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Bear Digest

Unresolved Stadium Is Part of Bears' Update Planned for NFL Meeting

With less than two weeks remaining until the legislature adjourns for summer, the Bears' Arlington Heights stadium saga appears nowhere near being complete.
Gene Chamberlain|
The rendering of what the Arlington Heights Stadium should look like from inside, if it ever comes about.
The rendering of what the Arlington Heights Stadium should look like from inside, if it ever comes about. | Rendering courtesy of Manica

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Chicago Bears

The Bears stadium issue plods toward a resolution with the Illinois legislature less than two weeks from now, barring an extension of Springfield's spring session.

The team is supposed to update all the league's teams about the stadium's progress on Tuesday at the NFL's quarterly meetings, according to the Sun-Times. What do they tell the gathering of owners in Orlando? That it's going nowhere fast? This wouldn't be accurate because the "fast" part doesn't apply.

It comes as Ian Rapoport reports the league is expected to vote on a 2030 Super Bowl date for the Titans' new stadium. The Bears were hoping for that type of vote back when they started pursuit of Arlington Heights by closing on the property in 2023.

The whole issue only seems to become more complicated with each day, and less likely that the Senate could pass the megaproject legislation designed to give the Bears the ability to get long-term tax stability for the Arlington Heights stadium.

The Tribune reports Gov. J.B. Pritzker expects the legislature to pass before the end of the session. If the Bears had a dollar for every time this has been said by someone, they wouldn't need to worry about the tax rate certainty they need from the legislature with the bill.

It all makes an Indiana Stadium more probable, although this is not a given.

There is little doubt the Bears expected to have ground broken long ago, but the most recent developments are making it seem less likely to occur soon.

Even local governments are now making getting involved when they previously seemed focused on passing the legislation. Here are all the sides pulling from different angles in this drama, with the end of the legislative session set for Friday May 29.

If it reaches that date with no solution, expect an extension and behind-the-scenes bargaining well into the night. It always seems to take this type of conclusion to get anything accomplished in Illinois.

1. Surrounding concerns

According to a report by Christopher Placek of the Arlington Heights Daily Herald, area communities now are requesting some kind of traffic study from the Bears. They're worried the infrastructure improvements sought by the team doesn't extend far enough from the immediate site at the old Arlington Park Racetrack. They're looking for some sort of plans including places like the Interstate 90 and Route 53 exit ramps, and places within two and three miles for communities like Rolling Meadows, Schaumburg, and Palatine.

All of this seems like something the Bears should have had worked out long ago and the fact it hasn't been only contributes uncertainty. One of the mayors is Palatine's Jim Schwantz, the former Bears and Cowboys player.

2. City Hail Mary

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson went to Springfield in an attempt to redirect the plans back to his city and away from the suburbs, all the while knowing the end result of a stalemate or dispute is they could easily go to Indiana. It seems like a selfish approach and it is unlikely his attempts achieved anything.

The Sun-Times reported senior mayoral advisor Jason Lee insisted the Bears continue to talk with the city. Johnson's latest idea was to use the controversial Illinois Sports Facilities Authority again. This is how the current White Sox stadium was funded and how the city funded its part of the Soldier Field reconstruction in 2002.

This seems worse than a non-starter because it was city officials who tried to claim they had too much debt left from the Soldier Field reconstruction and they wanted the Bears to pay off some of it when they announced plans to leave for Arlington Heights. This, even though the Bears had long ago paid off their own part of the reconstruction.

Regardless, Lee had nothing to offer the Sun-Times regarding specifics involving the city and nothing came from any of this aside from a Bears statement:  “There are only two viable stadium locations under consideration — Arlington Heights and Hammond — and a decision is expected between the two later this spring or early summer.”

3. No teachers pets

One of the biggest thorns for the Arlington Heights plan is the late entry in this fracas from the Illinois teachers union, expressing concern the megaproject bill could limit or curtail tax dollars for education. In other words, it would limit the amount they can hit local school districts up for themselves because it's been shown countless times that paying more to educators doesn't necessarily equate with high educational test scores.

Their involvement and others worried about some similar effect from the bill, forced some alterations to the original bill that passed the Illinois House. Changes designed to provide tax relief for those near the stadium could offset the effect of what the Bears hoped to accomplish with the original bill.

The Bears reportedly are in talks with Senate members to make revisions before the bill comes to a Senate vote, whenever that will be.

4. Perceived Indiana issues

Even the Bears' alternative site hasn't cleared all hurdles, although it's well beyond where Illinois' plan is situated.

There hasn't been an actual plan released for the Hammond, Indiana site with an architectural rendering. Nothing more has been said about results from testing the soil or about potential litigation because it's at or near a wetlands.

"You've got wetlands," Lee told the Sun-Times. "You've got litigation off the top.

"You might win it. But who knows how long it takes."

The Indiana offer is a real opportunity because there are no tax issues for the Bears involved. They would be renting the stadium they help build, but would be the operators of it as well.

Bottom line

If the state's Senate resolved this issue with taxes and satisfied everyone, including the teachers' union, the the whole thing could begin immediately.

No one is predicting this. And in lieu of such an announcement, it's going to be interesting what exactly team officials tell the league on Tuesday.

Just going through a description with the whole situation might monopolize all the owners' time at the meetings.

The Bears about to take the field in a week for OTAs and their greatest unresolved issue isn't who their third edge rusher is, or whether Braxton Jones can step back into the left tackle position.

It's the stadium issue. It's always the stadium issue. They even got the quarterback situation answered before the stadium issue.

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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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