Daley Thinks Chicago Needs A New Stadium (And Maybe A Second NFL Team)
By Rob Winn in News on Aug 22, 2012 9:00PM
In an interview with Comcast SportsNet, former Mayor Richard Daley used the ruse that Chicago can support two NFL teams to bring up the topic that Chicago needs a stadium with a retractable roof.
"I've always believed — the Chicago Cardinals, Bears — why is it that New York has two? Florida has three, San Francisco has two. Now you think of that, we could easily take — Chicago loves sports and we could get a second team in here."
But since Chicagoland children are raised to love the Bears from the time of conception, rounding up a new fan base for an NFL franchise would be nearly impossible.
Daley went on to bring up his real point: that Chicago can't host national sporting events because of the limited space and restrictions involved with Soldier Field.
"You could build a new stadium, you could have huge international soccer teams come in, you could do the Final Four, you could do anything you wanted with a brand new stadium."
As you may remember, Daley was mayor when the plans for Soldier Field renovation were drafted and approved. But since it's opening, the complaints with the new Soldier Field have been long and well deserved. The renovations actually lowered the seating capacity to a laughable 61,500. Combine that with the lack of a retractable roof, and major sporting events will steer clear of Chicago for the foreseeable future.
If Daley wanted a world-class facility, he should have built one eight years ago.