Chicago Bears
In laying out their dream for a new $3.5 billion domed lakefront stadium, Bears President Kevin Warren and Mayor Brandon Johnson repeatedly invoked the name of Daniel Burnham as they described a lush and re-imagined Museum Campus with 14 acres of new parkland they claimed would add a worthy new chapter to the Burnham Plan.
But the Bears aren’t offering to pay for any of those improvements. Their entire $2.3 billion contribution is for a new stadium that also requires state lawmakers to approve $1.1 billion in new bonding authority.
That begs the question: What happens if the city and state can come up with only the $325 million for basic infrastructure improvements to open the new stadium — but not the additional $510 million needed for the second phase of work, which includes deconstructing Soldier Field to create new green space?