State lawmakers passed the legislation in November on the final day of their fall veto session at the prodding of Chicago Bears football team officials and Mayor Richard Daley, who came up with the renovation project.
"For years, we've seen stadium proposals fall by the wayside in Springfield for one reason or another," Ryan said in a news release. "But, this past fall, Mayor Daley and the Chicago Bears came up with a plan that worked and that the members of the General Assembly could support."
The measure allows the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority to issue $387 million of bonds that would be paid off with revenues from a 2 percent authority hotel tax collected in Chicago. An annual state appropriation of Illinois hotel tax funds that will be fully reimbursable to the state will secure the bonds, while Chicago had pledged its share of state income tax revenues in the event the authority's hotel tax falls short.
An authority official was not immediately available to comment on plans for selling the bonds.
The authority already has similarly structured bonds outstanding from a $150 million issue it sold in the 1980s to build a new Comiskey Park for the Chicago White Sox baseball team.
The Bears have promised to come up with $200 million for the project, including $100 million from a National Football League loan.
Under the renovation plan, the 76-year-old publicly owned Soldier Field would get a boost in sideline seats, two giant video screens and improved restrooms and concessions in time for the 2003 football season. The plan also calls for tearing down the nearby Chicago Park District headquarters building, creating 2,500 new underground parking spaces, adding 17 acres of lakefront park and building a veterans' memorial.
An attempt by former Illinois Treasurer Pat Quinn to force a referendum on the stadium project has so far failed.
Reuters
Soldier Field in Chicago will get a $587 million face-lift after Illinois Gov. George Ryan signed into law a bill to help finance the project.
