Chicago Parks And Governer Pritzker Are Already Throwing A Wet Blanket On The Bears Proposed New Lake Front Stadium
I blogged this yesterday. I love the stadium rendering, but I do kind of love all stadium renderings. I just want the city to be positive about what the Bears were doing. Critics said that it doesn't show parking or that it's the exact same thing as the Raiders stadium.
1) There has to be a plan for parking with increased capacity and lack of a south lot. If that means McCormick place or underground...I don't know. This is what the Bears said
I hope there's space for tailgating. Underground only would be a problem.
Now...65K capacity when the minimum capacity to a host a Super Bowl is 70,000 feels like a mistake that they can fix at this stage. Shouldn't be that hard to add another few rows of seating to get to that number.
2) The Raiders stadium is sweet looking and has a small footprint which makes sense. The Raiders stadium doesn't have windows looking out to the world's greatest skyline either.
People complaining about those things need to relax.
Now...the Friends Of The Parks statement...that bothered me.
The Friends of the Parks are no friend of the Bears…and no friend of mine. They say Chicago is a World Class city because of the Lake Front. Look…I don't see how these renderings make the lakefront any worse.
Chicago is in fact a world class city. It needs to have a world class stadium. Soldier Field is an embarrassment. This stadium looks like a jewel on the lakefront. It doesn't detract from anything in my opinion. The proposal looks like it has more usable land than the current layout. This is why the Bears wanted to be in Arlington originally. So they could actually own their own stadium and not have to deal with Friends Of The Parks.
Pritzker also poured cold water on this proposal
BOOOOOOOO
There's never going to be a good time to build a massive stadium. We are always going to have pressing needs. I wish there was enough enthusiasm and money to deal with all of the city's problems, but there's always going to be problems in this city because of the leadership. If you waited to build a stadium until every problem is fixed the Bears would eventually be playing at Mt Carmel because Soldier Field crumbled around them.
The renderings aren't perfect. There's work to be done. Let's not let perfection be the enemy of the good. Make a deal. Get it done. Let's all walk hand in hand into a new era of Bears football in Chicago.