Bear Digest

Arlington Heights Bears Stadium Approaches Key Thursday Meeting

Springfield this week will at last begin considering the bill the Bears have been pushing to help get an Arlington Heights stadium built.
Gene Chamberlain|
Soldier Field has housed the Bears since 1971 but a committee hearing in Springfield this week could lead to a suburban home.
Soldier Field has housed the Bears since 1971 but a committee hearing in Springfield this week could lead to a suburban home. | Quinn Harris-Imagn Images

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After speculation and back-room type dealings and a strong push by Indiana, the Illinois legislature now appears ready to take the Bears' stadium project seriously.

It's a little late since Sunday marks three years since the Bears bought the Arlington International Racecourse property but still not so late that it could require a Caleb Williams-style comeback to get the stadium project approved.

The Illinois State House Revenue and Finance Committee will hold a Thursday morning hearing on the so-called megaproject bill that would give the Bears the tax certainty they seek under local taxing districts. They're also seeking over $850 million in

Now, long-stalled legislation that would give the NFL franchise a long-term property tax break and pave the way to construction of a stadium complex on the prime Northwest suburban acreage is finally set to move this week in Springfield.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker and legal advisors have been meeting behind the scenes with the Bears, according to the Chicago Tribune, since December to get the specifics of this in order to go forward.

“You’re seeing people that are moving with a purpose," Illinois Rep. Mary Beth Canty told the Arlington Heights Daily Herald's Chris Placek. "They are moving quickly, but still in a way that is smart and methodical.”

The bill lets the Bears, or anyone else's project worth at least $500 million, negotiate tax payments directly with local taxing districts. The Bears have been working this out in advance so it isn't a problem once a the megaproject bill is passed.

Pressure mounts still in Indiana

Indiana's Senate already passed its funding plan for a stadium that would most likely be in Hammond, and that state's legislature needs House to sign off and Gov. Mike Braun to do the same. Indiana is pushing for certainty from the Bears on the deal, and its legislative session is due to end before the Illinois session. So there is a need for immediacy on the part of the Illinois politicians.

Canty told the Herald there could be more public discussion by legislators, testimony from any witnesses and committee hearings before any votes. Indiana's offer to build the stadium for the Bears and then let them run it could look too lucrative for the McCaskey family ownership to pass on, especially if there are any delays.

The difference here is the Bears would own the property in Arlington Heights. They would be managing it and would be tenants for at least 35 years under the Indiana plan.

After all the uncertainty and back and forth, it finally appears the conclusion to this political football game is approaching and if the Bears are to remain the "pride and joy of Illinois," as their World War II era fight song says, then Pritzker and his minions need to push things over the goal line.

Expect complaints about the debt remaining with Soldier Field's 2002-03 reconstruction to pop up again from Chicago politicians. The Bears long ago paid off what their part of the agreement required, but the debt was improperly managed on the city's end through the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority and there could be more demands that the Bears pay more to help retire that bond.

Pritzker himself had been demanding this as recently as September.

"The Bears don’t owe that," Pritzker said in January. "That is a decision that government leaders made years ago to borrow that money to create the Bears stadium. The actual fiscal responsibility, the financial responsibility for that debt, does not fall on the Bears.”

The development of a second proposal from Portage, Ind., this week might not receiver serious consideration but it does help Illinois in one respect. The Indiana group would like a final word on this project for Hammond but the Portage project suggestion gives the Bears an Indiana alternatve should Hammond pull out. And that second alternative keeps the pressure on Illinois to get its bill passed.

It's time for everyone on all sides to forgive and forget, especially the Chicago politicians who have operated for three years under the delusion they had the right to keep the Bears in the NFL's smallest stadium. Getting an Illinois stadium built should be everyone's goal.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.