Bears weigh growing list of Illinois options but say Indiana still in mix
Bears weigh growing list of Illinois options but say Indiana still in mix(Terrance Williams | Associated Press)
(Inside INdiana Business) - As developers continue to come forward to publicly pitch the Chicago Bears their stadium ideas to stay in the city, team brass confirmed they are meeting with Illinois leaders and said they are exploring “every option available to the club.”
The Bears and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell have been negotiating with Gov. JB Pritzker and state lawmakers for weeks ahead of the General Assembly’s fall veto session, where location-neutral legislation is expected to be considered to keep the team in Illinois.
In a written statement to Crain’s, the Bears said they “remain committed to building a world-class stadium and mixed-use district for our fans, the Chicagoland community and the team” while confirming talks are happening on both sides of the state border.
“We continue to work collaboratively with local and state leaders in Indiana to advance our stadium development plans in Hammond, where we are finalizing due diligence details across two sites in the Wolf Lake area,” the statement said. “At the same time, we appreciate the recent engagement from Illinois leadership to explore legislation which has allowed us to share our feedback.”
Unlike previous statements from the team that specified the team is solely considering Arlington Heights, where they purchased Arlington International Racecourse for $197 million, the new comments did not clarify whether that is the only option.
Despite the location-agnostic statement, the team has kept Chicago leaders and developers at arm’s length while continuing to negotiate with Arlington Heights on the parameters of a deal that would back the bonds to build a stadium, including putting local incremental tax dollars derived from the development, according to sources familiar with the discussions.
Goodell, Bears owner George McCaskey and team president Kevin Warren met with Pritzker’s key aides and the top legislative negotiators, state Sen. Bill Cunningham and state Rep. Kam Buckner on Wednesday, according to the sources.
“We expect productive dialogue with both leadership teams in the coming weeks. We have a responsibility and obligation to explore every option available to the club, and we look forward to developing a transformational project that will attract global events and deliver jobs and economic growth to all of Chicagoland,” the Bears statement said.
The lack of clarity on where in Chicagoland the Bears are considering will likely invite more overtures from Chicago developers to continue pitching their ideas for a new domed stadium in the city, but those ideas have yet to lead to detailed conversations with the team or its army of lobbyists.
It’s still unclear if state lawmakers are prepared to advance stadium legislation after previous efforts led to the House and Senate approving separate bills that did not receive a vote in the other chamber.
It’s possible ideas taken from both bills could be included in a final deal in Arlington Heights. The state could approve enabling legislation granting the village the ability to create a stadium authority that would allow the Bears to play in a publicly owned stadium constructed by private financing and tax exempt bonds.
The stadium authority model is meant to allow the Bears to pay for their own stadium on publicly owned land, exempting the team from property taxes.
The bill will also likely expand the state’s Sales Tax and Revenue Bond program, or STAR, allowing municipalities to create districts that capture incremental state and local sales taxes to pay for infrastructure, Cunningham said.
Cunningham told Crain’s last week the legislation would not “explicitly rule out” local taxes being involved.
It’s not possible to approve legislation in Springfield if the bill is specific to Arlington Heights, Cunningham said then, arguing Chicago locations could legitimately get back in the mix if the right proposal is put on the table.
“They have tried to hammer away at this narrative that it’s either Arlington Heights or or Hammond,” Cunningham said of the Bears organization. “They undermined that before by having ongoing discussions with the city in April and May of last year. They will say publicly that’s our only focus, but we’ve seen in the past that while they might say that publicly, they have been willing to talk about other proposals behind the scenes.”
The potential for Chicago locations to re-enter the mix could only be a mirage to help the legislation be approved in Springfield, but it has not stopped Mayor Brandon Johnosn or local developers from continuing to work on their own ideas.
Related Midwest president Curt Bailey publicly entered the fray yesterday, telling Crain’s the 440-acre former U.S. Steel South Works site presents the best opportunity for the Bears to remain on the lakefront while continuing to inject investment on the South Side.
Bailey presented the idea to both state lawmakers and Johnson’s senior advisor Jason Lee this week, according to sources familiar with the talks.
Last week, Sterling Bay CEO Andy Gloor and Carl Williams, father of Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, met with Lee to pitch their own idea to build a Bears stadium in Bridgeport to replace the White Sox, if the team moves to the South Loop.
The developers of the former Michael Reese Hospital site are gearing up for their own public announcement of a revamped stadium proposal.
Johnson has also been meeting with One Central developer Bob Dunn for over a year to give a makeover to the 2024 lakefront plan that relied on $900 million in tax revenue from the ISFA and was deemed a non-starter by Gov. JB Pritzker.
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