Brandon Johnson

And this particular proposal that you're referring to from a couple of years ago...

The fan experience for the everyday, regular Bears fan, we're talking about 20% more of green space.

We're talking about the ability to host events 365, not to mention $3.5 billion in terms of

income from just wages, $8 billion in total economic impact, 24,000 jobs for Chicagoans, 43,000 jobs for the region.

At a time in which our city is showing its prowess, the best location for the Bears is the one that they actually proposed two years ago.

We just did not receive cooperation from the state of Illinois.

And now I'm saying that as fans, as elected leaders, this is an opportunity for us to come together to ensure that our Bears remain in Chicago.

So we would have to finance it out.

Here's what's interesting about that.

I'm glad you mentioned 2003, not the best deal.

I can't speak for three administrations ago, but here's the irony here.

the proposal that came out of the Senate that you referred to earlier would still require a 35 to 40 year ramp to be able to generate the amount of revenue, though there's no stream, to be able to finance a stadium.

What we're saying is this is the most responsible way to protect taxpayers.

Because even if you think about what was initially being discussed for the suburbs, the mega projects bill,

baked in a 40-45 year freeze on property taxes.

If you're talking $150 million to $200 million a year, you're talking about over the next 40 years, that's $4 billion.

So, between the potentially $1.5 billion, maybe $2 billion that you're going to need for infrastructure,

The $4 billion that essentially would be at the expense of taxpayers for a privately owned stadium, and here we are offering a publicly owned stadium in which the Bears committed 72% of paying for, and then you have the hotel tax, which is already baked in to ISFA, which, yeah, you could finance it for 30 years, but the return on that investment, again,

We're talking about 43,000 jobs for the entire region, 24,000 jobs for Chicagoans, $8 billion in total social impact in terms of revenue.

And so the benefit of being able to enjoy a Bears game at the number one tourist destination anywhere in the state, the economic region,