Misdirection

 OK, gotta be honest here, on account of the Blob values honesty in all things except his basketball prowess back in the day: I almost bought the Bears-to-Indiana thing. I mean, I was thisclose.

Oh, all along I suspected it was a just big ol' misdirection play on the part of the McCaskeys, a bit of strong-arming to put the arm on Illinois for a better deal. But the chatter kept chattering, and there was talk of an actual stadium site in the Wolf Lake area around Hammond, and then the Indiana lege and Gov. Mike Braun pushed through a bill to basically hand the Bears anything they wanted ...

And, well. For a second or two there, I could see the Hammond Bears becoming a reality. 

More astute minds kept telling me, nah, no way, and that I was right the first time. Wait 'til the unions get involved over there in Illinois, they said. Wait 'til the Illinois lege gets off the schneid.

And the Illinois lege did, finally.

Just as our lawmakers and our Guv were passing a bill that would, as usual, ding the taxpayers for a chunk of the cost, the Illinois lege was hard at work this week pushing a measure that would ... well, ding their taxpayers for a chunk of the cost. It basically gives the Bears the property tax break they were looking for out in Arlington Heights, which critics say would in turn cut into funding for schools and other local agencies.

In other words, same-old, same-old, world without end, amen.

The Blob takes the very libertarian stance that if an organization worth $8 billion -- i.e., the Bears -- wants to build itself a new home, it should by God foot the bill for it. And I mean the entire bill. Getting into Joe Citizen's pocket to help defray the cost shouldn't be an option.

I say this because the long-term economic impact of athletic facilities is almost always oversold, which means the owners are the primary beneficiaries. And if the owners are the primary beneficiaries -- especially if they own as valuable a property as an NFL franchise -- they can damn well pay for their new digs. Not like they can't afford to and then some.

And, yeah, I know, that's not how it works in bidness. But it should.

It should, because a fancy new stadium with plush skyboxes and videoboards you can see from space doesn't mean jack to a public schoolteacher who already has to buy his or her own supplies thanks to the "school choice" leeches. It doesn't mean jack to the kids at P.S. Poorhouse who subsist on hand-me-downs thanks to the aforementioned leeches, and to legislators who think it would super neato keen to score seats on the 50-yard line.

OK. Rant over.

And the Hammond Bears?

Over, too, apparently. But as always, stay tuned.