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Bears Giving Long-Awaited Update on Where Stadium Situation Stands

With Indiana all set, it's possible Bears owner George McCaskey and president Kevin Warren will announce their final plans for the site of a stadium at a Thursday press conference.
Gene Chamberlain|
Bears owner George McCaskey and Kevin Warren will make public statements about their stadium plan on Thursday at Halas Hall.
Bears owner George McCaskey and Kevin Warren will make public statements about their stadium plan on Thursday at Halas Hall. | Chicago Bears On SI Photo: Gene Chamberlain

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Chicago Bears

It's been quite a while since Bears president Kevin Warren and team owner George McCaskey discussed anything at length about their stadium plans.

It's finally going to happen on Thursday after coach Ben Johnson holds his regular pre-practice press conference.

The last real meaningful comments from McCaskey on it came during the owners meetings, although he did provide a hint at what the tone will be when the Bears held a walk-through at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire on Monday.

NBC Chicago caught McCaskey for a second and asked him where the stadium project stood.

“We’re doing some due diligence on a second site in Hammond,” McCaskey said. “I think Kevin and I will have more to report in the coming days.”

One possible site for the new Bears stadium, the Lost Marsh Golf Course in Hammond.
One possible site for the new Bears stadium, the Lost Marsh Golf Course in Hammond. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

The real news was a one-word statement that rang out loud. McCaskey was asked if there was any movement on the Illinois side of the border regarding the stadium.

His answer was a rather emphatic, "No."

This has to be stunning to those in Illinois who believed the team might eventually get some sort of agreement from the state of Illinois after two different plans to help with infrastructure and the tax certainty they sought at their Arlington race track property was defeated in May.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker hasn't provided enough support to get the momentum going toward the Bears' stadium.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker hasn't provided enough support to get the momentum going toward the Bears' stadium. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

All summer there had been talk of a potential special session in Springfield in August. The dates mentioned were sometime between Aug. 13 and Aug. 23. In particular, it was Aug. 19-20. The reason for this was the state fair begins Aug. 13 and it will be loaded with state legislators gladhanding because of the coming election. It would have been a good time to hold the special session if they planned to actually get behind a plan the Bears would support.

The options they have

Nothing has happened yet and it appears to be dead in the water until at least the November session of the state legislature.

McCaskey and Warren had called late spring or summer a time when they wanted to announce a final decision. After the legislative defeat in Illinois, they said they were focusing on Indiana.

The initial Hammond site was near the Lost Marsh Golf Course in Hammond. The most recent site they've been examining is at a location called Wolf Lake Terminal. It is near Wolf Lake and a stone's throw from the Illinois border.

Illinois politicians and others have bandied about other ideas for the Bears but there have been no hints the team is even considering those. One was in McCook, a small southwest suburb of about 270 people with a huge tract of land. Another was the former U.S. Steel Works near the mouth of the Calumet River, a plan for redevelopment proposed by Illinois State Rep Curtis Tarver.

The Bears long ago stopped listening to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who more or less stopped them from getting the Arlington Heights project done by opposing it, and forced them into crossing the border to get the project built.

A plan providing what the Bears wanted at their Arlington Heights property has been proposed by State Rep. Martin McLaughlin of Barrington Hills, but no word of a vote on this has been brought forth and it seems no more likely than the other two ideas.

No help in Illinois

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has shifted his stance on this issue several times, always attempting to land in a position where he could claim a political victory. He has repeatedly played the billionaire card and said he isn't supporting any tax payer money to billionaires. However, the Bears have only asked for tax money for infrastructure. They're putting for the money to build the stadium themselves.

Indiana's plan to fund a stadium in or near Hammond has been ready to go after overwhelming passage of both legislative bodies, and Gov. Michael Braun's signature.

Indiana had some disruption with its approach when Portage County didn't want to get involved in the hotel-entertainment tax being used to help fund the project but it's a small part of the overall plan. Their idea is to build the stadium and let the Bears run it. This way the Bears avoid taxes.

"When we get this across the finish line — we're in the due diligence stage — it's going to be one of the biggest things that's ever occurred to our state, not to mention the region," Indiana Gov. Mike Braun said according to Fox in Indiana. "So we're doing everything you need to do to make sure you get it done."

Braun didn't paint a good picture for Illinois, either, saying the "... urgency is of because they (the Bears) were wondering who was going to listen to them, where it was going to be, and we've done that pretty quickly, made it easy."

Braun said the Bears have been in contact with him twice weekly. It's unlikely Gov. Pritzker has been in constant contact with the Bears.

Illinois long ago frittered away its last, best hope for keeping the Bears as the "pride and joy of Illinois," as their fight song says. It would be no surprise Thursday if McCaskey and Warren simply announce they're building the Indiana stadium.

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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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