In a world of Reinsdorfs and McCaskeys, we find Joe Mansueto, the billionaire owner of the Chicago Fire soccer team. Worth perhaps twice as much as Gov. JB Pritzker, Mansueto said the following last week regarding plans to build a new facility in the city, as quoted in The Athletic:
“My personal view is that stadiums are not a great investment. They’re big, costly to maintain, sit empty most of the time. And so to the extent that they create value, most of that accrues to the sports team, not the municipality. So to me, it’s fair that the sports team should own it. Moreover, here in Illinois, in the city of Chicago, our finances are strained. Teachers want more money, law enforcement needs money, pension obligations. Our city and state don’t have the funds, to be candid, and so to me, we would privately finance it.”
Obviously building a stadium from scratch requires public involvement in infrastructure and permits. A development of that scale alters neighborhood police and fire protection needs. Other entities have touted private investment while brazenly courting public incentives like tax increment financing, so hopefully, Mansueto has a clearer understanding of what it really means to fund his own project.
Pro soccer doesn’t maintain nearly the same stature in the civic pride firmament as other major sports, but that could change with a Fire franchise owned and operated by a local guy who seemingly understands amassing billions of dollars isn’t an entitlement to tweak taxpayers whenever a new revenue stream strikes the fancy.
Even if we never get a soccer stadium, Mansueto’s philosophy is a useful legacy.
ON THIS DAY: Though a native Kentuckian, Adlai Ewing Stevenson belongs to Illinois. The father of a four-generation political dynasty was born this day in 1835; he was 16 when his family moved to Bloomington. He served in Congress and was vice president under Grover Cleveland from 1893-1897. He might not have had that role had Senate Republicans refused to act in 1889 when Cleveland, then a lame duck in his first term, nominated Stevenson to serve as what then was the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. Historians attribute the GOP’s intransigence to payback for Stevenson’s actions as assistant postmaster general, replacing thousands of government employees with Democrats.
Jean Harvey Baker’s 1997 book, “The Stevensons: A Biography of an American Family,” is essential reading on the subject. More readily accessible are the elder Stevenson’s own words, a 1909 book titled “Something of Men I Have Known.” Project Gutenberg has the text available in several formats at gutenberg.org/ebooks/19745. The first-person memoir would deepen anyone’s understanding of and appreciation for Illinois history far beyond names like Lincoln and Grant.
• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. Follow him on X @sth749. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.
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