The Chicago Bears are approaching their fourth year of pushing for a new stadium. Things have reached a deadlock as the state of Illinois plays tug-of-war with Indiana over luring the NFL franchise. After over a century of hosting the iconic organization, many in Springfield took for granted that the Bears would never leave, including Governor JB Pritzker. However, the inroads by Indiana over the past few months disabused him of those fantasies. This is a very real threat that has left the state government scrambling for a solution.
The problem is that some are still reluctant to provide the infrastructure funding and tax breaks the Bears have asked for to begin construction. People are left wondering why it had to reach this point. Was there ever a point where it could’ve been avoided? Some have speculated that the easiest option would’ve been to allow the team to purchase Soldier Field. They could then modernize it without requiring taxpayer money to fuel the process.
Well, apparently, according to Pritzker’s comments, that option wasn’t so crazy after all. He just never thought the Bears would accept it. Brenden Moore and Ben Szalinski of Capitol News caught the quote.
“Indiana would own the stadium for 20 or 30 years, and then they’d hand it over,” Pritzker said. “It would be like handing over Soldier Field after all these years as if they would want that. That’s not what they’ll want – they’ll want to replace the stadium probably after 30 years.”
JB Pritzker just proved he was never paying attention.
This entire saga began in 2021. Then-Bears president Ted Phillips contacted the Chicago Park District, the current owner of Soldier Field, about installing a sportsbook in the stadium. It was a surefire way to add another revenue stream. CPD leadership ignored the requests. After months without hearing back, the Bears grew fed up. They placed a bid on the Arlington racetrack property that had just gone up for sale. If they won, it’d be the first step in leaving Chicago for the first time since 1920.
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The team was always willing to stay at Soldier Field. They were merely asking for an opportunity to add a new way to make money while sprucing up the building. The park district refused to listen. If JB Pritzker had been paying attention from the start, he might’ve realized that a quick solution to the problem was working out a deal that would’ve allowed the Bears to purchase the stadium. He had the power to pressure the CPD into working out a deal with help from the Chicago government.
Instead, here we are.
Pritzker mismanaged this entire thing from the start.
While the Bears have made their own mistakes, the Illinois governor had multiple opportunities to keep this thing from going off the rails. It started by not recognizing that selling Soldier Field was a legitimate option. Then it was playing hardball with them for too long, forcing them to deploy the nuclear option: talks with Indiana. Now the state is left scrambling to work out an agreement that many in the government don’t like. Had he been more agreeable from the start, JB Pritzker would’ve saved a lot of people a lot of headaches.
As things stand, the likeliest outcome is a deal being worked out to finally let the Bears build in Arlington Heights. Pritzker believes the necessary votes will be there when the House and Senate reconvene later this month to revisit the Megaprojects bill that provides the necessary legislation. Everything else is already in order. The Bears have worked out agreements with the town. They have the funding necessary to begin construction. All they need is the tax certainty.
