Sports briefs
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Bears unveil $5 billion plan for lakefront stadium
CHICAGO | The Chicago Bears unveiled a nearly $5 billion proposal Wednesday for an enclosed stadium next door to their current home at Soldier Field as part of a major project that would transform the city’s lakefront, and they are asking for public funding to help make it happen.
The plan calls for $3.2 billion for the new stadium plus an additional $1.5 billion in infrastructure. The team and the city said the project would add green and open space while improving access to the city’s Museum Campus and could also include a publicly owned hotel.
“This is not an easy project, but Chicago doesn’t like it easy,” Bears president Kevin Warren said.
The announcement at Soldier Field comes during a busy week for the Bears. They are expected to take 2022 Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams with the No. 1 pick in the draft on Thursday night and bank on the USC quarterback to solidify a position that has long been a sore spot for the founding NFL franchise.
The team said last month it was prepared to provide more than $2 billion in funding toward a publicly owned stadium in the city.
The proposal calls for $2.025 billion from the Bears, $300 million from an NFL loan and $900 million in bonds from the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority. The funding from the ISFA would involve extending bonds of the existing 2% hotel tax.
The Bears said the project would generate $8 billion in economic impact for the region. It would be built in three phases and take up to five years. The new stadium would be constructed on a parking lot just south of Soldier Field, the Bears’ home since 1971. The team’s lease at the 100-year-old stadium runs through 2033.
Mayor Brandon Johnson gave a full-throated endorsement, saying the project is in line with Daniel Burnham’s “Plan of Chicago.” He said there would be no tax hikes or new taxes for Chicago residents.
Renderings show the Bears’ stadium would have a translucent roof and massive glass panels that would bring in sunlight and allow for views of Chicago’s famed skyline. The plan is to host major concerts throughout the year as well as Super Bowls, Final Fours and Big Ten championship games.
Though Soldier Field’s famed colonnades would be preserved, the spaceship-like stadium that was installed in the renovation two decades ago would be torn out and replaced by playing fields as well as park space. The plan calls for a pedestrian mall, food and beverage options, a promenade and plaza.
“My administration insisted that any new project — especially one on public land — must deliver strong public benefit and public use for the City of Chicago, and I am pleased today that this plan does exactly that,” Johnson said.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, however, said he wasn’t on board.
“I remain skeptical about this proposal and I wonder whether it’s a good deal for the taxpayers,” Pritzker told reporters Wednesday at an unrelated news conference. “I’m not sure this is among the highest priorities for taxpayers.”
Illinois’ top legislative leaders were also doubtful.
“If we were to put this issue on the board for a vote right now, it would fail and it would fail miserably,” Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch said at an unrelated news conference. “There is no environment for something like this today.”
However, he added that the environment in Springfield does change.
The proposal comes as two other Chicago sports teams, including the White Sox and Red Stars, have expressed interest in public funding for new stadiums.
Warren, who replaced the retired Ted Phillips a year ago, played a role in the construction of U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis through a public-private partnership when he worked in the Minnesota Vikings’ front office from 2005 to 2019.
The Bears spent $197.2 million more than a year ago to purchase the site of the shuttered Arlington International Racecourse from Churchill Downs Inc. They envisioned building a stadium on the 326-acre tract of land some 30 miles northwest of Soldier Field, with restaurants, retail and more on the property — all for about $5 billion, with some taxpayer help.
The Bears had said they would pay for the stadium in Arlington Heights, with taxpayer dollars covering infrastructure costs such as roads and sewers. Those plans stalled, with the team citing a property assessment it said was too high.
They would remain tenants by staying in Chicago rather than owning a stadium in Arlington Heights. But Warren said he sees it as more of a partnership with the city rather than a landlord-tenant relationship.
“I believe in Mayor Johnson,” Warren said. “I believe in his staff, his vision, I believe in this city. I don’t look at it as being a renter. I look at it as being able to develop a relationship, to be able to come together. People asked that same question in Minnesota — why would you want to be a renter?”
Paris will become a no-fly zone to safeguard Olympic opening ceremony
PARIS | Skies over the Paris region will be closed for six hours as part of the massive security operation for the July 26 opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the Paris airports operator said Wednesday.
