As prolonged as precise bears are roaming Lake County, we’d as correctly make a pitch for the gridiron Bears. Looks as if completely different locales are trying to lure them, so perhaps county monetary progress officers have a model new stadium bundle prepared for the workforce.
Of us may have missed the black bear sightings remaining week first lumbering near Gurnee Mills, then inside the yard of an Antioch-area home. State wildlife officers didn’t seem too upset a few unusual bear encounter.
The ursine sightings needs to be the first such inside the county, although we’ve had bison and cougar visitors to this point. Black bears had been as quickly as frequent inside the county until our forefathers disposed of them inside the late 1870s in favor of farms and pioneer housing.
With the glimpse of the beasts on the very least Lake County can declare there’s some precise bears proper right here, compared with these suburbs who should be the eventual home of the Monsters of the Halfway.
Having a model new Chicago Bears stadium in Lake County would piggyback on the workforce’s current headquarters and training facility at Halas Corridor inside the Conway Park a part of Lake Forest, merely east of the Tri-State Tollway. Discuss your synergy.
Some longtime residents may recall the Nineteen Seventies considered “The Colossus,” a pie-in-the-sky plan for a soccer stadium at fallow property, which stays obtainable, between Route 120, the Tri-State Tollway and O’Plaine Street on Waukegan’s far west aspect. That’s when targets had been large and all people wished a bit of a sports activities actions workforce. Hey, Chicago Bears.
Not lots anymore as sporting firms value billions of {{dollars}} want taxpayers to pick up half or the whole worth of setting up new facilities. It happens not solely proper right here, nevertheless in several areas all through the nation the place expert sports activities actions teams dwell.
But, cities nonetheless envision trapping a Bear or Raider or Brewer or Athletic. Which is what is going on with the Bears apparently buying for an internet site for a $5 billion new venue with accouterments: Taking part in one locale in opposition to at least one different.
That moreover occurred within the summertime of 1970 as builders first approached Libertyville to annex the sprawling Cuneo properties alongside Milwaukee Avenue and Route 60. When some residents questioned what in the end turned New Century City and Hawthorn Middle, builders appeared on the following Vernon Hills Village Board meeting and trustees annexed the property. The relief has been historic previous, turning Vernon Hills from paper village to retail colossus.
There’s nothing incorrect with builders negotiating favorable phrases. Or group officers using all varieties of enhancements — tax breaks, infrastructure enhancements and ensures of additional — to entice firms to seek out of their cities. Some are winners with touchdowns; some depart taxpayers with an absence of yardage.
The Bears presently are participating in coy over what to do with the outdated 326-acre Arlington Worldwide Racecourse, which the workforce purchased in February for $197 million. After getting pushback over the stadium problem from some corners in Arlington Heights, and a extreme Cook dinner County analysis on the property, the workforce acquired an invitation from Naperville’s mayor to maneuver to the western suburb.
If that’s the case and all individuals’s inside the draw for the Bears, Lake County has nothing to lose by throwing in its private proposal. The fan base is definitely proper right here, and there’s property obtainable to go effectively with the Bears’ desires.
Group officers moreover met remaining week with new Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to hearken to what he has to provide to take care of the workforce in Soldier Area on the Chicago Park District’s lakefront facility. Even with workforce officers noting the Arlington Heights proposal may presumably be “in danger,” they plan to hold an informational open residence later this month with residents, in line with a report in Pioneer Press.
In the meantime, soccer marches on. The workforce holds its compulsory minicamp from June 13-15, marking the last word organized set of practices sooner than teaching camp in late July at Halas Corridor. Coaching camp dates have however to be launched, nevertheless certainly one of many sponsors is Go to Lake County Illinois, the county’s umbrella group for tourism.
Just like the lonesome bears plodding spherical northern Lake County, the Chicago Bears seem like looking out for a model new home the place they’d be welcomed. Not like Goldilocks, who merely crashed these three bears’ fairy story cottage.
Charles Selle is a former Information-Solar reporter, political editor and editor.
[email protected].
Twitter: @sellenews
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