Illinois is close to a deal with the Bears that would keep the franchise close to Chicago — and out of Indiana — according to a report in Crain’s Chicago Business.
The Bears all but bid farewell to Chicago in August when president Kevin Warren declared a new stadium in Indiana had become the “sole focus” of the franchise, a turn he said was necessary due to a stalemate in negotiations over taxation of a new stadium in Illinois.
But with commissioner Roger Goodell and Bears minority owner Pat Ryan in the mix, progress was reportedly made to bring the franchise-owned property in Arlington Heights, Ill., back into play.
According to Crain’s, the shift would be made possible by the legislature in Illinois approving a new law to potentially grant a municipality the right to establish a stadium authority to own and operate a stadium without being responsible for the entire property tax bill.
Speculation on the reported progress includes the idea that Goodell could offer Illinois details about the benefit of being a Super Bowl host city. The NFL has increasingly awarded Super Bowls to cold-weather markets with newly constructed stadiums — New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, Detroit’s Ford Field and Minnesota’s U.S. Bank Stadium among them.
While the Bears said they would maintain the franchise identity as the “Chicago Bears” regardless of their future address, Indiana worked feverishly to provide a soft landing for the Bears at a stadium site in Hammond, Ind.
A site the team purchased in Arlington Heights is a 25.9-mile drive northwest of Soldier Field, the current home of the Bears on the shores of Lake Michigan. It is roughly 22 miles to travel by car from Soldier Field to the site in bordering Indiana.
At the center of the plans is a “fixed roof” stadium envisioned as the home of the Bears and a destination for the Super Bowl, Final Four and other major events.
Last winter, Illinois legislators decided not to vote on a team-approved proposal to make a one-time payment for taxes on the new construction rather than annual billing. Indiana approved tax guarantees and a package that could provide roughly $1 billion in public support for the project, similar to the type of incentive package Kansas gave the Chiefs to leave Missouri.
“We don’t have an offer from the state of Illinois,” Warren said at the time. “And our focus now is on Indiana. And obviously, like I said, there have been occasional meetings that have taken place. But right now our focus is on Hammond, Indiana, to make sure that we bring that to life.”
The Bears, one of the NFL’s charter franchises, have an existing lease at Soldier Field on the downtown Chicago lakefront through the 2033 season.