Bears stadium package has ‘positive momentum’ in Springfield, but not in end zone

A conceptual image of a domed Chicago Bears stadium in Arlington Heights. (Courtesy of the Chicago Bears)

SPRINGFIELD — Legislation that would assist the Chicago Bears’ stalled effort to move from the lakefront to a new domed stadium in Arlington Heights has “positive momentum” after languishing for years at the bottom of Springfield’s priority list.

But the emerging package hasn’t reached the end zone, lawmakers involved in negotiations say, as key details — including concessions necessary to win enough votes among Chicago legislators — are still being worked out behind the scenes.

“You can’t score a touchdown unless you’re first in the huddle, right? And we’re in the huddle now,” state Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, told Capitol News Illinois. “We’re calling plays and we’re figuring out what’s going to work, and then we’ll break at some point and try to execute.”

The renewed push comes as Hoosier legislators work this week to meet a key deadline on a competing package meant to entice the Bears over the state line.

The Indiana legislation creating a stadium authority like the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, which owns Rate Field and issued bonds to pay for Soldier Field renovations, passed that state’s Senate last month and faces a deadline to pass out of a House committee this week. Indiana’s legislature is scheduled to adjourn Feb. 27.

As the bill progresses in Indiana, Illinois leaders have shown new urgency.

Gov. JB Pritzker’s office has convened discussions among the team, lawmakers, local officials and other stakeholders around a package that could include tax measures and more than $850 million in infrastructure commitments long sought by the Bears.

As of this week, it’s been three years since the team closed on the purchase of the 326-acre former Arlington Park site for nearly $200 million. While the former racetrack has been razed, the promised “shovels in the ground” on a new stadium have yet to manifest.

PILOT bill takes off

To build their long-desired suburban football palace, the team has insisted on legislation that would provide long-term tax certainty — and likely result in the team paying a smaller bill than under Illinois’ existing arcane property tax system.

House Bill 2789 — the so-called megaprojects bill — would freeze the Bears’ property tax assessment and allow the organization to negotiate a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes with local taxing bodies for up to forty years. The team said this will offer tax certainty necessary before committing billions of dollars to the project.

The bill was recently kicked out of the gatekeeping House Rules committee to the House Revenue Committee, which has a hearing scheduled for Thursday morning. But it remains unclear if the bill will be called while negotiations continue.

“There have been really great conversations almost daily,” state Rep. Mary Beth Canty, D-Arlington Heights, the bill’s sponsor, told Capitol News Illinois last week. “I’ve been involved in a number of those. We’ve got key stakeholders from the legislature involved and the Bears’ and the governor’s team, so I think we’re headed in the right direction.”

Indiana Bears?

The payment-in-lieu-of-taxes languished. What’s changed?

Indiana’s entry into the fray, for one.

In an open letter to fans in December, Bears President Kevin Warren said the team would expand its search for a new home, including to Northwest Indiana, after their efforts to land in Arlington Heights were “met with no legislative partnership” in Springfield.

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun quickly announced his support for luring the Bears to The Region and state lawmakers began crafting legislation creating a state stadium authority with the power to acquire land, issue long-term bonds and finance the construction of a stadium and related facilities. The Bears have eyed a site near Wolf Lake in Hammond while Gary, Portage and other cities have pitched their own proposals.

“It just raised the priority to get something done,” state Sen. Mark Walker, D-Arlington Heights, said of Indiana’s maneuvering. “So yeah, it was a lever in that sense.”

But even as Hoosier legislators make their own play to intercept the Bears, Illinois lawmakers won’t be rushed as they run through their call sheet.

“We obviously don’t want to see the Bears move to Indiana, but at the same time, we’re not going to get into a bidding war using taxpayer dollars,” state Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, said. “We’re just not going to do that.”

Asked earlier this month if he thought the Bears were serious about moving to Indiana, Pritzker — a noted card player — said he “never take(s) anything as if it’s a bluff.” But, he reiterated that his office has been in “consistent conversation” with the team for upwards of two years.

The governor met with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell twice in January to discuss the matter, according to Pritzker’s calendar, obtained by CNI via a public records request.

Let’s make a deal

Players in Springfield say there’s a nonzero chance the Bears leave for Northwest Indiana, and acknowledge that the possibility helped kickstart discussions.

Other factors have also helped move once-nonexistent negotiations along.

It was hard to pin the Bears down on details, lawmakers said, as the team focused first on a privately funded Arlington Heights stadium before shifting to a lakefront stadium that’d require some public funding and then back to Arlington Heights. But that’s changed, Buckner said.

“This is a ‘devil is in the details’ situation,” Buckner said. “And we didn’t have any of the details, right? I think in the early days, the Bears expected for us just to say ‘yes,’ without any specificity.”

Progress has been made on the Bears’ infrastructure requests — an aspect of the project to which state leaders have always signaled openness.

And the fine details are being worked through on the PILOT legislation. Though cautioning that no final deal has been struck, Cunningham said the property tax break would likely be narrowed in scope, applying to the stadium and closely related features, such as a team hall of fame, but not to an adjacent entertainment district or mixed-use development planned for the massive site.

The Chicago factor

But there remains a major obstacle: getting enough Chicago legislators to vote for a bill that makes it easier for the team to leave the city, especially with more than a half-billion dollars remaining to be paid on the bonds that financed the renovation of Soldier Field in 2003. The Bears’ lease at the Chicago Park District-owned facility runs through 2033.

More than three dozen state lawmakers have Chicago addresses, nearly all of them Democrats. And House Speaker Chris Welch, D-Hillside, has an unofficial role that no bill will receive a floor vote unless it has at least 60 Democratic votes.

The Bears are not there yet, though they’ve shown a willingness to address this basic math problem, Cunningham said.

“The question is, can they do it in a way that satisfies enough Chicago legislators to get them to vote for the bill? And that’s something that’s just hard to determine right now,” Cunningham said. “That’s, I think, one of the reasons why it’s difficult to imagine a bill under any kind of circumstances moving forward in February. There’s just a lot more to do there.”

If the Bears break their lease at Soldier Field, they will have to pay a penalty. A Chicago Tribune review of the team’s lease in 2021 found that they’d owe $84 million if they left in 2026. If they left in 2029, it would be closer to $55 million, the Sun-Times reported.

But in separate interviews, Buckner and Cunningham brought up the Cleveland Browns, who are similarly bolting a publicly owned lakefront stadium in downtown Cleveland for a new domed stadium in the suburbs. After some legal skirmishes, the team agreed to pay the city of Cleveland $100 million, including costs of stadium demolition.

“Not saying that we should use that as a litmus test, but it’s hard not to pay attention to that,” Buckner said, noting that Cleveland is a far smaller market than Chicago.

“The Bears do not have an obligation” to help pay the debt, said Buckner, whose legislative district includes Soldier Field. “I’ve always said it’s not a contractual obligation, but it’s an obligation of context because there would be no Soldier Field renovation without them demanding one. So we can’t undo the past, but I think we can stabilize the future.”

Lawmakers are in the huddle. But what yard line are they on?

“That remains to be seen,” Buckner said.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.