Bears $5B Domed Stadium Plan Hits Make-or-Break Day in Illinois

Sunday is shaping up to be one of the most impactful days in Chicago Bears history, and the team isn’t even playing that day. 

The team’s situation remains decidedly unclear as the Illinois Legislature enters the final day of its spring session on Sunday, and lawmakers are scrambling to approve a bill that will help keep the NFL team in the state. 

As has been the case since late April, the Illinois Senate has been unable to find sufficient support to pass their version of a “megaprojects” bill that would give the Bears property tax certainty in suburban Arlington Heights, Ill., to help build a $5 billion domed stadium and mixed-use development there. That lack of political consensus only grew worse when Cook County treasurer Maria Pappas released a report last week suggesting that the Bears would receive $1.5 billion in tax breaks over 40 years from that bill. 

Nearly round-the-clock deliberations on Friday and Saturday among state leaders did not produce material progress, and the latest talks are instead centering on a more slimmed-down bill seeking to give the Bears the tax certainty the team seeks. That clarity is necessary for Bears ownership to gain loans and provide the private financing that will fund the vast bulk of the project.

In addition to that tax issue, the Bears are also looking for $855 million in public assistance for infrastructure improvements. 

Progress, however, remains slow, and there is certainly no guarantee of an outcome, as negotiations in Springfield are expected to go deep into Sunday night, butting up against the 11:59 p.m. CT expiration of the session without any sort of extension. A new, Bears-related bill, though, is expected to be filed later in the day.

“Legislators want to be comfortable with something that protects the taxpayers, something that their constituents can live with,” said state Sen. Bill Cunningham. “Whether or not the Bears are supportive of it is very much a secondary concern.”

A further complication is a still-ongoing push by many Chicago-area politicians for the team to stay in the city, despite the lack of a viable site and the Bears’ continued insistence that the choice is down to either Arlington Heights or a competing proposal from Hammond, Ind.

“From day one, there has always been a Chicago problem with the Bears proposal,” Cunningham said. 

State Lines

The Bears have not commented on the latest developments in Springfield, but if there is not a political solution in Illinois, or if the team doesn’t find it feasible, that will only enhance the chances of the team relocating to neighboring Indiana.

There is already approved legislation in Indiana that would fund about 60% of a stadium in Hammond. The team has been consistent that it intends to make a final stadium site choice by the early summer. 

“I’d say [there’s a] 65-35,” chance of the Bears going to Indiana, said that state’s governor, Mike Braun, last week on Fox News. “I’ve done a lot of real estate deals in my time in the real world. They can go south for many reasons, but their legislature really hasn’t tailored anything that they’re interested in. We did it quickly. It impressed them, and they saw what Indiana would be like as a long-term business partner. I can guarantee you it’d be better than being [in Illinois].”