Augustin de Romanet, chairman of Aéroports de Paris, said airlines are being warned in advance about the closure and told they will have to fly around the restricted airspace.
“For six hours, there won’t be any aircraft over the Paris region,” he said on France Info radio.
The no-fly zone will extend for a radius of 150 kilometers (93 miles) around Paris, the civil aviation authority and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin have said.
The unprecedented waterborne ceremony on the River Seine running through the French capital is the stiffest single security challenge for Paris Games organizers, with crowds of more than 320,000 people expected to line the waterway.
At least one French military AWACS surveillance aircraft will police the skies during the Olympics, using its powerful radar to watch for any potential airborne threats, the French AWACS squadron’s commander previously told The Associated Press. Other military aircraft can be scrambled to intercept any non-authorized flights that enter restricted Olympic airspace.
Separately, de Romanet said there’s still a “very, very high” probability that small electric-powered airborne taxis will be trialled with passengers over Paris during the July 26-Aug. 11 Games, which he said would be a world first.
But European air-certification authorities might initially only allow the taxis to fly passengers on an experimental basis, not commercially, he added.
“We have high hopes that we will be able to carry passengers experimentally which will pave the way, over Paris, for the first flight in the world of an electrical vertical take-off aircraft,” he said.
Multiple companies are developing electrically powered aircraft that take off and land vertically. Some have already flown demonstration flights, in a race to turn their promises of environmentally friendly air transport into a commercially viable reality.
De Romanet insisted that the aircraft are safe, saying: “I am ready to climb aboard.”
Critics worry that taxis zipping through the airs of Paris will be a noisy and potentially dangerous nuisance and affordable only by the wealthy. The Socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, is among opponents of proposals to trial them on a few Paris-region routes during the Games.
Lions agree to contract extensions with
St. Brown and Sewell
DETROIT | The Detroit Lions have heavily invested in their future, keeping a pair of All-Pro players under contract for the next five seasons.
The Lions and wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown agreed to a four-year contract extension worth more than $120 million with $77 million in guarantees and they later came to terms with offensive tackle Penei Sewell on a four-year, $112 million deal, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The person spoke Wednesday to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the financial terms were not announced.
“Four more years,” St. Brown said in an Instagram post.
Detroit drafted St. Brown out of USC in the fourth round in 2021 with the No. 112 overall pick and he was entering the last season of his rookie contract.
He was an All-Pro last season, helping the Lions earn a division title for the first time in three decades and win two playoff games in the same season for the first time since winning the 1957 NFL title.
St. Brown had career highs with 119 receptions, 1,515 yards receiving and 10 touchdowns last season. In three seasons, he has 315 catches for 3,588 yards and 21 receiving touchdowns.
Detroit general manager Brad Holmes took Sewell with his first selection with the franchise, drafting him No. 7 overall out of Oregon in 2021.
Sewell was voted to the All-Pro team last season and has been durable over his three-year career, starting 50 regular-season games and all three postseason games as the Lions reached the NFC championship game for the first time since the 1991 season.
Detroit is hosting the NFL draft starting Thursday night and has the No. 29 pick overall in the first round.
Bengals pick up fifth-year option on WR Ja’Marr Chase’s contract
CINCINNATI | The Cincinnati Bengals have exercised the fifth-year option on the rookie contract for star wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, the team said Wednesday.
The 24-year-old Chase is entering the fourth year of the deal. By extending his rookie contract to a fifth year, the Bengals will have more time to reach a long-term deal with the 2021 AP Offensive Rookie of the Year who figures into their long-term plans.
Chase, who was a teammate of Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow at LSU in 2019, has 268 receptions for 3,717 yards and 29 touchdowns, leading the team in each category in each of the past three seasons.
Last season, Chase had a career-high 100 receptions, tying for the second most in a season in team history, for 1,216 yards and seven TDs.
Tee Higgins, the team’s No. 2 receiver who was drafted the year before Chase, will play this season with the franchise tag, keeping him in Cincinnati for at least one more season. He’ll make $21.8 million.
—From AP reports
