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Bear Digest

Indiana Is Spiking the Football After Illinois Botches Bears Stadium Push

Indiana is already celebrating after Illinois failed to advance the Bears' stadium plan, leaving Hammond looking more realistic by the day.
Gene Chamberlain|
The Lost Marsh Golf Course at Wolf Lake, the site where Indiana wants to build the Bears a stadium.
The Lost Marsh Golf Course at Wolf Lake, the site where Indiana wants to build the Bears a stadium. | Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The defeat of a movement to get a Bears stadium funding structure in place for Arlington Heights met with plenty of despair in the Chicago area.

Of course, on the other hand there is jubilation from the opposing side, just as in 1984 when Indianapolis stole the Baltimore Colts. The state of Indiana, known for basketball, is rapidly becoming a football state with a national collegiate title and now possibly a second NFL team. In particular, Hammond views the Illinois legislative defeat as a sure sign their state will be getting a second NFL team while Illinois will have none.

Illinois will be like Missouri, which once had two NFL teams and will have none when the new Chiefs stadium in Kansas is completed in 2031. It will be like New York City, which had the Jets and Giants and now has neither.

Remember, Chicago had the Bears and the Cardinals at one time. Now it will have nothing except a team in another state with the name Chicago attached.

A summertime political miracle? The Bears waiting until November to get legislation through for Arlington Heights or even Chicago? It's not happening says Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. of Hammond.

"I think Illinois is out of the picture," McDermott said to the Indiana Capital Chronicle. "I do. I do."

The Bears have yet to announce a final decision on where they're building, but had said an announcement would be coming in late spring or early July whatever happens. They said this has not changed after the defeat Monday morning in the Illinois legislature of the funding plan.

Mindful that its not over until it's over, McDermott reminded everyone what his state had going for it as the Bears make their decision. There would be no taxes for the Bears. They would get to run the domed stadium, although they won't own it. The Bears would still pay the same $2 billion they were going to pay to get the Arlington Heights stadium built.

It's basically similar to the last plan Illinois considered except that there is no approval for multiple local stadium boards like the defeated Illinois plan.

Also, the Bears do not own the property where the stadium is to be built — a site referred to by the Chicago Tribune as a "slag heap," and called toxic by numerous Chicago politicians since last December when the idea of an Indiana site became possible.

"They're going to save millions of dollars every year operating over here in Indiana," McDermott said, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle. "I'm just reminding them that all this dysfunction that they see on the other side of the border is not how we do business in Indiana, so that's the best thing at this point.

"We've done everything we could."

Not so in Illinois.

The "dysfunction" was the political stalemate between Mayor Brandon Johnson in Chicago and the suburbs over whether the Bears were to be allowed to leave on their terms. Johnson has apparently won, and his prize is the Bears will still leave Chicago but will go out of state.

Back home in Indiana

Another difference in the plans is Indiana will fund its part of stadium costs with tax hikes or creations. They're taxing admissions to the events at the dome a whopping 12% and will double the tax for hotels in Lake County, Ind. to 10%. They'll also have a 1% tax on food and beverages in Lake and Porter counties. 

Other possibilities loom, like funds and a hike in tolls from the Indiana Toll Road.

They've already approved almost everything in their plan in the legislature, while the dysfunctional Illinois political mess led to the weekend disaster that was labeled by the Arlington Heights area political leaders as a "fumble" on the part of the Illinois legislature.

It's easy to be happy today with the way the stadium went in Illinois if you're in Indiana and in favor of a stadium at Wolf Lake, a location just across the Illinois border and about 22 miles from Soldier Field.

Until or if a plan to revive the Illinois stadium push occurs, the Hoosiers have every right to be optimistic. The comments from Gov. Mike Braun, from Memorial Day weekend now looks prophetic.

He said they had a 65% chance of landing the Bears.

Now it looks even higher.

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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.