The Chicago Bears are recalibrating again, shopping for continued interest in Springfield after lining up Indiana’s blessings.
Two days after lauding Indiana lawmakers for advancing a stadium finance authority in Hammond — and drawing a public scolding from Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker — the team said it’s continuing to work on Illinois’ side of the aisle, Crain’s reported.
“We continue to work with Illinois’ leadership and appreciate the progress being made,” Bears CEO Kevin Warren said in a statement shared with the publication, a notable shift from the team’s earlier praise of Indiana’s efforts as the “most meaningful” movement in its stadium search.
The Bears are now walking a tightrope, advancing stadium concepts in two states without alienating either. The timing adds pressure, as Indiana’s legislative session has just a week left, and the stadium finance authority bill cleared a House committee and is headed for a second reading on the House floor, according to a source familiar with the matter. The measure would still need Senate approval and Indiana Gov. Mike Braun’s signature. The team is studying a potential site near Wolf Lake in Hammond, near Gary, an area of Chicagoland suburbs dubbed “the Northwest Corner” in Indiana.
In Illinois, the focus is a proposed “megaproject” bill that would allow the Bears to negotiate a property tax arrangement with local taxing bodies in Arlington Heights northwest of Chicago, where the team owns a former racetrack site. That proposal rankled Chicago lawmakers, including Rep. Kam Buckner, who has questioned aiding a suburban move while hundreds of millions in debt from the 2003 Soldier Field renovation remain outstanding.
Pritzker acknowledged Friday that a new lakefront stadium is unlikely, and equally unlikely that the Bears will remain in Chicago. Pritzker said that there is an understanding in the General Assembly that the Bears won’t build within Chicago’s city limits, citing site constraints and transportation challenges.
After what he described as a year and a half of effort to identify a viable city location, “we’re down to the question of whether they’re going to build in Arlington Heights or … in the state of Indiana.”
— Eric Weilbacher
Read more
