Mayor Brandon Johnson’s top adviser insisted Friday that there’s still a chance to keep the Bears in Chicago because there are major hurdles with stadium proposals in both Arlington Heights and Hammond, Indiana.
Senior mayoral adviser Jason Lee said even if the Illinois General Assembly approves the massive property tax break and the roughly $855 million in infrastructure money needed to ready Arlington Heights’ former racetrack site for development, building a domed stadium there is no sure thing.
Question marks also surround Indiana’s more generous and tax-laden offer to help the Bears build a dome in Hammond on land that once served as an industrial dump site.
“I’m not saying there’s no world in which they work. I’m saying that both of them have challenges… And as long as that remains the case, then there’s always the realistic possibility that you have to make a pivot” back to Chicago, Lee told the Sun-Times.
With two weeks to go before the General Assembly adjourns its spring session, Chicago is nowhere in the stadium conversation — except at Johnson’s City Hall.
The Bears and NFL owners have their sights set on Arlington Heights and northwest Indiana, and Gov. JB Pritzker and state lawmakers are focusing exclusively on Arlington Heights.
A Bears spokesman reacted to Lee’s comments Friday by reiterating, “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.”
The mega-projects bill that would allow the Bears to negotiate discounted property tax payments with local school districts is now before the Illinois Senate after passing the House. Major changes are needed to make property tax relief for suburban homeowners more than just a token break.
The infrastructure piece could be even tougher to land, according to Lee. It would almost certainly “open the floodgates” to requests to bankroll infrastructure projects across the state.
“Everybody’s going to want a piece,” Lee said, questioning where the money would come from to satisfy the flood of requests. Pritzker has argued many of the infrastructure upgrades would happen regardless of the potential for a stadium.
But even if all of those boxes are checked, the sprawling suburban development that would also include thousands of residential units, a hotel and an entertainment complex still may not happen, Lee contends.
The Bears still need to negotiate the fixed payment with local school districts that would likely demand higher payments if they’re losing money to property tax relief.
There’s also the price tag of the domed stadium. The Bears have not asked for a subsidy for stadium construction. But Lee said they’ve barely identified half the funding it’ll take to build the dome.
“They don’t want to dilute [ownership] and sell equity” in the team, Lee said. “All they’ve identified is $2.1 billion. But the stadium will cost $3.6 billion or closer to $4 billion.”
Northwest Indiana’s generous stadium offer
Indiana is much farther along the legislative road.
Both houses have already passed — and Indiana Gov. Mike Braun has signed — a bill that is far more generous than what Illinois lawmakers are debating for Arlington Heights.
A newly created stadium finance authority in Indiana would be empowered to levy taxes on everything from tickets and hotel rooms to restaurants and tolls.
The publicly owned stadium would be built for the Bears and the team would retain all game, concert and event-related revenue. The Bears would play rent-free for at least 30 years with the option to purchase the stadium for $1 after 40 years.
Lee says one problem with the Northwest Indiana option is that it’s hamstrung by “less density and less money” associated with that site and the surrounding region.
“Everything is worth less in Hammond: your naming rights; your suite sales, your PSLs,” Lee said, referring to personal seat licenses fans must pay in most stadiums for the right to purchase season tickets.
“And then, you still have to go from zero. No site plan, no architecture, no infrastructure. No nothing to having all of that stuff designed… You’ve got wetlands. You’ve got litigation off the top. You might win it. But who knows how long it takes.”
Two years ago, Johnson joined Bears president Kevin Warren in unveiling plans for a domed lakefront stadium adjacent to Soldier Field that would have required $2.4 billion in public support.
Pritzker and Democratic legislative leaders were conspicuously absent. The mayor’s plan went nowhere in Springfield.
Since then, Chicago has been missing in action from stadium negotiations — until last week, when Johnson made a two-day trip to Springfield to, among other things, attempt to tank the Bears’ move to Arlington Heights.
Pritzker’s office reacts
Johnson recently touted to Crain’s Chicago Business the possibility that the city could take control of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, created in 1987 as a funding mechanism for the construction of Rate Field where the White Sox play, and the 2003 renovation of Soldier Field. That would give the city new clout in the wrangling over a new Bears stadium, but it’s unlikely control of ISFA would change hands any time soon. The governor appoints four members of the seven-member ISFA board, while the mayor appoints three.
“After years of shifting proposals, the Mayor’s Office still has not presented a concrete plan that could pass the General Assembly and with support from the Bears. Now, the Mayor is floating a new idea to directly spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars from IFSA for a privately-owned stadium,” Pritzker’s office said in a statement released to the Sun-Times. “The Governor has been clear for years that we must protect taxpayer dollars from being spent on a privately-owned stadium. Instead, the Governor has brought together legislators, local stakeholders, and the Bears to work towards a fair deal that keeps the team in Illinois, requires them to pay property taxes, and supports public infrastructure around major economic development projects.”
On Friday, Lee was asked when Johnson had his last conversation with Warren or any other member of the Bears’ negotiating team.
“I’ll keep that private but obviously, we’re having conversations all the time. These are sensitive conversations,” Lee said.
Lee was asked whether the Bears had told City Hall anything that would lead the Johnson administration to believe that Chicago was still in the team’s thought process.
“All I can say is there’s been some conversations. I’ll keep it at that. They have to do what they’re doing, and we’ll do what we’re doing — and we’ll see where things end up,” Lee said. “There’s a lot more shoes left to drop.”