Daily Herald opinion: Now the real work starts on possibilities for a Bears stadium in Arlington Heights
This editorial represents the consensus opinion of the Daily Herald Editorial Board
It feels a bit inappropriate to invoke Winston Churchill and World War II in a reflection on the Bears' closing on their deal to purchase the former Arlington Park racetrack. But Churchill's phrase certainly fits the Arlington situation:
"Now, this is not the end," Churchill intoned with his famous growl after one of the Allies' first victories of the war. "This is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning."
There is, in short, much still to accomplish before even considering breaking out the orange and blue shovels.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, in particular, is counting on that observation. Now that the completion of the $197.2 million sale permits the city to start making its case directly to the Bears, she promises to show Chicago has a better business case to make to the NFL franchise than the suburbs have.
On that point, we'd be surprised. The suburbs certainly have a very strong business case to present on the merits of a $5 billion sports and entertainment complex at what is now, as Arlington Heights Police Chief Nick Pecora indicated in a tour of the site Thursday, just 2200 W. Euclid.
In an "open letter" Wednesday the Bears repeated a description of what the complex could mean both for them and for the region.
"Should we proceed, the development of the Arlington Heights property would be one of the largest mega-projects in Midwest history," the statement reads. "Possible construction of a stadium-anchored development is projected by analysts to create more than 48,000 jobs, generate $9.4 billion in economic impact for the Chicagoland economy and provide $3.9 billion in new labor income to workers across the region."
The statement goes on to envision nearly 10,000 long-term jobs, $1.4 billion in annual economic impact for the region and more than $600 million in annual labor income to area workers.
The closing does turn up the heat on the competition between the city and the suburbs, but it's also true that both parties face some serious, arduous work in the financial trenches coming up with the kind of assistance that will be central to the Bears' decision.
For Arlington Heights, that mostly means finding a way to produce revenues that can be justified to local taxpayers and that won't impose undue suffering on local school districts. No one knows what that is today, and it's too early to speculate. As we noted in an editorial last Sunday, Arlington Heights Democratic state Sen. Ann Gillespie has ventured an intriguing option - the potential use of certain tax-diversion tools called TIFs and PILOTs. The intriguing thing about her proposal is that it is dependent on the state making needed reforms to the mechanisms, which have been prone to abuse and misuse by insistent developers and communities too hungry for development.
Still, it's important to remember all the work that lies ahead. Infrastructure designs and estimates. Business and entertainment visions to clarify. Issues related to matters as mundane but critical as drainage.
It is "exciting" to contemplate, as the Bears themselves declared. But we're still a long way even from the beginning of the end.