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Chicago Bears Stadium Fiasco Turns Into Full-Blown Blame Game With Indiana Looming

The Bears' stadium collapse has turned into a full-blown blame game, with Indiana looming as a real landing spot after Illinois lawmakers failed to act.
Gene Chamberlain|
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson seems like the only one happy after the Bears failed to get a bill passed to build a stadium in Arlington Heights.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson seems like the only one happy after the Bears failed to get a bill passed to build a stadium in Arlington Heights. | Josh Morgan, Josh Morgan / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

It's blame day after the Bears stadium fiasco has put them on the doorstep of Hammond, Ind.  

At this point, it's obvious who is at fault in the entire mess.

Who to blame first? Of course, the Green Bay Packers.

In 1956, the Packers badly needed another stadium to replace old City Stadium or there was a chance they might not even be allowed to continue in the NFL as a team. George Halas went to a public rally in Green Bay prior to the referendum and delivered an impassioned address that all Packers fans who were there talked about for decades thereafter. Halas was credited with helping get the referendum passed to have what is now Lambeau Field built. It probably would have passed anyway as it succeeded in a landslide, but Halas definitely helped.

So where were the Packers when the Bears had a moment of need and were trying to get an Arlington Heights stadium bill passed?

Nowhere to be seen. Thanks for the effort.

The chants continue to break out at all Chicago sporting events, "Green Bay (inhales vigorously by mouth)." They broke out at a Sox-Tigers game over the weekend.

The Packers deserve this for not helping the Bears get their stadium bill passed. They're always to blame.

Now, here's who is really at fault for this entire debacle.

Mayor Brandon Johnson

The leader of the Chicago contingent that refuses to realize they don't own the Bears and wouldn't simply let them go to Arlington Heights. He has successfully chased the Bears out of the state of Illinois by being the bitter, unwanted third person in the mix when the Bears chose a wedding with the suburbs. Congratulations. Delusional and headed for defeat in his next election, Johnson was still issuing statements claiming Chicago is best for the Bears even on Monday after the defeat of Bears-Illinois plans. He selfishly pushed the Bears out of state rather than let them leave Chicago.

Lori Lightfoot

The former Chicago mayor got the ball rolling on this simply by treating the Bears like second-class citizens and refusing to even reply to a letter about wanting to put a sports book next to Soldier Field. None of this would have even become reality if she had simply let them put in the stupid sports book, which really quickly became an outdated thing with sports gamblers after all of the websites started supplying degenerates with a way to lose their money.

Political pukes

Chicago Democrats and state Republicans banded together in a coalition of the obstinate to steer this toward the current debacle. Chicago politicians did it out of the misguided belief they own the right to determine the team's future when it's privately owned. The Republicans did it just because it had the word tax associated with it.

Illinois teachers

Their union interfered in the last few weeks when there was still a chance for passage of the original idea of payment in lieu of taxes. They did it in the name of education. Actually, they only did it with their own wallets in mind. They saw a possible lack of local tax revenue for the Arlington Heights area districts and then they'd be getting less cash.

Cook County

The assessors originally tried to gouge the Bears millions with an overassessment of vacant Arlington Heights property in what was obviously a political move in behalf of Chicago. The Bears eventually blunted this but it wasted more time in the process. The Cubs are paying $3.9 million for taxes on an operating stadium, the Blackhawks-Bulls $10.8 million on United Center, and eventually the Bears were allowed to pay $3.6 million for vacant property with a bill of $53.2 million estimated for the developed property. What? Talk about targeting.

Gov. J. B. Pritzker

Sure, he got behind it late in the game but was fighting the Bears back as long ago as December, prior to realizing he could be the governor who lost the team and the primary was coming. Then he switched sides. There's no side-switching in football, except in free agency. If he'd been on board and throwing his weight behind the Bears' push earlier in the game, perhaps none of this happens.

Kevin Warren

The Bears president has been working at this since his hire and the Bears will now be going to Indiana. When George McCaskey hired Warren, the stadium builder with the Vikings, the former Big Ten commissioner, it was with the stadium in mind. It's not likely McCaskey ever thought he brought Warren in to build him a stadium in Indiana on a slag heap. Jerry Reinsdorf even got a stadium built in Illinois and was doing it  for the second-most popular baseball team in town. Warren couldn't do it for easily the most popular team in the city and state, one playing what is by far the most popular sport in the most popular league in the country. Talk about dropping the ball.

Ted Phillips

Warren's predecessor got this all going with the bid on and then purchase of the Arlington Park land. It was a great piece of land that the Bears wanted long ago, as well. However, they bought this without an applicable plan for tax issues. Those tax issues eventually kept them from building at Arlington Heights. Without the possibility of paying far more than they should for property of this type, they could have broken ground on this. Phillips doesn't get as much blame as some others because he left before the real fun began. However, a little foresight could have helped avoid plenty of issues 

George McCaskey

He hired Warren. The McCaskeys' hires almost never work out. The Bears really got fortunate when Ben Johnson was available as he was well known to them and the league because he was dominating the NFC North. It was an obvious person to hire and even they couldn't foul it up. It only required money. Other than Johnson, who has saved the franchise, who else did they hire who is a dramatic success? Ryan Poles?  

Please. They got lucky with one hire. They couldn't hire a president and numerous other GMs and coaches over the years.

Also, McCaskey and Warren together get extra blame for not possessing enough clout in Springfield or even rolling their sleeves up sufficiently with a hands-on approach there. According to Paris Schutz of NBC Chicago, they don’t really understand how it works down there and didn’t care to get involved with the lobbyist game. They didn't get down and dirty, so to speak. It's understandable but they get what they deserve if they don’t know how to negotiate their way through that cesspool.

Cheap Illinois people

These people are most to blame. You'll see them all over social media playing the tired, old, ignorant "hate billionaires" game. Don't give tax money for billionaires. For one, the Bears were paying for stadium construction and not soaking tax payers the way it was suggested. The opposition whines about the $855 million in infrastructure improvement but they're only asking for considerations normally given big businesses that provide jobs.  

This is a business 105 years in state and beloved by practically everyone. Don't help the Bears? Let them move out of state then?   

If you like this approach you should move to Iowa or Idaho or the Dakotas or some other place where there is no NFL team or much of anything.

They've already driven too many businesses out of the state with an anti-business attitude in Illinois. If it continues, they'll soon become California or New York City.

Indiana

Stay in your own lane. One stolen team is enough.

The Green Bay Packers

It's just fun to blame them.

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Published
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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