Representatives of Chicago Bears management met with representatives of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker yesterday to discuss team execs’ maybe-$2.65-billion-or-more stadium subsidy request, and how’d that go?
“As the Governor has said, the current proposal is a non-starter for the state,” Pritzker spokesperson Alex Gough said in an email after aides to the governor held the 90-minute remote meeting with Bears President Kevin Warren and Executive Vice President Karen Murphy. “In order to subsidize a brand new stadium for a privately owned sports team, the Governor would need to see a demonstrable and tangible benefit to the taxpayers of Illinois.”…
“There’s a lot of questions about whether the deal could get done,” Pritzker said. “I’m very hopeful that they could put something on the table. But you’ve got to remember that we have a lot of priorities.”
This is not exactly surprising, given Pritzker’s past statements that he was “skeptical” of both the Bears stadium plan and its chances in the state legislature. But it certainly is, as NBC Sports Chicago called it, “blunt.” Team officials issued their own statement calling the meeting “productive” and saying they “look forward to further discussions,” but then that’s what one says, isn’t it?
While Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has been enthusiastic about the stadium plan, he’s not who matters here: Since the bonds and funding for the project would all be via the state Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, it needs approval from the state, not the city. Bears president Kevin Warren has said he wants to get a deal done by the end of the current legislative session on May 24, but then that’s also what one says.
So what next? The Chicago Tribune reports that “legislative sources said lawmakers are scheduled to be briefed Thursday about unanswered questions regarding the stadium plan,” which is a masterpiece of passive voice. (Briefed by whom?) There’s also still the matter of White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf’s $2 billion stadium subsidy demand, which would require both city and state approval and would also use the same ISFA-controlled hotel tax money as the Bears owners want. While I have no inside information about the Illinois legislature, from here it sure looks like skepticism is the right response to the idea of a Bears deal getting made in the next three weeks.
That said, there’s no actual need for it to happen that fast. The Bears’ lease expires in 2026, but a new stadium certainly wouldn’t be ready by then regardless, so they’re going to need to sign a lease extension anyway. [CORRECTION: The Bears can opt out in 2026, but the lease runs until 2033, so really no rush at all.] Talk of building a new stadium in the suburbs has gone nowhere, and there has been no talk of moving the team out of Chicago, so the most likely scenario is that Warren and Pritzker butt heads for the next 22 days and then go back to their respective corners until next session.
Ultimately, all stadium proposals are trial balloons: Success, history shows, is less about team owners crafting the perfect plan than about throwing ideas at the wall until they find one that sticks. This particular plan may well be a non-starter, but it is certainly a start; we’ll know more how likely it is to progress once we hear more not just from the governor (whose term lasts through 2026, and who is not term-limited) but from state legislators as well.
Correction: The Bears lease expires in 2033.
Thanks! This is what I get for believing the internet.
Pritzker to city’s team: Drop Dead
The bears owners want the taxpayers to pay out for the majority of a new stadium while they sit back and collect billions
There’s little love for Chicago sportsball franchises south of a line that goes Quincy-Springfield-Decatur-Champaign.
I’m really trying to understand the Bears’ endgame here. The team sucks, the owners are hated, they spent years talking about how they couldn’t wait to ditch the city, Illinois and Cook County already have high taxes, and local and state politicians aren’t exactly beloved. I just don’t see what they were expecting other than the response they got. They’ve done bupkus in building up any political capital or public goodwill, now they expect to be handed over $2 billion in tax money because they asked for it? The way they’ve played this is so poor, it resembles the kind of bad-faith “offer” teams make when they’re trying to manufacture the “we tried but local officials weren’t willing to work with us” excuse to bail for another market. But this isn’t Clay Bennett taking the Sonics to Oklahoma City, it’s the Bears trying to make what they think is an earnest offer.
Between this botched gambit and how much B1G hated his tenure as conference commissioner, I’ve got the sneaking suspicion that Kevin Warren may not actually be good at this whole sports business thing.