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Bears' Patience With Stadium Legislation About to Be Tested

According to a Daily Herald report, the Bears may not be willing to wait until the end of the spring legislative session in Illinois before making a stadium decision.
Gene Chamberlain|
All Bears eyes will turn to the Illinois State Capitol building when the primary ends, as the stadium legislation is front and center.
All Bears eyes will turn to the Illinois State Capitol building when the primary ends, as the stadium legislation is front and center. | Thomas J. Turney/State Journal-Register / USA TODAY NETWORK

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Wednesday marks a huge day in Illinois and it's not simply because the incessant political commercials should be off of television because the primary is over.

The day after the primary election could mark a huge few days for the Chicago Bears stadium project at Arlington Heights. The Illinois House reconvenes then after a break.

Arlington Heights Mayor Jim Tinaglia told Arlington Daily Herald reporter Chris Placek the election on Tuesday marks a good time for attitudes in Springfield to change regarding the proposed stadium project.

"When you’re being asked to vote on something that is as massive as keeping the Bears in Illinois, it is important to get that election over with first so there’s not so much pressure on that political process,” Tinaglia said Thursday, according to Placek.

It's a good thing because Tinaglia feels the Bears have reached a point where they're done waiting on Illinois. They need to see real legislative progress toward the stadium because Indiana is extremely close to being finished with its process for a stadium. The Indiana funding legislation is passed and they need only to iron out local taxing in the Hammond, Ind. area supporting the stadium project.

Illinois' spring legislative session continues this week and is scheduled to conclude near the end of May. Placek reported the Arlington Heights mayor believes the legislature needs to get the process done well in advance of the end to the legislative session.

"Waiting until the end of May I think is a no-go for the Bears,” Tinaglia said at a state of the village address. “They’ve already been through the (wringer) too many times.”

The Bears won't wait long

This is the first time an actual deadline for the process has been put down by someone in Arlington Heights, and the mayor should know when the Bears will run out of patience because he is in constant contact with team officials on this topic.

Because Indiana has passed its legislation on funding, the Bears could come out at any time and announce they're leaving Illinois. Necessary legislation in Illinois still must pass both the House and Senate.

“I spend a lot of time talking to those guys, and I can tell you that I know they want to come here," Tinaglia said. "They can’t come here unless they get some help from Springfield on this.”

The help is the tax certainty and about $860 million in infrastructure work necessary to build the indoor stadium on the Arlington International Racecourse property they officially purchased in 2023. The tax certainty has been negotiated already with local taxing districts to bring it from $16 million to $3.6 million and this can't be finalized until the stadium's megaproject bill passes in Springfield and then is signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Pritzker now seems on board with keeping the Bears in Illinois but a problem remains with Chicago politicians who believe the city should be paid extra money by the team for leaving Soldier Field for the suburbs besides paying off their remaining lease. The city officials maintain the Bears should pay something for about half a billion dollars still unpaid on the Soldier Field renovation bond through the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority.

The Bears don't owe this money, and Pritzker has admitted as much. Their portion of that renovation was $200 million, and they paid it all off long ago. The city hasn't paid its portion of the renovation on a stadium that the Bears lease.

It's not uncommon for teams to pay something extra in situations when they abandon a stadium, and the Browns agreed to pay $100 million to Cleveland when they opted to begin building their new stadium in the suburbs.

One other possible problem is issues with surrounding towns bordering on the area of the stadium, like Palatine and Rolling Meadows.

"We’ve included them with almost everything that we do because we want to be respectful of that," Tinaglia said. "And when it comes time to really sit down and talk about brass tacks, they’ll have a seat. They’ll have an opportunity to weigh in on everything.”

The entire issue should begin to get serious consideration beginning Wednesday and it should start with a vote in the House after already passing through the committee level.

Then again, how many times has it been said they're about to be serious about this in the past?

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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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