Bear Digest

Indiana Passes Stadium Bill While Chicago Tries to Shake Down Bears

The Indiana legislature and governor approved a Bears stadium plan Thursday, while Illinois made small strides with Chicago seeking a payoff from the team.
Gene Chamberlain|
Will Bears fans turn out Indiana the way they do in Chicago? That state is all but committed to a stadium project for them now.
Will Bears fans turn out Indiana the way they do in Chicago? That state is all but committed to a stadium project for them now. | Matt Marton-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Indiana has left Illinois down to its last gasp in the battle to build a Bears stadium, and there are forces at work within the land of Lincoln contributing toward pushing the NFL team toward the Hoosier state.

Indiana's Senate on Thursday approved the stadium funding plan for northwest Indiana 45-4 and sent it right away to Gov. Mike Braun, who signed it. They still need the Bears to make a final commitment.

Meanwhile, Illinois did consider a mega-project bill in House committee and it passed 13-7, but a general vote before the legislature was not called for before adjournment for over two weeks.

According to reports from Crain's Chicago and the Sun-Times, there is lack of support among Chicago state legislators. They are more or less seeking to be paid what amounts to "tribute" money from the Bears before backing the plan for an Arlington Heights stadium on property the team already owns.

Chicago wants its cut

Chicago state Rep. Kam Buckner had been opposed to letting the Bears go to Arlington Heights but now is saying they can get their bill to move if the team will pay Chicago more than the remaining rent due on the Soldier Field lease. Basically, they're shaking down the Bears for cash to let them leave for Arlington Heights, but ths is not entirely without precedent.

In December, Cleveland agreed upon a payment of $100  million from the Browns so they could move to Brook Park from the lakefront stadium they've been in since the organization formed as an expansion team once the original Browns moved to Baltimore.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker appeared on MSNow but when he had the chance to shed some light on what could actually be a framework for a settlement to keep the team in state, he only repeated some of the rhetoric from earlier designed to make himself look good. He ultimately sounded like a politician with higher political aspirations who wanted to avoid blame for losing a beloved sports franchise to another state.

"I want to start by saying I want the Chicago Bears to stay in Chicago or stay in the state of Illinois," he said. "And right now it looks like the choice is going to be between Arlington Heights and Indiana for them. But I also, you know, I was a businessman before I was governor and I can tell you because I've been involved in a lot of business deals over the years that I'm not going to be shaken down and I have set out some very clear guidelines and my guidelines are we're not going to fleece the taxpayers of Illinois. We're not going to let the Bears do that."

Political mumbo jumbo

This isn't about Pritzker. No one cares about his business history. He's only saying this for about the millionth time because he's running for governor and then maybe for president and doesn't want blame for the Bears leaving.

The Bears haven't been asking to fleece Illinois taxpayers, anyway They want infrastructure and to pay a consistent tax rate comparable to what other pro teams pay for their homes. They've said this countless times, and Pritzker knows it.

Besides, if there is a shakedown, it's coming from Chicago politicians trying to do it to the Bears.

"We are going to make sure that (what) we're doing, if we do something that supports the Bears, which we are working very hard on, it's not going to be something that's going to cost our taxpayers the way that it's going to cost Indiana taxpayers because it seems like they're going to raise four or five different taxes on people," Pritzker said. "I don't think the people of Indiana have any idea what they're in for. They're going to pay for a stadium for the Chicago Bears.

"I've said from the beginning we're not paying for a stadium. We'll help with infrastructure, all of the things that we help business. Remember this is a privately owned business with a billionaire family so if the state's going to help we're going to help just like we would for other businesses because we want to create jobs."

Score this one for Indiana

Actually, it's the Bears creating jobs and not the state. The state would merely be helping the Bears so they can create jobs, and will apparently only do so if the city gets paid off.

Pritzker only repeated everything anyone has been hearing all along and his repetition only serves to make people outside of the area who are unfamiliar with the politics of it think the Bears were trying to get the state to pay for their stadium construction. They've committed $2 billion to build it themselves.

Bringing up Indiana's taxpayers is irrelevant because they're offering to do something the Bears didn't ask of Illinois, and that's build the stadium but let the Bears lease it and run it.

The Illinois House will be gone for over two weeks now without finishing their deal. It's only going to weigh more against the state’s chances to keep the Bears.

Indiana still has loose ends on its part to tie up, like actually specifying the exact site for the stadium and then getting local tax rates in place to pay for the bond used for funding, but the rate at which they’re progressing has been much faster than Illinois.

And now it wil be a few more weeks  of inactivity for Illinois politicians, which can only leave the state trailing badly—possibly even hopelessly behind

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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.