UPDATE: Gary Mayor Eddie Melton: ‘We made a lot of noise’ by rolling out Bears proposal

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24 Comments

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    1. Charles- were you also against the Fever’s new playpen, as a gift from taxpayers?
      Steve— what was wrong with the Hoosier Done? NFL demands and receives new taxpayer funded playpens for increased revenue from more suits, premium seats, concessions, etc, but also because it’s a new shiney object. Solider Field was always a little awkward for the modern game and its last renovation was over 20 years ago. It is far behind current NFL standards
      Just a heads up, Lucas Oil is about 20 years old. Expect the Irsay’s to come with their hand out within the next 10 years

    2. Hey Chuckie. The $78M Fever facility is being privately financed by Pacers Sports & Entertainment.

    3. David – that’s lovely. I don’t recall that they paid for the land (think it was transferred to the CIB), nor do I recall any public input on a practice facility being the best use of the city-owned land.

      I’d have rather they put the practice facility along the railroad tracks on Pennsylvania and put the theatre project on the jail site.

    1. 30 miles? Maybe if you are measuring from downtown Chicago but Chicago goes right up next to the State Line. I worked up there for over two years and from Dyer, Muenster or Hammond, you just have to walk across the street in many place and you wer in Chicago. Gary is only a little further east. I designed a church on the south side of Gary and this area is as close to downtown Chicago as most of the “so called” suburbs of Chicago. Lets face it, this entire area had all the positives of lower taxes and a real desire to bend over backwards for a pro franchise.

    1. That’d be a huge disaster for Indiana. Illinois would make out quite well.

      Never going to happen though.

  1. The Indiana locations are no further than the Jets and Giant’s home field in NEW JERSEY!
    Gary and other ‘region’ communities are closer to Chicago than many of the Illinois suburban towns and cities. It would be THE catalyst for massive ‘rebirth’ that the area is gradually re-establishing. Hope it plays out. Indiana has a number of things going for it…..primarily the gross governmental incompetence at the city and state level in Illinois. Rudy’ ‘Ralph’ and Dakich could get to the Bear home games a lot easier. 😁

    1. Murray – what’s gross about it? Conceptually it seems Gary and the state are putting their best foot forward.

      Yeah, it may turn out be a leverage play, but is worth a shot. That could be a massive catalyst in a place that needs it.

  2. Interesting to watch Nate’s Flock of Democrat commenters who are all of a sudden fiscal hawks, saying what a horrible idea this is, while NW Indiana Democrats are saying Build Baby Build

    1. Chuck or anyone … explain how this helps the area.

      If you wanted to help the region grow, why not spend a billion dollars on roads and schools as opposed to giving that money to a football team?

    2. Joe, putting the Bears stadium in a cluster with Hard Rock Casino and a new convention center is probably a strong development play that would benefit Gary and make it attractive to conventions and events. You know, sort of like putting the Hoosier Dome and LOS next to the convention center.

    3. Sort of, yes. I understand your explanation and the “we will get conventions that don’t want to go to Chicago” idea, but I don’t think it will be that simple in practice. Heck, they tried the Genesis Convention Center and I think that’s now just rotting away.

      If downtown Indianapolis adds a casino, that doesn’t mean they will compete with Las Vegas … and adding three more Honky Tonk bars doesn’t mean they’re going to start stealing every convention from Nashville.

      I would rather invest in schools and infrastructure… than giving a football team a free stadium and assuming there will be trickle down economic success.

    4. Chris,

      Show us the “strong” development near other casinos. I don’t think it exists especially in areas that are remote to other amenities.

  3. Will there be push back from the Irsays protesting 2 NFL teams in the one state. I realize there is precedent for this but in much higher populated areas

    1. No. Moving the Bears 20 miles southeast changes nothing.The northern 1/3rd of Indiana already gets Bears games on TV rather than Colts games.

    1. I’ll save everyone the time and looked it up. The legislation is silent on this. In fact, the LSA report says:

      Explanation of Local Revenues: Local Taxes: The bill provides that the lease rental payments by the lessee
      will be made from proceeds of local excise taxes and applicable proceeds of food and beverage tax and
      innkeeper’s tax. It does not specify which excise, food and beverage, or innkeeper’s taxes will be used for
      lease rental payments. It also does not specify what share of these taxes will be used.

      If the taxes haven’t been identified, then no one knows if the math even works. What a bunch of BS.

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