Eye On Illinois: Lawmakers needn’t adopt Bears’ priority as their own

Numbers tell a story, but rarely without help.

Consider the statement the Chicago Bears issued last week after closing on their purchases of the former Arlington International Racecourse property. The Lake Forest-based team wants to build a stadium complex to anchor a $5 billion, 326-acre redevelopment.

The team said analysts suggest the work could “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 completed mega-project would create more than 9,750 long-term jobs, generate $1.4 billion in annual economic impact for Chicagoland and provide $601 million in annual labor income to workers across Chicagoland.”

For a deep dive on this topic, from the standpoint of “universal agreement among economists that sports venues are poor public investments,” visit the Social Science Research Network to read a Jan. 31 paper, “The Economics of Stadium Subsidies: A Policy Retrospective,” by three university economists (tinyurl.com/StadiumSubsidyStudy).

But it doesn’t take a Ph.D. to see the Bears’ statement poses a simple question: what happens to the current economic engine built around at least 10 home games every year? Explaining construction jobs is easy, but game-day operations are an entirely different story. Parking lot attendants, concessions vendors, security, janitorial services … should everyone who currently works at Soldier Field expect a transfer, or will they be making up their lost Bears wages doing similar jobs at extra Taylor Swift concerts?

Some jobs absolutely will transfer, those of team employees in charge of sponsors, scoreboards, halftime entertainment and so forth. Those most directly involved with football surely aren’t involved in the count, but when you’re kicking around imaginary yet specific numbers and terms (do we all agree on what constitutes “Chicagoland”?), it never hurts to ask the folks asking for handouts to provide real details.

The hurdle the Bears must overcome in convincing the General Assembly to help fund real estate dreams is not just the $400 million sunk in renovating Solider Field two decades ago, but the inescapable reality that this fight pits the city and a suburb. Without endorsing the type of incentives used to lure corporations from other states (such as the package that brought Boeing to Chicago from Seattle before it reach the end of the deal and realized its main customers are near Washington, D.C.), those are at least examples of our state trying to beat another, not picking winners inside our own border.

The best thing lawmakers can do throughout this process is refuse to take the Bears’ words or numbers at face value. The team has a vested interest in a single outcome, as it should, but that result needn’t be Springfield’s priority.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Media. Follow him on Twitter @sth749. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.