The Chicago Bears may be building a new stadium not in Chicago. The place that would be hosting the Bears would need to be ready for the onslaught of vehicles on game days.
Via the Daily Herald, a Wednesday “state of the village” address in Palatine, Illinois included concerns regarding traffic resulting from a new Bears stadium.
“I can just assure everybody in this room that this is not something we take lightly,” Mayor Jim Schwantz said. “We’re not just (saying), ‘Put the stadium up, we can’t wait for it, it’s the greatest thing ever.’”
“It could bring our community to complete gridlock,” Village Manager Reid Ottesen added. “And our residents wouldn’t be able to get where they need to go. Our police and fire would not be able to get to calls on time.”
It means that more money will be needed to upgrade the facilities in Palatine.
“It’s going to be $1 billion that has to go into the infrastructure to [address] the road network, the water system, the sewer systems, the retention -- we don’t want more flooding,” Ottesen said.
But they do want more money. And it takes money to make money. With the money to host a stadium, they’ll all make plenty.
The question is how little Palatine will have to pay. Schwantz and Ottesen want the citizens to bear none of the burden.
And they shouldn’t. This should be a financial windfall for the village, not a burden. It will be burden enough to have all those extra people around for the various events the stadium would be hosting.