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Illinois Largely Defiant Even as Bears Consider Second Indiana Site

Even supporters of the Arlington Heights Bears Stadium say there won't be an Illinois summer legislative session, but also scoff at the Hammond stadium plan.
Gene Chamberlain|
Lost Marsh Golf Course is no longer the only stadium site the Bears are considering in Indiana, but Illinois politicians believe that state isn't really even being considered at all.
Lost Marsh Golf Course is no longer the only stadium site the Bears are considering in Indiana, but Illinois politicians believe that state isn't really even being considered at all. | Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Illinois politicians seem to be treating the Bears' statement about focusing on Hammond, Ind. with deaf ears.

The goal is to keep pushing ahead in the future toward addressing the Illinois stadium plan, even if the Bears' announced course has Indiana as their sole focus. The trouble is, they're taking their sweet time about it.

In a conversation with WGN's Josh Frydman, Illinois State Rep. Kam Buckner said the Bears have to make the next decision on proposed stadium legislation. They need to show Springfield whether they favor the payments in lieu of taxes plan originally passed by the House but not the Senate, or the individual community stadium funding boards plan passed by the Senate but never considered by the House.

"Both of those bills have some type of property tax certainty in them," said Buckner, who first opposed a Bears move out of Chicago and then got on board the failed Arlington Heights stadium push. "Both of those bills, I think, could be used for the Bears to move forward with what they want to do here in the state of Illinois."

Buckner told WGN Springfield legislators had to see which of those the Bears favor before any special summer session of the Illinois legislature can be convened to pass it. Otherwise, it could wait until November and the next session.

"As far as a special session is concerned, I do not want to put the cart before the horse," Buckner said. "We cannot have a special session until we have a deal. You don't call a special session to draw up a flight plan. You call up a special session to land the plane."

Whatever happened to debate and decide? Everything in the Illinois legislature must be decided ahead of time now.

Bad faith Bears?

Buckner also accused the Bears of negotiating in bad faith in the past, something the Bears could definitely say about Chicago and Illinois to this very second. The Bears thought they had a stadium deal agreed upon and support for the PILOT bill, and instead it lost at the spring session deadline because of opposition from Chicago Democrats and Downstate politicians from both parties in the House.

While Buckner at least outwardly appears willing to keep working for the Bears remaining in state, it sounds as if state of Illinois politicians really do regard everything the team said about Indiana to be a bluff.

The fact the Bears now have balked at the original Indiana site for the stadium is proof that there is plenty of opportunity for Illinois' ideas yet to be heard, they believe.

Illinois politicians seem to be living in an imaginary or alternate world of denial.

The problem is, Illinois has two plans.

This is just like in football. When you have two quarterbacks, it's often said, you have none. There might be two plans in the legislature but when the Bears were behind the PILOT plan to begin with the state didn't pass it. So, it's not really a plan. The other plan was merely a last-second option, a Hail Mary from their own 40-yard line without much hope for completion. It wasn't caught and it's unrealistic.

There really is nothing concrete and backed enough by Springfield itself for the Bears to think about ditching their pursuit of the Indiana site. That is, if you believe they really are serious about Hammond.

The second site

The other Indiana site is in Hammond, too, and near Wolf Lake, but its exact location has yet to be revealed. Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. said it's actually a site he likes better than the Lost Marsh Golf Course site at Wolf Lake.

"I think it's a better site, it's a better location, it works better for the overall scheme of things, and I hope it works out," McDermott said last week during an appearance on WSCR's Mully & Haugh.

McDermott remains confident, but said he won't be spiking footballs until digging is actually going on for the stadium.

The state of Illinois doesn't have the luxury of being cautious. They need to be more all in than they have been at getting the Bears' eyes back on Illinois.

Playing hard to get is not the way to win if someone's eyes are looking elsewhere. Illinois needs to treat the Indiana threat as more than a mere ruse, because it's gone way past the point of being dismissed as a ploy.

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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.

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