The Chicago Bears and other professional sports teams are rethinking their ties to the city.
This year’s Harris Policy Innovation Challenge asked competitors to find new ways to negotiate.
In the annual contest, teams of master’s students from the Harris Public Policy School at the University of Chicago pitch proposals aimed at major civic issues—in this case, how the city can adopt a more “win-win” stance to sports investment. Students Charlie Schraw, Christina Tsai and Liz Williams won with a sweeping call to restructure how the city uses its public money to fund stadium deals and set terms with teams.
“Our plan allows the city to come to the negotiating table with leverage, not desperation,” said Williams. “We’re not asking Chicago to construct a wealth of new development—we’re asking it to better use what it already has. We sincerely hope the city considers this plan.”
In their proposal, the team called for the establishment of a new Stadium Securitization Corporation (SSC), modeled after Chicago’s Sales Tax Securitization Corporation (STSC).
The SSC would wall off old and new stadium debt from the city’s broader finances, with a legal framework for dedicated stadium revenues to flow straight to bondholders. Pointing to the success of the existing STSC in improving the city’s credit on sales tax debt, the winning team said the same structure could steadily reduce what Chicago owes on its stadiums.
The winning plan also included considerations ranging from hiring requirements for local residents, as well as commitments for affordable housing, public transit access and climate resilience. It would also require alignment with Chicago’s Climate Action Plan and a minimum LEED Gold rating for sports facilities.
Schraw, Tsai and Williams also proposed that stadiums guarantee at least 150 days of annual usage, with 20% or more of those days reserved for community groups. They also called for a 30-year non-relocation covenant for pro sports franchises, aiming to ensure long-term benefits for the city.
The three finalist teams pitched their ideas to a slate of judges from the worlds of business, city government and community development.
They were: David Wells, former CFO of Netflix; Bill Conway, alderman of Chicago’s 34th Ward; Tovah McCord, executive director of Nicor Illinois Community Investment; Mike Parker, former Americas Infrastructure Leader of Ernst & Young; and Derek Douglas, president of the Commercial Club of Chicago and the Civic Committee.
“Every year, our student competitors rise to the occasion with the rigor, thoughtfulness, and depth of their solutions to a pressing local issue,” said Research Professor Justin Marlowe, who directs the Center for Municipal Finance and leads the challenge. “The focus of this year’s contest—the multifaceted issues surrounding Chicago’s professional sports teams—is deeply rooted in the city’s municipal checkbook and civic heart.
“Our finalists this year all delivered novel and deeply considered approaches to a topic of huge significance to the city’s finances—and, indeed, its pride.”
The policy competition began in 2023, with previous installments focused on the city’s unfunded pension liabilities and revitalizing the Loop.
This year’s contest takes place amid a historic era for the city and professional sports, as teams including the Bears, Fire, Sky and Red Stars are all reassessing their relationships with the city.
The Bears’ possible exodus from the city took a recent step forward as the Illinois House of Representatives passed a bill granting the team property-tax certainty should they build a new stadium in suburban Arlington Heights.
Marlowe said this year’s theme brought “fascinating real-world twists and turns” related to the city’s professional sports teams.
“As one example of the real-world importance of the topic, Illinois State Representative Kam Buckner had to leave his seminar with the HPIC participants early so he could head straight to a negotiation session with the Bears,” he said. “It was a perfect illustration of how our students navigated what happens when the landscape changes right in front of you.”
Nearly 90 UChicago students comprising 16 teams took part in the contest, engaging in a six-month seminar where they worked closely with mentors from the public and private sectors.
They also attended lectures from speakers including Steven Mahr, the city of Chicago’s acting CFO, and Danny Ecker, commercial real estate reporter at Crain’s Chicago Business, providing new perspectives and broadening the ideas they brought to their proposals.
The other finalist teams pitched major governance updates of their own.
The proposal from Andres Camacho Baquero, Alison Collard de Beaufort, Joe diTomasso and Taha Rashid included a call to require a voter referendum for any new public subsidies and a long-term restructuring of Soldier Field’s ownership. It also proposed shifting costs and control to private franchises—while keeping teams in the city through long-term lease agreements. Under their plan, Chicago would retain public ownership of pro sports stadiums while offering the tenants full operational control.
The plan presented by Anna Chaeeun Koh, Firouz Niazi and Lyndsey Wang proposed a dual-track model: a new Chicago Sports Authority that would issue revenue-backed bonds to fund stadium-adjacent infrastructure like transit and public space, paired with public minority equity stakes in the teams themselves. The bonds would be repaid from stadium-related revenues rather than the city’s general fund.
While the judges deliberated on the three presentations, the finalists fielded questions from the audience and news reporters on subjects including land use, sustainability and transportation policy.
“The annual Policy Innovation Challenge is a vivid illustration of so much of what is best about Harris,” said Ethan Bueno de Mesquita, dean and Sydney Stein Professor at Harris. “These students have not only engaged in serious, engaged thinking and data analysis—they have really gotten their hands dirty to tackle a major real-world policy problem. That is what we are here to do.”
—This article was originally published on the Harris website.
