes down to a matter of will. Will Kansas front the bill since the Hunts are clearly not going to do that? The really sad part in all of this is if Kansas isn't on-board with doing this and joins the fine folks of Jackson County, what is going to stop the Hunts from going to another metropolis to satisfy their financial needs living a life atop the lap of luxury? Keep in mind that they still call Dallas home.

All I know is once the winning stops, Chiefs fans are going to turn on the Hunts almost immediately.



But they'll probably pass a hotel tax so the locals don't have to pay for it, so who cares if the Chiefs don't pay a dime, right?
 

Bear-Hawk

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Here's an interesting article about the Chiefs attempts to blackmail the taxpayers into building them a $3B stadium:

Kansas makes first steps in trying to get Chiefs to come play in their state

The proposal says it will be a combination of a sales tax increase, as well as a 30-year bonds to help finance the new stadium in Kansas. Florio estimates that it will cost at least $3 billion to get a new stadium built in either state. This is the going rate for something state-of-the-art. The big sticking point in this proposal would be the 30-year bonds to front the entire bill, and the Chiefs ... nothing!

I hate to say it, but we all know how this is going to turn out in the end. Hunt loves to not spend money. He gets to have his family sit in the nicest suite in whatever Kansas Chiefs-sponsored stadium those bonds can provide. I mean, the man won't even pay for halfway decent facilities for his players. His team doesn't even get good places to sit in the locker room. He won't even run the A/C half the time.

This comes down to a matter of will. Will Kansas front the bill since the Hunts are clearly not going to do that? The really sad part in all of this is if Kansas isn't on-board with doing this and joins the fine folks of Jackson County, what is going to stop the Hunts from going to another metropolis to satisfy their financial needs living a life atop the lap of luxury? Keep in mind that they still call Dallas home.

All I know is once the winning stops, Chiefs fans are going to turn on the Hunts almost immediately.



But they'll probably pass a hotel tax so the locals don't have to pay for it, so who cares if the Chiefs don't pay a dime, right?
I read that Kansas will have a hard time selling these bonds, because they won’t have a high credit rating, and may default if there isn’t enough sales tax revenue to pay the bond holders.
 
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RiverDog

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I read that Kansas will have a hard time selling these bonds, because they won’t have a high credit rating, and may default if there isn’t enough sales tax revenue to pay the bond holders.
OMG! That would be a disaster if the Hunts had to pay money out of their own pockets! Say hello to the Oklahoma City Chiefs!
 

Bear-Hawk

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OMG! That would be a disaster if the Hunts had to pay money out of their own pockets! Say hello to the Oklahoma City Chiefs!
I don’t know what the Chiefs and Royals would do, but the state of Kansas would be in a world of hurt with their credit rating.
 

NoGain

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OMG! That would be a disaster if the Hunts had to pay money out of their own pockets! Say hello to the Oklahoma City Chiefs!
I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised when the Chiefs were voted 29th out of 32 teams in terms of quality training facilities for their players. The Hunts are pretty ungratefully awful.
 
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RiverDog

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I don’t know what the Chiefs and Royals would do, but the state of Kansas would be in a world of hurt with their credit rating.
As the article states, the Hunts have very little allegiance to the Kansas City area and would move the team in a heartbeat if the league will let them.

In this situation, Kansas City has some leverage over the team in that it would be a huge black eye for the league if the team that has had the most current on field success were to move. So for all you conspiracy theorists out there, watch out for a plot like in the movie "Major League", where the team intentionally tries to lose so they'll create enough fan apathy so as to make relocation easier.
 

sc85sis

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I don't think you can be a billionaire without screwing someone over somewhere. Also guessing after a certain amount it’s almost impossible to give it all away. I think it will take Bezos ex wife her whole life to do it
i think what she has keeps growing/earning at a faster rate than she can manage to give it away - though she seems to be trying.
 

chrispy

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It's a worthwhile discussion to argue what should happen and theoretical moral factors.

However, the reality is that most of the time a vote ends up with the public rejecting publicly funding a stadium. The public doesn't want to pay for all the reasons stated above. It's not universal, but the vast majority of the time.

Once that happens (a few times), the expense can still be funded publicly with the support of a majority of the relevant governing body; City Council, State Legislature, Hotel & Tourism Board.... A vote can be taken to call it a regular/ongoing expense and include it in the yearly budget. That's not really above board but it happens all the time... the majority of the time. Then those politicians don't get re-elected but somehow end up working for the Team or the Stadium. Everyone wins except the majority of voters that rejected the expense.

Chicago is pretty well-known for creative political maneuvers so there's no doubt this stadium will be built, and with public funds. It's just a matter of how long the lobbying takes.

Jacksonville has come up a few times in this thread. Jacksonville only has about 700,000 people and it's the third team in the State. The last time they sold out a game was 2 years ago. The idea that Jacksonville "should" have a team is hard to defend. That team would win a lot more games if they were somewhere else. BTW, majority of Jacksonville residents oppose using public funds but the City Council agreed to the previously mentioned deal anyway.
 

NoGain

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Neither of these deals were the result of public referendum, were they? I get a little annoyed that the Panthers owner gets such a deal when he's worth over 20 billion dollars, and it's not like the value of the franchise is going down.
 

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