Opponents to Ryan Field are asking our elected officials to deny a zoning amendment asking for six concerts that could bring millions to our city because:
• NU won’t enter into a PILOT.
• They think NU should give us more money.
• They aren’t satisfied with the millions in economic gains that the recent economic study demonstrates.
Some opponents will accept nothing less than zero concerts and feign that their opposition is because Evanston can’t negotiate a better deal. But zero times anything is … zero. Zero concerts won’t add anything to our city. And, with costs increasing for both our city and our schools, we can’t afford zero.
Our mayor and city manager should negotiate the best deal that they can – hopefully, significantly better than what NU has provided in the past – but we ought not reject the deal because it could have, should have, would have been better.
NU is offering millions in tax revenue, money for our schools and businesses, and the opportunity to bring some much-needed fun and vitality to Evanston. And this $800 million project costs taxpayers nothing besides 18 hours of live music.
If opponents are so interested in making the city “livable,” what is their solution to add $30 million in revenue to our community at no cost to us?
An all-or-nothing approach will just get us to zero. NU has made concessions, and we trust our elected officials to do their part too.
Let’s amend the zoning, allow for six concerts, and accept more for Evanston … not less.
Robert Levin, Sixth Ward resident
Terry Mostrom, Seventh Ward resident
Joel Sternstein, Ninth Ward resident
Editor’s note: The RoundTable welcomes letters to the editor on all sides of the Ryan Field proposal. We love hearing from our readers, and encourage a diversity of views and subjects in our letters. Here’s how to submit your letter.
I am writing about Northwesrern’s plan to rebuild Ryan field. Since this plan was announced i have wondered why the Universitiy was so intent on this plan. In thinking this over I looked at the stadirms of most the Big Ten. Interestingly, most were built in the 1920s though some are newer and most have been renovated as has Ryan. The other interesting fact I found is that Ryan is the smallest of the Big Ten stadiums and the new stadium would be even samller. So i asked myself why is Northwestrern pursuing this plan. Well, one reason is money both funding from the Ryans and the prospec of profits tothe University from events which may or may not be approved. But it looks to me that Univeristy has another undisclosed goal which is to de-emphasize football and hold may differerent types of events at the new staridum that will further its profit push. I am sure this is not surprising to the casual observer but it does strike me as disengenous on the part of the University in that its true long term plan has been obfuscated. I thought this needed to be said.
Just consider this, after bringing attention to what NU could do, they’ve already paired concerts from 12 to 6. Yes, let’s bring it to zero. Yes, it is long overdue. They must start paying their fare share to our community AND reaching out beyond hand picked organizations to figure what that looks like.
So I’m not sure where the 30 million is coming from, and I’m not sure where the jobs are coming from. We wouldn’t need money from this project if the city could balance their budget in the Right Way! Many of the MLCA members have been here for more than 30 years and know how deceptive it is to deal with NU.
Believe me, we are not the wealthy ones, Field of Opportunities holds that title!
Eric and Dave you are correct in the 200,000 to the city via taxes! You obviously don’t care about the 30 million/year to local businesses that support many Evanston families or did you skip that sentence? 500k to schools and 2 million that NU has pledged to the city is better than zero. How exactly do you expect to get more when your idea of negotiating is to offer zero in return? I have faith in our elected officials to not end up with the Zero that MLCA wants so badly. There are so many people in our city who need more than Zero! Everyone loses in a COMPROMISE and that’s a good thing.
Only few win when MLCA wins. MLCA should be celebrating getting NU to 6 concerts from 12-15. Frankly Iiving half a block away I would take 8-10 concerts and the extra 10-20 million for our community. You must realize that while you are completely opposed to the stadium there are actual people who are supportive. It’s not just NU that wants the stadium and concerts. It’s many of your fellow Evanstonians.
To use your phrase, there are “actual people” on both sides of this issue. All of them have the right to be heard. You seem to find this concept infuriating.
Has anyone else noticed that Roundtable has been posting significantly more letters for the stadium than against. Hmmm…..
The study says a total of $200,000 not millions.
You do understand that tourism brings people to a community and those tourists spend money there, right? Hotels, dining, parking, groceries, etc. is a lot of spending from 400,000 annual visitors. That spending means more jobs in all of those industries that serve tourists.
So the economic benefit to Evanston from football and concerts adds up to $30 million annually. That’s the impact overall.
Of course, if you keep looking at sales tax revenues of $200,000 as the sole benefit of tourist spending, we can all be thankful you’re not running things.
I love the fact that that this letter was penned by residents representing three different wards! They understand that this stadium will benefit ALL of Evanston.
“Bring millions to our city”? Huh? The city’s own economic impact study predicts a net gain of $200,000 for the city. The cost: Turning a wonderful neighborhood into Wrigleyville. “Money for schools”? Northwestern is offering $500,000 per year to be divided among two school districts. It recently paid UTEP $1.2 million to come to Evanston and play a single football game.
“Concessions”? Please. Let’s remember that Northwestern is doing the asking here. The city does not owe the University commercial rezoning. Northwestern has done what they likely planned to do all along — trimmed an inflated number of concerts to their real number in order to appear reasonable. Their request for commercial rezoning is not reasonable.
Well said. I trust our city manager and elected officials to negotiate the best possible deal for Evanston. The best possible deal is not the Zero that MLCA wants for Evanston. Dave Decarlo seems to believe that conceding nothing and demanding everything gets you to Zero. Zero dollars for our schools. Zero revenue for our local businesses. Zero for our city budget. Zero permit fees. Zero fun. I guess the MLCA goal must be ZERO. MLCA must be some pretty wealthy people in the 7th ward as they are so well off they need nothing. Must be nice in their livable city that doesn’t need 30 million in additional revenue.
So full of passive aggressiveness about those that oppose the concerts (not the stadium) but devoid of any facts or arguing against the concerns on the merits. Please stop with the attacks and misrepresenting of the MLCA or others that oppose the rezoning.
What in recent history should give us in confidence in our elected and appointed officials? The crumbling and dwindling schools? The massive budget problems? The complete loss of our downtown to aggressive pervasive panhandlers doing drugs and urinating an everywhere? If our city wants to fix their self inflicted budget issues they should stand up to the billionaire bullies, stop wasting time taxing our citizens and business to death (driving them away), stop throwing money down the drain on extreme far right progressive issues, and start hiring actual economists that understand that there are many many more costs than NU, the pro sports development ‘consultants’, and billionaire donors portray.
NU’s marketing department must be having a real giggle at the expense of the economics department as they watch their fancy campaign of half truths and whole lies be swallowed whole by so many in lieu of actual economic analysis and a well thought out plan for critically important design matters. Like getting 10’s of thousands of people in and out of the stadium in an orderly, safe, and timely manner.
Once again, NU and its spokespeople depict their commercial stadium plan as cost-free to the community. It is not. As for the PILOT, Northwestern should already be paying it, stadium or no. The reason the issue is coming up now is that the stadium issue offers the city leverage. The only question is, will our elected officials use it?
Please provide a list of conessions NU made that they committed to in writing.
As far as I know all committments are verbal and NU has been known to go back on their commitments, such as to the workforce training program (see the Roundtable’s reporting) and to having trainers available to be on site for any injuries when their own cheerleaders while practicing stunts (See the Daily Northwestern’s reporting).
How about this…leave the stadium alone, 2 concerts and sell heavily taxed alcohol at all events?
There is no logical reason for a new stadium.