Kansas City Chiefs, Chicago Bears shake down fans for stadiums | Opinion

Coal is overrated. Nothing kills the holiday spirit quite like giving a middle finger to your loyal fans.

The Kansas City Chiefs announced Monday that they’re abandoning ⁠the stadium they’ve called home for more than 50 years, taking their ball and moving because Missouri residents wouldn’t foot the bill for major renovations at Arrowhead Stadium. This five days after the Chicago Bears threatened to move to northwest Indiana if Illinois taxpayers won’t give them money.

Check that. More money, since the state is still paying for the renovation of Soldier Field more than 20 ‍years ago.

“Our fans deserve a world-class stadium. Our players and coaches deserve a venue that matches the championship standard they strive for every day,” Bears president Kevin Warren wrote in an open letter to fans. 

No one is saying the Chiefs and Bears don’t deserve first-class facilities. Or even saying they can’t have new or newly renovated stadiums. If these teams want state-of-the-art playgrounds, they should ​get them!

But they should be paying for them themselves. Every last cent of the costs for construction and infrastructure.

Sports stadiums, arenas rarely deliver on promised benefits

Now, the teams and the politicians who sign off on public funds for these taj mahals will tell you what a good deal it is for taxpayers. How these projects will create jobs, generate revenue, make the area ​a tourist destination, blah, blah, blah.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly trotted out all those economic clichés in making the announcement Monday.

“With this new stadium, we’re creating thousands of jobs, bringing in tourists from around the world, attracting young people,” she said. 

Numerous studies over the years, however, have found this just isn’t true. The economic benefits are almost always less than promised or projected. The costs to the taxpayers ​almost always are greater than expected or planned.

“Economic research continues to demonstrate that stadiums remain poor public investments,” authors of a review of public funding for stadiums wrote in a January 2023 paper.

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Especially when the team owners can afford to write these checks themselves!

Charity for ⁠billionaires all part of the new stadium playbook

The Hunt family, owner ‍of the Chiefs, is worth $25 billion, according to Forbes, and the franchise was valued at more than $6 billion in August. Yet Kansas taxpayers will pay up to 60% of the costs of the $3 billion new stadium.

The McCaskeys are known to be among the least-wealthy NFL owners, their fortune tied mostly to the Bears. Still, the team is ‌valued at more than $8 billion, according to Forbes.

The Bears at ‍least say they will cover the bulk of the costs for their proposed $5 billion stadium, but they want $855 million in public money for infrastructure. Things like roads, sewers and changes to a commuter rail line.

Again, both of these teams are worth billions. As is the NFL, which offers nine-figure loans for stadium projects. If the ⁠Chiefs and Bears want new stadiums, and the riches that come with them, they should pay every cost associated with them.

Instead, ‌they want fans, who already shell out for tickets, parking, concessions and merch, to give them more.

This isn’t new, of course. The public has been building stadiums for sports teams for decades. But at a time when it’s getting harder and harder for most Americans to put food on the table and keep the lights on, the Bears and Chiefs demanding that ⁠others foot their bills isn’t just greedy, it’s insensitive.

Teams like to say their fans are the lifeblood of their organizations; ⁠after the Bears staged an epic comeback to beat the Green Bay Packers in Week 16, both coach Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams gave fans some of the credit. Yet it’s not enough. These teams want taxpayers, many of whom are their fans, to give them even more, and they have ⁠no problem shaking them down like a mob boss to get it.

You really think the Chiefs would be moving to Kansas had Missouri voters not rejected a sales tax in April 2024 that would have paid for renovations at Arrowhead and a new Kansas City Royals stadium? You really think the Bears would be considering a move to the suburbs, let alone across state lines, if they could have gotten public land near Soldier Field?

If you do, I’ve got a stadium to sell you.

This is supposed to be the season of giving. ⁠For the Chiefs, the Bears and so many other team owners, it’s a one-way exchange.

Top photos from Week 16 of the NFL season