O’Donnell: How the agenda of Churchill Downs Inc. fueled Bears stadium mania
WHEN GEORGE MCCASKEY AND KEVIN WARREN ANNOUNCED FRIDAY that the Bears were now “focusing” on Northwest Indiana as the possible home of their new stadium, the intent was to send media, Illinois politicians and most entrenched members of the team's fan base into a tizzy.
Those rascally McWarren twins succeeded. They manipulated the day.
The three supremely predictable subgroups reacted with as much frenzy as if Pope Leo XIV let it be known that he would be coming to Soldier Field to bless the footballs and Indiana legislators prior to the kickoff of the Bears' home opener vs. the Vikings on Sept. 20.
Hammond had won. Arlington Heights lost, yet again.
Northwest Indiana might be reborn. Residents of Arlington Heights will somehow have to try and survive in one of the region's more orderly, comfortable suburbs.
IF ONLY THE STATEMENT OF THE BEARS conveyed certainty rather than interim pique.
The organization was weak-sistered in Springfield last weekend. Warren's endless site-jumping as orange-tied “hero exec” came up dry.
Lyricists would now have to find an Indiana-oriented word that rhymes with “pride and joy” to keep the rhythmic pentameter of the team's fight song intact.
(Or, simply nip 'n tuck into “the pride and joy who left Illinois.”)
In the end, all just another layer of delay and confusion on a rambling project that would challenge the agility of a frisky puppy chasing an unbalanced rubber play ball.
A WHOLE LOT OF MEDIA SLEUTHS were looking for culprits following Friday's propaganda drop.
Easiest names atop that list included key Illinois legislators, Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson.
The roll call could even extend on down to security guards and midnight sweepers at the Illinois Capitol building who should have locked the doors overnight Sunday/Monday until the McWarren faction had all of their stadium “asks.”
IN A GRAND LINE to come out of the latest scrum, state Rep. Kam Buckner (D.-Chicago) said the Bears moved too quickly on the 2021 agreement with Churchill Downs Inc. to pay $197.2 million for the 326 acres of Arlington Park without any sort of governmental input, noting:
“They bought the wedding dress before they went on the first date.”
Buckner added, “I don't know anywhere in corporate America where you can make that type of purchase without having due diligence and a plan.”
WHILE PITHY, BUCKNER'S STATEMENT is incompletely informed.
In 2021, the Bears — then run by McCaskey and president Ted Phillips — were not managing a conventional land purchase timeline.
They were operating on a schedule intended to fulfill both one of the last wishes of longtime Arlington Park chairman Dick Duchossois and to maintain the highest degree of goodwill possible for Churchill Downs Inc. in Illinois.
POST-ARLINGTON, THE PRIMARY FISCAL CONCERN OF CDI in the Land of Winkin' would be its majority stake in the fabulously successful Rivers Casino in Des Plaines. It remains the top-grossing temple of chance in the state.
As for Duchossois, during his long run as alpha baron of Arlington Park (1986-2021), he grew increasingly annoyed at certain segments who made nice livings at his palace.
Way at the top of that list were flashy thoroughbred trainers who, in his words, “had no skin in the game.” That meant ones who had only well-resourced clients and no physical holdings to sustain and promote breeding.
HIS RESENTMENT GREW AFTER the track's grand reopening in June 1989 as he learned more about the game's seamier side.
Within a few years, his steamed attitude was so evident that one-time partner Sheldon Robbins insightfully said, “If Dick can takes his race track with him, he will.”
Fast forward to 2021. Duchossois, then age 99, was facing his final call to the post. CDI chairman Bunker Bill Carstanjen was well aware of the chairman's dictates.
THE JUGGLING ACT IN LOUISVILLE became: After RLD is gone, how does CDI demolish this astoundingly opulent global-class race track and maintain favor with the true political powers in Illinois?
Call in the Bears.
From June to September 2021, they were jumped to the head of the line to buy the land and do the dirty deed of demolition.
So they seized the window and did so.
THE TEARDOWN WAS obscene. But there was the perception of offset because this gaping wound in the civic soul of the Northwest suburbs would one day be the owned-and-operated national-flash home of the Chicago Bears.
Winners: Bears, at last no longer stadium orphans, and CDI — no fingerprints on the pulverization of Arlington Park and those big adjusted gross revenues from Des Plaines to be kept rollin' on in from Rivers.
REP. BUCKNER HAS FURTHER SAID that now the team has little chance of recouping its full $197.2 million dice roll on Arlington.
That statement is nonsense.
If the Bears sold the Arlington Park land this year, the franchise would turn a profit on its investment.
If it partnered with proven regional entities to hold and develop the 326 acres, even without a stadium — a scenario more likely if the financially bolder Pat Ryan family rather than the McCaskeys held controlling interest in the team — Arlington Park Gardens could be a bonanza.
IN THE MEANTIME, THE WEEKEND TIZZY “focuses” on Hammond and the footprint around Wolf Lake and that fast-moving bunch at the Hoosiers' State Capitol.
And Northwest Indiana may be reborn.
At least according to a piqued McWarren propaganda drop on one manic Friday.
Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Wednesday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.