Illinois is the bluest of blue states. And yet it seems that the Governor, the Legislature, the Mayor, the Cook County Commission, the City Council will all soon acquiesce to a huge give away that benefits Sam Zell - billionaire and Republican party financier, The Chicago Tribune - booster and apologizer extraordinaire of W and generations of Republicans, and the soon-to-be multimillionaire owners of the Chicago Cubs. One would hope that such a blue state could advance universal health care, attack environmental degradation, support the rights of the poor and of working people, invest in mass transit. But this government cannot even pass a budget - the equivalent of tying its shoes given the overwhelming majority Democrats have at all levels of government. With nary a sound the deal is being cooked to get the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority to purchase Wrigley Field even though such a move will put the people of Illinois forever at the mercy of the Cubs' ownership.
At this weekends Cub Convention, The Tribune Company reiterated its desire for Wrigley Field to be bought by the Illinois State Sports Facilities Authority, per reports from the Cubs Convention Press Conference. This idea was floated in the fall of 2007 by Sam Zell, after he had managed to snag one of America's premier media congolomerates without putting much of his own money in. The Tribune's many properties include the Baltimore Sun, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, WGN radio and TV and the Chicago Cubs and their ballpark, Wrigley Field.
Sam Zell's greed apparently knows no bounds so he pitched to Mayor Daley the idea that the State of Illinois should purchase Wrigley Field for a premium so that Zell could then sell the Cubs to owners who would not be encumbered by an ancient ballpark with no parking and subject to the constraints of being located in a densely populated and politically active neighborhood. On the first day the Mayor said this was a bad idea but then changed his mind. See Daley's About Face
And all has been quiet as the The Tribune Company officially became Sam Zell's property and the power of ownership of all this media is felt in Illinois political circles.
The Tribune Company executives make no effort to sell this sale to the State as unequivocally serving some public purpose. Instead they argue that they love Wrigley and they love the Cubs and only if Illinois buys Wrigley can we be sure that the Cubs stay at Wrigley for awhile. Well, if the new owners of the Cubs were to also own Wrigley, there would be little doubt that the Cubs would stay at Wrigley since that piece of landmarked real estate has no other function to serve than as a ballpark. You sell Wrigley and the Cubs as a package and there is no question they stay together.
The Tribune Company executives claim that this is a freebie since Wrigley would be paid for by bonds. However, the Authority that issues the bonds currently collects a two percent sales tax in Cook County. So real tax money will be funneled into the purchase price, directly or indirectly. Plus, it is the Sate of Illinois which backs the bonds and it is the State of Illinois which will have decided to issue bonds for a ballpark rather than for infrastructure, public housing, medical facilities, mass transit..... oh, you know ... the stuff government is supposed to worry about.
And doubtlessly, once the State owns Wrigley it will be at the mercy of its one and only tenant, the new owners of the Cubs, that can always threaten to go to a suburb or another city to get their way. We can expect the taxpayers of Illinois and Chicago to be extorted in the years ahead to grant many goodies to the owners of the Cubs - more sky boxes, parking, city land, "urban renewal." Kinda setting us up in Illinois for the W-run land grab that occurred in Arlington, Texas (charming that the only business success the Bushes have ever had was converting a public good to private use via the Texas Rangers).
Nothing like socialized capitalism. The point of this diary is just to illustrate how sick our politics really are and how at the end of the day nothing much separates Republicans from Democratic politicians when it comes to squeezing the poor and the middle class on behalf of the wealthy.