No-tax plan to renovate Wrigley on Zell's desk
Former Gov. Jim Thompson said Friday he can’t understand why the Cubs are still touting the idea of renovating Wrigley Field with sales and amusement tax growth when a plan to finance the $400 million overhaul without raising taxes is sitting on Tribune Co. CEO Sam Zell’s desk.
The no-tax plan became necessary when Mayor Daley ruled out forfeiting 30 years of local tax growth at a time when taxpayers are being hit from all sides and Daley has been forced to wield the budget ax in mid-year, even after raising taxes by $276.5 million.
(Tom Cruze/Sun-Times)
Ignoring that political reality, Cubs Chairman Crane Kenney touted the plan — modeled after tax increment financing — during an interview this week on WSCR-AM.
Asked Friday why the Cubs chairman would still be pushing that failed plan, Thompson said, “You got me. I don’t have a clue. Our plan is on Mr. Zell’s desk. It gets done what everybody wants to get done and there are no taxes. That’s pretty great, isn’t it?”
Thompson, chairman of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, went on to say that taxes of any kind — new, increased or incremental — are “off the table.”
“There is no way to pass the plan with taxes. Think about it. The city just raised taxes. So did the county and the RTA. There’s a $750 million budget hole in Springfield, they say. Two out of the three candidates for president want to raise taxes,” Thompson said.
“I don’t think the people of Illinois, through their legislators, would support taxes for Wrigley renovation, as important as I think Wrigley renovation is. Now is not the time. It needs to be a no-tax plan if it’s to have any success in Springfield. Most of the taxes Crane is talking would be lost by the city of Chicago. I suspect the mayor’s office would not support that, either.”
Do Kenney’s radio remarks mean the Cubs don’t trust Thompson’s plan?
“Why don’t you call Crane and ask him why he said it. They just got it yesterday. That would be a strange way to answer it, wouldn’t it?” Thompson said.
Kenney did not return repeated phone calls.
Last week, Thompson said he had devised a plan to have the state acquire and renovate 94-year-old Wrigley — at a rehab cost of “at least $400 million” — with “no taxes of any kind.”
The following day, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that the secret plan may rely on equity seat rights, a revolutionary stadium financing scheme pioneered by former Democratic fundraiser Lou Weisbach.
It requires fans to sign a long-term contract to buy a specific seat for a fixed price that’s locked in for the duration of the contract, much like a mortgage payment on a house.
A financial backer, acknowledging the fan’s long-term commitment, then fronts the team the money to be used for stadium construction or renovation. And not every seat in the stadium needs to be involved. Only enough seats to cover construction costs.
On Friday, Thompson once again refused to say whether his plan includes equity seating, a concept untested in professional sports. He would only say, ÒAll structures are iffy.”
Asked last week why sports teams haven’t jumped on the idea, Weisbach said, “It’s just starting. We have one deal that’s about to be announced and we’re working on other transactions. We just really started aggressively going to market after Morgan Stanley bought control over our business.”
He added, “It’s new and nobody’s done it. Typically, new ideas take somebody new to step out of the crowd and do it. Nobody wanted to do PSL’s [at one time]. Now, more than 200 of those transactions have been done.”
