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Phil Rogers on what Bears can learn about Arlington Heights from SoFi Stadium | NBC Sports Chicago

Mar 27, 2024
Hello and welcome to unfiltered. I'm David Kaplan, that's Phil Rogers, my friend from NBC5. You just got back from a long trip to Los Angeles because you have an amazing feature that's going to be a 30-minute show about Bears Sofi Stadium and the relationship between the Bears and Arlington Heights,

what

was that like? Well, we wanted to see a

stadium

that someone built with their own money because it seems like that's where the Bears are inevitably headed if they build in Arlington Heights and the number one

stadium

in America that was built with private money is Sofi Stadium, like Well you know, people watch it on TV, you watch a Rams game, maybe people who watched the Super Bowl last year and you think, wow, that thing is big, well, you have no idea. how big that thing is until you walk into it and you know, remember this, this whole thing was built with kind of a new vision of an entertainment district, real estate, you know, the residential business, the stadium is just one part of that development and that is kind.

what

the Bears are talking about.
phil rogers on what bears can learn about arlington heights from sofi stadium nbc sports chicago
I was talking to you on the phone when you were standing outside Sofi Stadium, yeah, and you said you can't imagine what this is like. I've never been there, the Bears aren't going to get anything close to that. No, that was 100 billion. I understand that to build Sofi Stadium you first have to invent a time machine and you have to go to the future to do that. You know the Bears don't have that they don't have, but everyone we have. I spoke says that's kind of an anomaly in the world in terms of opulence and how big it is, but the concept of building a stadium with private money is the direction that everything is going well, so let's take a look at his piece and see what Phil put back together, it will be a 30 minute show on NBC 5.
phil rogers on what bears can learn about arlington heights from sofi stadium nbc sports chicago

More Interesting Facts About,

phil rogers on what bears can learn about arlington heights from sofi stadium nbc sports chicago...

Overseas, if you're looking for a parallel to what the Bears hope to build in Arlington Heights, maybe the best comparison is Sofi Stadium, both of them. Years-old home of the Los Angeles Rams and the LA Chargers Keep in mind that the Inglewood site is the size of Vatican City, the stadium is just a part of it. KMBC

sports

anchor Fred Rogan emceed the Sofi Stadium groundbreaking and reports on Since the Rams understand that Crunky first announced his intention to bring the team back to Los Angeles, build a massive entertainment district with their own money in the state of California, we don't give public money to build stadiums, let's just not do that and what Stan Kronike's construction is like nothing you've ever seen.
phil rogers on what bears can learn about arlington heights from sofi stadium nbc sports chicago
The stadium's £2m video board is the largest ever created. Also, there is a roof, it is not a dome, the building is open on the sides and that roof functions as a giant video screen visible to passengers. At Final Approach at nearby LAX, public estimates put the cost of this facility at approximately $5 billion which built a stadium for seventy thousand fans expandable to one hundred thousand, making it the largest stadium in the National League of American Football if you blindfold people and let them fall. here and they didn't know where they were. I don't think they would have ever guessed that it was a football stadium.
phil rogers on what bears can learn about arlington heights from sofi stadium nbc sports chicago
Rams COO Kevin Dimoff showed us around Sofi, which has already seen one Super Bowl and will host the college football championship next. month there are four locker rooms, opulent lounge areas and 260 luxury suites, including these right on the field, we've never had anyone down, we've had players jump like the Bears Arlington team. Sofi was built on 300 acres once occupied by a closed Hollywood racetrack. The park features a performance venue, future commercial development and more than 2,000 new residential units. The stadium is an incredible stadium. I think it's one of the crown jewels of the world, but this was really a real estate vision for a

