The kicker of this story is that DePaul is a private university. Welcome to Chicagoland.

Robby Soave of The Daily Caller reports.

Chicago taxpayers could finance private university’s sports arena

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to revitalize the Chicago area includes the controversial use of public funds to build a new sports arena for DePaul University — a private, Catholic institution.

If Emanuel gets his way, the city will spend over $100 million developing an arena for the DePaul Blue Devils. The university will chip in $70 million. The finished arena will have multiple uses, doubling as DePaul’s basketball headquarters and a public event space.

The city’s portion of the bill would be paid through public funds generated from taxes on local businesses, and tax-increment financing. TIF is a controversial financing option that assumes a redevelopment project will increase surrounding real estate values, and uses the projected increase in property tax revenues to pay for the project.

The problem with Emanuel’s plan? Some residents don’t want a new sports arena.

“Our biggest concern is killing the neighborhood with a venue that sits vacant for most of its useful life and, the only time it is used, it’ll be largely an alcohol-focussed sporting venue that will bring unwanted rowdiness, security and parking issues,” said Tina Feldstein, president of the Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance, in a statement to The Chicago Tribune.

Taxpayers have every right to object to the city spending their money on the development of a private sports arena, said a spokesperson for The Illinois Policy Institute, a free market think tank.

“Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to subsidize a sports arena or any other private entity that they may never step foot in,” wrote Brian Costin, director of government reform at the institute, in an email to The Daily Caller News Foundation.