An Illinois state legislative subcommittee was set to move forward last Thursday with a “megaprojects” bill that would, among other things, allow the Chicago Bears to get as much as $2 billion in property tax breaks, and then … didn’t:
The Illinois House Tax Credit and Incentives Subcommittee opted not to resume discussion on a proposal to make designated “mega project properties” eligible for an assessment freeze — despite scheduling the proposal for review.
Instead, the panel focused on evaluating Illinois’ tax revenue forecast separate from any stadium discussion.
There’s nothing stopping the legislature from taking up the megaprojects bill later — the legislative session runs through the end of May — and, in fact, it’s back on the subcommittee’s calendar for this week. But putting it on the calendar and then taking it off certainly seems like a sign of cool interest on behalf of state legislators. Or, who knows, maybe Bears execs themselves asked for it to be tabled, like last time! Or maybe bill proponents are busy trying to convince Chicago-area legislators that the state should approve subsidies to move the team out of Chicago? Or it could just be that the state’s budget outlook is so uncertain that elected officials need to focus on that. Anything is possible!
Anyway, this is almost certainly going to increase speculation that Bears owner George McCaskey will leap to grab Indiana’s up-to-$4-billion stadium subsidy offer, and yup, check that off today’s pundit bingo card. Not that it makes any sense: The Indiana offer doesn’t come with an expiration date, so if McCaskey really wants to see if he can get a better deal out of Illinois, he can wait till May; and if he really just prefers Indiana, he could accept it without waiting to see Illinois’ counteroffer. But the two-minute warning is part of the playbook, you can’t just start skipping it now, where would that leave you for fan service?
I fully support the Chicago Bears moving to Indiana and letting the Indiana taxpayers pick up the tab for their stadium development.
Funny stadium thread title on skyscraperpage.com
“CHICAGO | Da Bears | Now these shitheads wanna drive their clown car over to Indiana?”
That pretty well sums it up.
I will take this notion of the Bears in Indiana slightly seriously when I hear Colts ownership demanding that ‘whatever Indiana does for the Bears, they must do for us- err, again, err….”
This is crazy. Delay…after delay…after delay. And just when you think something is about to happen…nothing happens. I commend the Indiana legislature for acting as quickly as they did. They took just under 3 months to come up with and pass legislation to invite the Bears to build their new stadium in their state…while the Illinois legislature is now acting nearly 5 years after they first acquired the Arlington International Racecourse land. Remember…the Bears first started buying the land in 2021, and finalized the deal in 2023.
As much as I’d like to see the Bears stay in Illinois…northwest Indiana isn’t too far a place for them to go. The Bears need to make a decision, and soon.
The weird thing is I don’t think they need to make a decision. What happens if they don’t? Nothing
And I commend the legislators in Illinois for prioritizing the needs of the residents over the wants of billionaire owners.
I’ve long said since all this nonsense about a new stadium started that I’ll never buy a new Bears PSL. Now I’m pretty sure I’m going to be dead before they ever get around to asking me for the money.