(The Center Square) – Although women’s sports teams generate a fraction of the revenue that men’s teams bring in, there is legislation in Springfield that would level the playing field when it comes to publicly-funded stadiums.
The Bears unveiled a proposal where the team would pitch in $2 billion of the $4.7 billion needed to build a new lakefront stadium. The White Sox and the Chicago Red Stars women’s soccer team all have expressed plans for new stadiums.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker and numerous lawmakers have repeatedly said that taxpayer funds would not be used to build stadiums for any private corporation.
“If we were to put this issue on the board for a vote right now, it would fail, and it would fail miserably,” House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, said earlier this year. “There’s no environment for something like this today.”
Before the Bears pivoted to the Chicago Lakefront, the team made headlines centered around a potential move to Arlington Heights by purchasing the former Arlington National Racecourse.
State Rep. Eva-Dina Delgado, D-Chicago, has introduced House Bill 5841 that she said will even the playing field because women’s teams should also have a seat at the table with the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority when talking about stadiums.
“I like to call this the equity amendment and the reason we use that terminology is because when we talk about professional women’s sports teams we don’t always think about the history of how those women’s sports teams have had to claw and fight to get to the point where they are today,” Delgado said during an Illinois House Revenue and Finance Committee hearing Monday.
Red Stars player Sam Staab testified and said she heard Chicago was a great sports town, but only to an extent.
“Then I got here and we kind of get thrown off to the side out in Bridgeview,” said Staab. “We’re not really like a part of the city at all.”
