The saga over where the Chicago Bears will build their stadium could finally come to a head next week, the final week of the spring legislative session in Springfield. But why has the process taken so long?
“I think a lot of the blame has to be put on the Bears for how they’ve behaved in all of this,” said state Sen. Robert Peters, D-Chicago. “I just think that this entire effort has been a mess. It’s been chaotic.”
Peters calls it “mishandling” from Bears CEO Kevin Warren and the McCaskey family.
“I think the Bears have been playing a lot of games. I think the Bears have been pitting states against states, pitting suburb against city, pitting governor against mayor, and I think it all comes back to the Bears,” Peters said.
NBC 5 Chicago asked the Bears organization for a response to Peters’ concerns but did not hear back Friday.
Peters is currently a “no” vote on the megaprojects bill, which would give the Bears property tax breaks to build a new stadium in Arlington Heights. However, he said he could be swayed. His district includes Soldier Field, and he wants more investment there and the museum campus as a whole.
Sen. Rachel Ventura, D-Joliet, is also a “no” as of Friday.
“We all want businesses and good paying jobs here. But there’s a lot of issues with the mega project right now, and there are not enough checks and balances, clawbacks if businesses don’t do what they need to do,” Ventura said.
She’s concerned giving the Bears a break on taxes will end up hurting taxpayers and said her priority is protecting the middle class.
“If [the Bears] don’t want to pay property taxes, they can stay in Soldier Field. What a beautiful stadium that is,” Ventura said.
Lawmakers have nine days to wrap up the megaprojects bill and other priorities in Springfield, including the budget, affordable housing legislation and more. They will return to the Capitol on Monday. Gov. JB Pritzker believes the megaprojects bill will get to the end zone.
“I feel confident that there will be a bill that gets brought up in the Senate, and I’m hopeful they’ll pass it and send it over to the House,” Pritzker said.
Pritzker also added, “I’ve seen miracles happen every year. Every single year.”
There were questions about whether Chicago was still a viable stadium site, but the governor said he’s listening to the Bears and the NFL, both of which have said the only sites in consideration are Arlington Heights and Hammond, Indiana.
“The NFL has to approve whatever the Bears decide they want to do. And so listening to both, there really are only two choices: Do we want them in the state of Illinois, or do we want them to move to the state of Indiana?” Pritzker said.
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