Good afternoon, Chicago. ✶
It’s been about eight months since Bally’s Corp. opened a temporary casino in Medinah Temple, with plans for a permanent casino in River West. But a series of financial hurdles confronting Bally’s, plus some recent doubts cast by the mayor, are making that project seem like less of a sure thing.
In today’s newsletter, we’ll take a look at Bally’s odds and why one gaming expert says they aren’t looking good.
Plus, we’ve got reporting on a new day pass for Metra, Pace and the CTA, a backstage look at the costumes for the musical “Six” and more community news you need to know below. 👇
Editor’s note: Wednesday’s Afternoon Edition included an incorrect location for SeatGeek Stadium, which is in Bridgeview.
⏱️: A 7-minute read
— Matt Moore, newsletter reporter (@MattKenMoore)
TODAY’S TOP STORY
Bally’s won’t open permanent casino in River West by 2026 — and may not build it at all, gaming expert says
Reporting by Fran Spielman and Mitchell Armentrout
Bleak assessment: Bally’s, which plans to break ground on its $1.7 billion gaming complex in River West next month, will never be able to complete the project by a state-mandated fall 2026 deadline and may not have the financial wherewithal to build the casino at all, according to Alan Woinski, one of the nation’s foremost experts on the gaming industry.
Bally’s challenges: In the time since the casino was announced, Bally’s has run into financial hurdles, including an $800 million construction funding gap and a buyout offer from its largest shareholder that’s roughly half of what it was two years ago. Woinski, the CEO of Gaming USA Corp. and editor of the Gaming Industry Daily Report, has watched Detroit and New Orleans struggle to complete their ambitious casino projects. And he says the issues facing the Chicago project are even worse.
Key context: Mayor Brandon Johnson recently expressed his doubts about the Bally’s deal, telling the Sun-Times Editorial Board “that one’s still to be determined.” He compared the situation to the cost-cutting deal he recently renegotiated with the major airlines to proceed with the next phase of the O’Hare Airport expansion project. Woinski says Johnson’s comments were an “invitation” to Bally’s to renegotiate its deal on more realistic terms.
Pushing back: Bally’s Chicago general manager Mark Wong pushed back on critics Thursday, saying the company still plans to break ground next month and open in September 2026. A vendor fair was held the day after Johnson expressed his doubts. And a public hearing to discuss demolition of the Chicago Tribune’s Freedom Center printing plant at the River West site is scheduled for Friday.
A prediction: “The one thing I’m certain of is we’re not going to have that full project by the end of 2026. … Whether there’s something in the permanent spot by 2026 — that’s going to be determined,” Woinski told the Sun-Times. “I would not be surprised if we wind up with, ‘Let’s just get a better temporary casino. Build it out. It’s not going to cost as much. It’s the next best thing.’”
WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
- Can Red Stars and Riot Fest find common ground? After the Red Stars criticized Bridgeview officials and Riot Fest on Wednesday for announcing the 2024 edition of the festival will take place at SeatGeek Stadium the same weekend as the National Women Soccer League club’s Sept. 21 match, Annie Costabile looks at the factors at play as the parties try to find a solution amenable to all sides.
- New public transit day pass: The pass may soon be available to Chicago commuters for access across the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace. It would offer unlimited rides on the three systems on a given day.
- Feds investigating data breach: Federal authorities are conducting a criminal investigation into a massive data breach that potentially affected as many as 1.2 million patients at Cook County’s public health system and a total of 14 million people across the country, WBEZ reports.
- How to change name, gender marker: For members of the LGBTQ+ community, changing your name and gender markers can mean a better quality of life and even safety. At least in Illinois, the process for going through those changes has gotten slightly easier.
- 4 stars for ‘Inside Out 2': This exuberant, brilliant swirl of teenage emotions is one of the funniest, smartest, most touching movies of the year, writes Sun-Times critic Richard Roeper.
OUR CITY IN COLOR 🎨
West Town’s new Matrix-like mural is first North Side commission for these South Side painters
Reporting by Genevieve Bookwalter | For the Sun-Times
The CMK graffiti crew, longtime friends once known for illegal tagging on the South Side, hope their first North Side commission in West Town will bring more opportunities to share their art with Chicagoans north of the Loop.
Work is nearly done on a new mural that wraps around the building housing Bridgewater Studio at Ashland and Haddon avenues in West Town.
Trippy old televisions, a spacey octopus and a praying mantislike creature shooting a laser beam are just a few of the detailed elements on the one-story brick wall. The theme was loosely inspired by the movie “The Matrix,” said Rick Castro of Garfield Ridge, whose graffiti name is Gnome174.
The job came after the CMK crew recently finished a mural on a Bridgewater Studio building in Back of the Yards. The owner was pleased and asked the group to paint a mural on the company’s North Side building, which kept getting vandalized, the painters said.
This month, nearly 20 artists brought their sweeping jagged letters, surrealist shapes and comic book-inspired characters to a busy stretch of Ashland Avenue.
CMK, which stands for Chicago’s Most Known, has been a presence on the Chicago mural and graffiti scene since the 1990s. Its members still call each other best friends.
“With this recent installation, I’d like to see if there’s anyone who wants to work with us on the North Side, in Lincoln Park or Wicker Park,” CMK artist Luis “Peas” Molina says.
BRIGHT ONE ✨
All that glitters — the costumes fit for a queen in the musical ‘Six’
Reporting by Stefano Esposito
Somehow British costume designer Gabriella Slade has transformed 16th century Tudor fashion into something exceptionally cool.
In “Six,” a 21st century take on the story of Henry VIII’s wives — in case you’d forgotten: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived — the queens bristle into “modern pop-punk warrior versions,” says Kearney Starr, the wardrobe supervisor for the show, which is playing through July 14 at the James M. Nederlander Theatre in the Loop.
Each queen becomes a synthesis of the Tudor figure and a modern pop “queen,” including Beyonce, Alicia Keys, Rihanna, Adele and Shakira.
Gone are the historically meticulous linen smocks and heavy velvet gowns decorated with pearls and rubies. In their place: thousands of silver studs, gold spikes, “pleather,” fishnet stockings, colored see-through vinyl — but still retaining numerous Tudor references.
In the labyrinthine basement of the Nederlander last week, Starr offered a close-up look at the costumes. Interestingly, each of the actors playing the queens has only one costume; hence the need for someone like Starr.
“My job on the road is to make everything look like it did on day one,” she said.
Seeing all that vinyl, the fishnets, silver studs and rhinestones makes you wonder what their royal highnesses would have made of it.
“The idea of seeing an ankle, let alone a knee, would have been crazy to them,” Starr said. “They’d all faint.”
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Editor: Satchel Price
Newsletter reporter: Matt Moore
Copy editor: Angie Myers
