Sports betting could be the cause of a feud between the Chicago Bears and CPD

The Chicago Bears and franchise owner, Chicago Park District (CPD), have long feuded over structural improvements and rentals at Soldier Field. There were even rumours that the Bears might leave the iconic stadium and start looking for a new and bigger suburban home.

However, new evidence suggests that there may be another reason the Bears have made a bid for Arlington International Racecourse - betting on sports.

Two weeks before the franchise announced it would bid for Arlington, the team president accused the Chicago Park District of refusing to enter into any talk of expanding sports betting services at Soldier Field. This information was obtained by WBEZ via a Freedom of Information request show.

Sports betting factor sheds light on why bears are looking for a new home

A previously unreported sports betting exchange has shed a lot of light on the main factor reported as to why the Bears are looking to leave Soldier Field. However, the franchise has refuted claims that potential revenue from sports betting is the reason behind the search for a new home.

On Friday, a spokesman for the group even issued a two-word statement about the rumours, and said the two cases are completely unrelated.

Ted Phillips, Bears CEO and president, wrote to Michael Kelly, Chicago County superintendent, in a memo dated June 3. The memo was titled "Legalized Sports Betting," and in it, Phillips said the franchise was trying to discuss setting up a betting shop with the Park District near the stadium itself and thus take full advantage of Illinois' 2019 law that allowed sports betting at certain stadiums in the state.

But in April 2020, during the original football pitch, the Bears announced that the NFL had banned betting shops from operating in the stadium. Last year, the interpretation of that law seemed relaxed. Last month, the Arizona Cardinals reportedly struck a deal to host a betting shop at their stadium .

The Indianapolis Colts are also opening a sports hall, where on-site betting is not allowed, but there will be ambassadors to help visitors bet online. At the time, Phillips also came up with the idea of setting up a sports hall inside Soldier Field on those days when the game is being played as a franchise. His idea was to create so-called hidden spaces that would "mimic" a betting shop by broadcasting NFL games live and showing betting lines on screens, but not allowing betting. The proposal was also supposed to bring in money.

Park District proposed revenue cuts

According to the emails, Phillips proposed a 20 per cent cut in Park District's revenue. However, the head of the authority responded with a short statement. The response said the organization was considering new sports betting laws in Illinois, which were signed into law in June 2019 by Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker.

On November 6, 2020, Kelly wrote to Phillips that it would be counterproductive to take advantage of those opportunities at the time. He also added that his team had been working on some design of the park and open space adjacent to the north end of Soldier Field. However, he remarked that he would take Phillips' views into consideration when the time came.

Seven months after receiving this letter, Phillips fired back, on 3 June 2021. He wrote that he was disappointed that it had been over a year since the Bears had contacted Kelly and he had refused to engage in any good faith. conversation that would use the Bears brand and also be profitable for CPD.

Two weeks after this response, the Bears publicly announced that they had applied for an international racecourse in the Arlington Heights suburb, but contained no information about its use. According to speculation, the Bears intended to move the team to a new location and enjoy a larger stadium. The 326-acre site also has the potential to accommodate entertainment venues around the stadium.

A spokesman for the Bears did not share any information with WBEZ on whether the Park District has had additional discussions regarding sports betting since the June 3 memorandum was published. Scott Hagel, spokesman for the Bears, noted that between the Bears and CPD. CPD did not respond to requests for comment, nor did Mayor Laurie Lightfoot's office.

Lightfoot said the Bears' decision to release the bid for Arlington Heights was a negotiating tactic. She also added that the franchise has done so before.

In a statement in June, Lightfoot said the Bears announcement was made in the middle of negotiations to improve Soldier Field. She added that it was clearly a negotiating tactic that the franchise had used before. She also noted that as a big Bears fan, she advocated that the team pay the necessary attention to bring a winning team to the field, beat the Packers and be relevant. Anything else isn't important, it's just noise.

The franchise is keen to get involved in sports betting

The Bears' desire to enter the sports betting gold rush, even if not including the Park District, is growing. If the franchise wins its bid in Arlington, it will buy the field from gambling giant Churchill Downs Inc. based in Kentucky and announced its final race on Saturday. Further plans include entering the Danish 20bet Casino market, where betting sites without a Danish license are growing in popularity each year.

Churchill Downs also has a controlling interest in the Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, Illinois, 15 miles from the racetrack. The Bears announced in June that Rivers Casino would become the team's new sponsor and BetRivers.com would become its official betting partner.

A Churchill Downs spokesman has not commented on the company's current relationship with the Bears, nor has it made a bid to build a racetrack. Neil Bloom, chairman of Rush Street Gaming, which owns Rivers Casino, also had no comment. Consequently, it is not known when the winning bid for the racetrack in Arlington will be announced.

Legal sports betting in Illinois proved lucrative

Seventeen months after sports betting was legalised in Illinois, the Illinois Gaming Board has shared the figures. Rivers Casino has recorded more than a billion dollars in professional sports betting, either in person or through its online betting platform.

Between March 2020 and July 2021, about $5.5 billion was bet on sports, most of it online ($5.3 billion according to WBEZ data analysis). If the Bears stay at Soldier Field, the bookmaker's licence will cost $10 million plus $5 million for an annual renewal. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that the alderman in Chicago has made an offer to each betting shop - to pay the city a relatively small one-time fee of $50,000 and $25,000 in the future.

All of this comes as the Lightfoot administration seeks to launch its own casino in Chicago, which is allowed by the 2019 law, but had to extend the application deadline due to sluggish offers from the gaming industry.

As for the bid announcement, this is not the Bears' first home field saga. Less than 20 years earlier, the city began renovating Soldier Field, which ended up costing about $660 million. "The Chicago Tribune reported that even though the Bears could play at Soldier Field on a lease until 2033, the break-up price of that lease would be extremely low.

As expensive as it is to build a new stadium, it has some advantages, one of which is the higher capacity. Soldier Field has a capacity of 61,500, far less than other NFL stadiums. The new arena, for example, with a retractable roof, will be able to accommodate thousands of fans and will prove attractive to a team that is known for its harsh winters in Chicago. It also means the extra money comes from hosting major events, one of which is the Super Bowl.

The extra money that will come from betting on sports and their publicity will equally increase the popularity of football. Mark Ganis, sports economist at Sponsorship Ltd, said sports betting would be an important source of revenue for teams and the league in the future.

He added that having to wait for the landlord to approve it, instead of just building it elsewhere, could also be tedious for the Bears, and that this particular case is an example of the constraints the Bears face, and another reason why the franchise would like to build its own land.

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