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Bear Digest

Bears Stadium Compromise Could Make Them Arlington Heights Tenants

The Bears stadium megaproject plan died Saturday but other attempts at a path to an Arlington Heights project with Chicago involved are reportedly possible.
Gene Chamberlain|
Will the Bears' billboard at the Arlington Park property be replaced by construction on a stadium soon?
Will the Bears' billboard at the Arlington Park property be replaced by construction on a stadium soon? | Chicago Bears On SI Photo: Gene Chamberlain

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Chicago Bears

Compromises can be confusing and when it involves the City of Chicago they can be downright mind-numbing.

The Bears-stadium saga continued on Sunday as the clocked ticked toward the midnight deadline for the end of the legislative session, and the deadline the team already set. The original megaproject bill for providing Bears tax certainty in Arlington Heights never got off the ground with the Senate behind closed doors, and seemed to die off Saturday night. It wasn't revived on Sunday.

The Chicago political stranglehold is preventing the Bears from getting the support for their plan of payment in lieu of tax certainty in order to build on their own property in Arlington Heights. The city wants to be compensated by getting some way to have its own stadium or improve Soldier Field for concerts and sporting events before city legislators will back a Bears plan.

Mayor Brandon Johnson says the Bears must either keep playing at Soldier Field or they go to Indiana. He's not allowing them to go to Arlington Heights and stay in Illinois.

The end result is a standoff with the Bears, Arlington Heights, and governor on one side, Chicago politicians on the other, and Indiana waiting to catch the Bears in Hammond as time runs out. It could mean building a stadium on a landfill, if that truly is what the Indiana property is.

The alternative idea

Yet, there is still time until midnight and also more discussions occurring on Sunday behind closed doors about a different type of compromise. According to Brenden Moore of Capitol News Illinois, there is a movement afoot to allow communities to set up their own stadium authorities.

Such a compromise could either let the Bears continue with their idea of building a stadium in Arlington Heights or Chicago could try to entice them to stay in the city with its own stadium authority and offer. Or if the Bears decide to stay with the Arlington Height site, the city would have the ability to set up its own stadium authority to fund improvements at Soldier Field for concerts and other sporting events.

There are plenty of unanswered questions and obvious problems with all of this. For the Bears, the main one with staying in Chicago is they'd be involved with a group of politicians who have already fouled things up at Soldier Field.

If they chose to build in Arlington Heights, such a plan could impact local school districts and their tax funds. The plan for localized stadium authorities would make the Arlington Heights situation more like the one in Indiana, where the Bears are tenants rather than owners.

As renters, they would not be paying taxes and the surrounding community doesn't benefit from this. Handling that aspect of it could be more complicated.

The biggest problem with all of this is it hasn't been thought through thoroughly and it isn't a plan so much as a last stab at keeping the Bears out of Indiana. The megaproject bill was an actual well-thought-out plan.

Because it's something thrown together so late, it seems like more time would be needed to address details and maybe the Bears would be asked to wait out another legislative session.

There has been no public statement from the Bears on any of this.

The city has wanted the Bears to pay off the remaining debt for the 2002 Soldier Field renovation but the team already paid off its obligation on that project. The remaining money, around half a billion dollars, is still owed as a result of mismanaged debt on the city’s part. They tied the payments to a tax on hotels, restaurants and entertainment and then the pandemic hit and erased much of their chance to pull in money to pay it off.

Any number of other options could come up in these closing hours before the deadline.

If nothing is passed, the Bears will have the next move and they will be the ones to announce if that move is to Indiana. In Hammond, the Bears would be renting the facility but would run it and would pay the same $2 billion for its construction that they’ll pay in Arlington Heights. Ultimately, after 40 years, the Bears would own that facility.

Indiana’s plan has already passed and the Hoosier state just continues to play the waiting game, just like anyone in Illinois who is following what’s going on in the Springfield talks.

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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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