Commentary: If Mayor Brandon Johnson wants to keep the Bears “shuffling” in the city at no cost to taxpayers, Alice Hoffman suggests Chicago give naming rights and control of the stadium’s upgrades back to the Bears.
Opinion content—editorials, columns and guest commentaries—is created independent of news reporting and is exclusive to subscribers.A Chicago Bears fan takes his seat early before a game at Soldier Field on Jan. 8, 2023.
Meanwhile, the Bears needed a stadium that yielded enough money to compete with other teams. The suites were located in metal trailers, and the clubs, restrooms and food service areas were completely outdated.Mayor Richard M. Daley, the Park District and the state legislature worked with the Bears — with my company, Hoffman Management Partners, as developer’s representative — to devise a plan that would keep the Bears in Soldier Field and bring the stadium into the top tier of revenue producers.
The museums gained nearby indoor parking in the North garage. The Illini at Urbana-Champaign gained millions of dollars from the Bears’ 2002 season played there. Taxpayers gained around $6 million a year in rent from the Bears to support the Park District’s beautification and greening of Chicago. Chicago gained parking, concert, club and event rental and concession revenues, and Chicago and Illinois collected taxes on Bears, Chicago Fire and concert tickets.
The new state-of-the-art video boards and press boxes cantilevered above the end zones afforded the “beauty shots” of our Chicago skyline featured on televised games, attracting visitors to Chicago. These views, the narrowness of the historic horseshoe and modern exit codes meant fewer seats than desired, but seats are on average 37 feet closer to the action than any other NFL stadium seats, for great fan experiences.
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