On December 14 I turned on the radio and heard something I’d never dreamed I’d hear: Mayor Daley blasting a government subsidy to a corporation as unwarranted and shameful. Over the years the mayor’s been more than generous as far as city-financed handouts go. But he came down hard on the idea of the state buying Wrigley Field from the Chicago Cubs. Could it be the mayor’s had a change of heart?
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Nevertheless, the old Tribune Company planned an ambitious expansion including a parking garage and a mall. Under the new proposal the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority—a state agency formed to subsidize the replacement for Comiskey Park, U.S. Cellular Field—would pick up the tab for those renovations. The Cubs would sell the park to the agency for the nominal sum of $1, and the new owners would sign on to rent the park from the state for at least 30 years. In exchange the Sports Facilities Authority would issue bonds to cover reconstruction costs.
There’s some dispute as to who came up with the proposal. Zell told reporters that the governor, a Cubs fan, approached him with the plan, but Blagojevich’s staffers say it was Zell who came to the governor. (For what it’s worth, former governor James Thompson, chairman of the Sports Facilities Authority, also says it was Zell’s idea).
So he blasted the deal: “We can’t even get any money for the CTA and they’re worried about the Chicago Cubs?” Daley said. “It’s hard to believe.” Arguing that there was no need for “taxpayers helping out the Cubs,” the mayor vowed to oppose any attempt to raise restaurant or hotel taxes, a primary source of funding for Sox Park and Soldier Field.
My sources in the statehouse predict that Daley’s opposition will only be temporary. They expect the mayor to swap his support for the Wrigley Field deal in exchange for a Chicago casino and more state funding for the 2016 Olympics. But I remain hopeful: it’s never too late to do the right thing. Next thing you know Daley will be calling for the abolition of TIFs.v
