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It's Panic Time for Illinois Politicians as Indiana Bears Stadium Looms

The Bears say Arlington Heights and Hammond are their only stadium options, turning up pressure on Illinois as Indiana's threat grows more serious.
Gene Chamberlain|
The landscape at Lost Marsh Golf Course in Hammond, where the Bears' stadium would be built if the state can't get a plan passed to let the Bears build in Arlington Heights.
The landscape at Lost Marsh Golf Course in Hammond, where the Bears' stadium would be built if the state can't get a plan passed to let the Bears build in Arlington Heights. | Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Skepticism over the Bears' potential move to Indiana continues to lurk while the team's statement about their decision being between Hammond and Arlington Heights for a stadium still stands.

Because he doesn't want to be known as the mayor who lost an NFL franchise to Indiana or the suburbs, Chicago's Brandon Johnson continues to push a false narrative about the possibility the Bears are interested in a last-ditch Chicago attempt to keep the team, and that this itself shows they are not really considering a move from Illinois.

It's a false narrative because he offers no real plan for keeping them in Chicago, because he hasn't said who from the Bears met with him and under what circumstances, and also because the Bears say they're not looking at any possible Chicago plan. Johnson's comments even led the Bears to put out a statement on Thursday, while otherwise they could have simply ignored Johnson's statements as the utterings of an irrelevant past participant in their stadium quest.

“The Chicago Bears have exhausted every opportunity to stay in Chicago, which was our initial goal," the Bears' statement said, repeating something they've said quite often.  "There is not a viable site in the city.  As a result, the only sites under consideration are in Arlington Heights and Hammond.”

The rubber meets the road for Bears

It's a critical point in getting legislation passed for tax certainty and infrastructure payment to make Arlington Heights possible, and the Bears don't need a bitter Chicago mayor and his over-politicized cronies stopping things now.

Make no mistake, the Bears' promised announcement of their decision is coming in June or early July and all of the complaints and statements going on at this point over possible reasons not to pass the megastructure bill to let Arlington Heights happen sound more like rats trying to get off a sinking ship.

None of the politicians — statewide, city of Chicago or even the suburbs — want to be known as the ones responsible for sinking this ship. So they're seizing upon anything that floats now, like lack of a traffic study for towns outside Arlington Heights or an Indiana slag heap story in the Tribune conveniently breaking as the possibility of and Indiana stadium looms.

Really? Now?

If this terrible traffic study issue for areas outside Arlington Heights was such a worry, why was it not brought up publicly as a problem until a week and a half before the Bears' deadline? After all, this has been going on for three years. The date hasn't just snuck up on everyone. And NOW the traffic in areas just outside Arlington Heights absolutely must be considered before passage?

If the Indiana land was actually a toxic slag heap, as the Tribune reported earlier in the week after no doubt being told this by Chicago and/or Springfield politicians, then why do plans go on for the stadium not only from the Bears' standpoint, but also Indiana's?

If Wolf Lake is so toxic, the stadium isn’t getting built there and both the Bears and Indiana know it. So obviously, they know this isn’t the case with this land. The Bears met with Indiana politicians last week on the stadium and it's full speed ahead on that end.

It's run for cover time in Illinois

All of this balking in Illinois is happening because attempts to modify the megaproject bill to get it passed through the Senate are not going to meet with the kind of success in Springfield that's needed for passage by the Bears' deadline. They all know the clock is going to run out with the ball on the 1-yard line, to use an overused football metaphor — but one entirely correct in this case.

So, politicians are doing advance CYA. Bickering between Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Johnson earlier this week was another example of the panic setting in, as the governor has been trying to set himself as entirely innocent the last few months after he suddenly realized his own opposition earlier could make him into the clowned, selfish character Johnson has become.

It will happen. They’ll move. It isn't a bluff, as so many have suggested.

No less an expert on it than megaproject bill co-sponsor Bill Cunningham, a state senator from the 18th District in southwest Cook County, admits this is happening and the bill better pass.

Appearing on Fox's Chicago Live Thursday, Cunningham spelled out everything very clearly about the Bears' intent.

"A lot of people have believed that it's a bluff," Cunningham said. "I believe that if we don't pass the bill on May 31st, the Bears are going to say they're going to Indiana."

A Times of Northwest Indiana story quoting Indiana Gov. Mike Braun and Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. tells a much different story than one being told by all the panic on the Illinois side. Nevertheless it’s one supporting Cunningham's statement.

“The Illinois legislature has been in session for a long time and really has not come up with anything that looks like it’s going to be what they're looking for,” Braun said.

McDermott merely spoke an obvious fact.

"You can build a lot more stadium in Indiana for a whole lot less money than you can in Illinois," the Hammond mayor told the Times. "And that’s kind of the entire issue here, isn’t it?”

The Bears wouldn't own the stadium in Indiana, like the one in Arlington Heights. They would rent it but would be running it. And, as a result, they would pay no taxes. This is why the Indiana deal has looked far better since Day 1 than the one in Illinois.

The other reason it looks better is a cooperative legislature working in unison with localities means a quicker project and one less expensive.

Meanwhile, in Illinois people run around floating excuses for the lack of a bill at the last minute, and the governor and Chicago's mayor engage in debates about blame.

Bargaining seems done and it’s CYA time.

Just getting the bill passed needs to be the sole focus as the Bears have their hand raised and are set to fire off the final gun to end proceedings, to use another metaphor overused and entirely appropriate.

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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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