Now it’s about to become very clear just how serious the Bears stadium bid from Indiana really is. 

Despite all-night political negotiations that ran into Monday morning, and weeks of preceding deliberations, the Illinois House of Representatives adjourned without taking up a Bears stadium bill. The state Senate approved that proposal—which would allow certain Cook County towns to create stadium authorities to help support a Bears venue—around 4:40 a.m. ET on Monday.

In the House, though, the depth and complexity of that bill proved to be too much to approach in a legislative session already running into overtime.

“The bill came over from the Senate after many of us had been up for 20 hours and it is not enough time to vet a really important bill,” said Democratic state Rep. Lindsey LaPointe. “Many of us are going to scrutinize anything that is potentially a tax giveaway to the super wealthy or big corporations.”

In the dramatically reworked Senate bill, the Bears would pay for the stadium, but the host town would own it, and the team would not pay property taxes. 

“I remain optimistic. We all share the same goal: finding a solution that works for the Bears, works for taxpayers, and earns the confidence of the General Assembly,” said state Rep. Kam Buckner, a key figure on the stadium negotiations. “[Monday] morning was the end of session. It was not the end of the conversation.”

What’s Next?

The current political reality in Illinois creates a very stark timeline surrounding the NFL team’s attempt to build a $5 billion domed stadium and mixed-use development. The Bears have been clear for months they want to make a final stadium choice by the early summer at the latest, and the team currently has only one fully approved offer on the table: the proposal from Hammond, Ind., that was ratified in February and would fund about 60% of the stadium cost.

In the three-plus months since that approval, there have been some continued whispers that the Hammond bid is merely a stalking horse for an eventual deal in Illinois. That agreement in the team’s current home state, however, still hasn’t happened, meaning three potential scenarios stand out:

• The Bears could adjust their timeline and delay their site decision, primarily to give Illinois more time. That’s a tough prospect given the team has already said the cost of the project likely rises by $10 million with every month of delays. The NFL would also like the Bears to join an accelerating stadium development boom that includes the Bills, Titans, Commanders, Browns, Chiefs, and Broncos. To that end, the Bears said early Monday that its deliberations “remain on the late spring/early summer timeline that we have previously communicated.”
• The Bears could accept the Hammond offer. Indiana Gov. Mike Braun has already been increasingly confident that will happen, saying even before the latest developments in Illinois that his state had a “65-35” chance of landing the Bears.
• Illinois legislators could find a way to ratify a Bears stadium bill outside of the normal legislative calendar, which doesn’t pick up again until the fall. House Speaker Chris Welch, however, said early Monday that calling a special session to revisit the Bears issue was not planned.

“I think our caucus is used to processes,” Welch said. “Our caucus is used to taking our time and doing it right. … So we’ll get it right. We’ll get it done.”

NFL insiders, however, don’t believe there is much time left, if any, for Illinois.

“Unless there’s a meaningful change in Illinois, and quick, the team is going to Indiana,” Marc Ganis, a Chicago-based sports consultant who works frequently with the NFL, tells Front Office Sports. “Not only is there disappointment by what’s happened, but there’s been a loss of credibility [in Illinois]. Sports fans in Illinois have now really seen, maybe for the first time, how dysfunctional Illinois government really is. The politicians wasted five months [during the spring session] and didn’t really talk to each other.”

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A legislative Hail Mary in Illinois ran out of time early Monday as the state House of Representatives did not take up a revised structure for a $5 billion Bears stadium project. 

After a frenetic all-night legislative session Sunday night, running into the pre-dawn hours of Monday morning, the state Senate approved at 4:40 a.m. ET a revised stadium structure that would help fund a Bears stadium, but about an hour later, the House of Representatives adjourned without taking up the bill.

The entirely new bill, part of a marathon session to close the state legislature’s spring session, was furiously developed and involved allowing certain municipalities in Cook County to set up their own stadium authorities. 

A chosen locale for a stadium would then own a stadium that the Bears would fund privately, but the NFL team would not pay property taxes, in turn giving it the tax certainty it has coveted throughout this long and winding political process. The Bears, however, would pay property taxes on a planned mixed-use development surrounding the stadium. 

That bill arrived after a “megaprojects” bill previously approved by the Illinois House of Representatives fizzled in the state Senate due to numerous political complications there.

The state Senate approved the bill by a 37-17 vote at 4:40 a.m. ET, but the House declined to take up the bill.

“There’s a lot of work still ahead of us,” said Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch. “We’ll continue discussions on a number of issues, including our approach to the Bears stadium question, this summer.”

Still, state Senators believe there is a new base from which to work, even if the legislature failed to have a fully passed bill by the end of the spring session. 

“I think what we’ve done here with the bill is establish a framework that would enable the Bears to build a stadium in the state of Illinois,” said state Senator Bill Cunningham, a key architect of the new bill. “This gives them property tax certainty … This is the exact same mechanism set up in Northwest Indiana.”

Notably, the new structure for the stadium could also allow Chicago to get back into the race to be the Bears’ long-term home. For months, the team, NFL, and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker have been insistent that the stadium choice is down to a suburban, team-owned parcel in Arlington Heights, Ill., or a competing proposal in Hammond, Ind. Chicago-area leaders, however, have refused to accept that, and played a key role in sinking the prior consideration around the megaprojects legislation. 

Because the votes are happening after the stated end of the spring session, the bill must either pass with a supermajority or not take effect until 2027, which is the intended timing of the legislation anyway. 

State Lines

The restructured Illinois framework will compete against 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 early summer.  The ongoing deliberations in Illinois only complicate the timetable further.

“We will finalize our evaluation of both Arlington Heights and Hammond, and remain on the late spring/early summer timeline that we have previously communicated,” the Bears said Monday morning in a statement. “We will provide an update when we have a decision to share.”

The financial math for the team is unquestionably better in Indiana, but accepting it would be leaving their home state since starting as the Decatur Staleys in 1920. 

“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, before the latest moves in Illinois. “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].”

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