Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch was asked yesterday about the state possibly helping the Chicago Bears ownership build a new stadium now that they’re threatening to seek one out in Indiana, and he didn’t mince words:
This is not to be insensitive to the Bears and their ownership, but when these folks are out knocking on doors right now, they’re hearing people talk about the cost of prescription drugs, about the premiums of their health care, insurance going up, grocery prices, rent. They’re talking about things related to cost of living.
I don’t know anyone that has knocked on a door and someone has said anything about the Chicago Bears. And I think we have to stay focused on the things that people care about right now, when folks say, what’s your priority is going into the legislative session, we’re trying to bring down the cost of living and talking about a brand new Bears stadium when this one’s not even 25 years old. That’s insensitive to what real people are going through right now.
Mic drop! That’s not sounding like Bears execs’ whole creating leverage gambit is going according to plan, certainly not anywhere near what they might have hoped after seeing the interstate bidding war going on over the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals. Chalk that up to different state leadership, to Illinois officials feeling confident the state has lots of other teams no matter what the Bears do, or to Indiana not seeming like a serious threat for a team whose fan base is mostly to the Illinois side of Chicago, take your pick.
Indiana Gov. Mike Braun did go on TV yesterday to reiterate that “we’ve had a lot” of contact with the Bears organization and “if everything keeps progressing at the speed at which it has over the last week or so, we’ll see!” We’ll see indeed, especially since of the couple billion dollars the Bears would require for a new stadium, Indiana has so far identified (checks notes) $0, which may be another reason Welch and his colleagues feel confident about telling the Bears to pound sand. It’s still possible Illinois officials will give the Bears owners some of what they want — even Gov. JB Pritzker has said he’d be open to giving the Bears some infrastructure money under the right conditions, but it sure doesn’t look like anyone is rushing to open the state’s checkbook just because the Bears started throwing around the I-word.
Indiana already has tax caps built into the constitution – 1% for residential, 2% for commercial and 3% for industrial. It sounds like this is something the Bears want and Illinois is unlikely to provide. To the extent that the State can limit the investment to infrastructure (extension of the South Shore railroad, highway exits, etc.) that will provide benefits to non-Bears persons or businesses, then this might not be a bad investment in an area that really needs it. However, scope creep (or make the government pay for it) is generally a problem for these things.
I should note those % are of assessed value, which is supposed to be based upon market value of the property. So if your house’s market value is $200k, then the max property tax is $2k.
That’s not the “tax certainty” the Bears owners are demanding in Illinois, though. They want a cap on the assessed value, not just on the tax rate.
Thanks for clarifying. That’s asking a lot but some Indiana politicians will want to give it.
Yeah, the Illinois politicians see a poll where 42% of voters are a Hard ‘No’ and 16% are a Soft ‘No’ and 21% say “Only if it’s cheap” and they start slowly backing away.
The Bears have successfully convinced Chicago voters and politicians that it’s very important that the Bears stay in Illinois and pay off their Soldier Field stadium debt.
https://capitolfax.com/2026/01/08/poll-58-percent-oppose-public-funding-to-help-build-a-new-bears-stadium/