sports

and entertainment district, one more parallel to the Bears, although the team name says Los Angeles, the Rams stadium is in reality in a suburb of Inglewood, California, how much money did you put into this deal to get the Rams there?
Sierra Inglewood Mayor James Butt says his city will eventually contribute about $250 million. infrastructure, but the Rams paid for it up front and Inglewood won't have to pay it back until substantial tax revenues start coming in at a time when we receive over 25 million in any given year in taxes generated by development in excess of 25 million. It will go toward paying off that infrastructure debt, which means we will pay it with money. We never had your advice for Arlington Heights, if the numbers don't work, if you can't see a path forward, you will break even within five years as a city is a bad business, so what is Arlington Heights willing to offer for this development if the Bears arrive?
It has to be a net fiscal benefit to the village mayor. Thomas Hayes says his community is ready to discuss funding infrastructure like roads. and sewers, but nothing more, it is actually part of our pre-development agreement that we just signed a few weeks ago that the Bears will not seek any public assistance for the construction of the stadium itself and that is very clear that the Chicago Bears They don't have Stan's money. Don't expect a five billion dollar marvel in Arlington Heights, and in fact, the Rams say you shouldn't, that the McCaskeys need to build a stadium that Bears fans can call home, don't try to be anyone else, try be.
The Chicago Bears, one of the biggest franchises in the League for almost a century, that's where they should be focusing, so I've never been there. That place looks crazy, it's so big that, you know, you lose sight of the fact that it's a football stadium because it's a complex, yeah, it's a complex, I mean, that roof is just part of that is the stadium. , there's a 6,000-seat theater there too and you know, the big thing is this cap, the Bears want to do what they want. to build a stadium they want a commercial district, they want residential and the interesting thing is that the footprint of Hollywood Park is almost exactly the same as the footprint of Arlington Park, it's about 330, you know, 300 acres, so the parallels are quite surprising.
I don't believe it. the Bears should get a dollar of public money for their stadium infrastructure Route 53 I-90 Euclid all these different arteries out there that's a different story, yeah, and if you look, you heard what James Butt said there, it was really a novel way in which they did it. they did that, they put in $250 million, right when we just noticed $250 million in infrastructure, but the Rams paid for it, then Inglewood gives the money back to the Rams, but only after the stadium starts generating tax revenue like he said, it's money we never had right.
It's a It's an extraordinary deal, okay, so Stan Crocke is one of the richest men in the world, that's right, he can say hello to the couch and, oh, they'll build me a stadium, yeah, that's not the McCaskeys, yeah, and That's what's important and that's really it. Really important here because the Bears are a rich team, they have one of the most valuable franchises you know in the National Football League, but McCaskey's money is tied up in the franchise, so they would still be looking for other ways to finance this now. You do well? There are NFL loans that are paid in very new ways.
All that money stays between the owners. It's really a novel concept. Seat licenses, the much-feared seat licenses. You already know. I think a lot of fans do. I'll be surprised to know that when they move their season ticket license it doesn't match that and you know there are other ways to skin the cat. The people I've talked to say yes, the Bears can do this, they can build. This with private money they don't have to go to the state, they won't build it, no, but they should get something like what we see in Las Vegas, yes, that could be it, I mean, remember the Mercedes-Benz Dome was built. for a couple billion dollars in Atlanta that kind of thing you can get a smaller stadium, so those are notable stadiums, you know it's not a dump, Soldier Field is what you called it, right, it would be a dump and if you put a dome on it, it's a dome dump, yeah, and that's really important when you hear this, well, we're bringing another team here, there's a couple of things there, number one, the NFL is not looking to expand in the States United if they expand it will be overseas yeah ok no team is moving to Chicago to be the second NFL franchise to play in the 100 year old Soldier Field stadium that won't happen so what is the relationship between the Bears and the Bears?
City and Bears to Arlington Heights because you've seen toxic, very toxic, emails between the Bears and the city of Chicago and it's not getting any better compared to the relationship with Arlington Heights, which is really good, so you know it's interesting, we talked . Kevin and Dimoff, who you saw there, and also Mayor Butts, and they talked about how important that relationship is for a project like this to get off the ground and move forward. Do you believe that? Because I remember when it first came out, Mayor Lightfoot. He said why don't you worry about beating the Packers, yeah, and being relevant in October, they're not going anywhere, they're on a lease and then all of a sudden he changed his tune because he realized, oh God, I'm going to them. to lose, yes. and I think at this point that horse is galloping down the road from the barn, oh, he's gone and you know one of the sad parts of all of this is you know people look at this and say, well, it's the Chicago Bears .
How could they play in Arlington Heights like I'm sure you've watched on this show a million times? Show me a National Football League franchise that still plays in the city of the same name. You know both New York teams play in New Jersey. whatever, you're talking about a suburban stadium that can house the team, the name remains the same, the name Chicago Bears is trademarked, so any of these assumptions that they couldn't take the name with them, that's not It's crazy, yeah, okay, last one. What can the NFL do? You can write any check you want.
Will they help the Bears? Because the value of the franchise with this stadium, a sports book, only increases so much, yes, and remember one thing: the Chicago Bears are returning to that trendy mobile showroom in Kenton, Ohio. where Jim Thorpe was in the room with George Halas this is a franchise that is really important to the National Football League they want to see it shine they want to see it thrive they will make sure this happens look forward to the rest of the piece Thank you for being here. You know I'm your biggest fan. I give it back to you.

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