Two new spots in the Chicago area want to be in the running as the site of the next Chicago Bears stadium — and they aren’t in Indiana or Arlington Heights.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has said he is prepared to call a special legislative session in Springfield to get a deal on a stadium bill done. He has also said the Bears must be “specific” about the provisions they want in the bill, so lawmakers can vote on them.
“They have lobbyists who can help them write those provisions, their legislators who would help them write the bill,” Pritzker said Tuesday at an unrelated event. “And again, then they need to go and talk to people about the various provisions to get support for it.”
Meanwhile, Indiana has passed its own legislation to lure the team over the state line.
As the saga over the stadium location continues, here’s a breakdown of which areas have now thrown their hat into the ring, and the two that are already in the running.
McCook, Illinois
McCook Mayor Terry Carr is the latest public official who has put forward a proposal to keep the Bears in Illinois, and he is hoping to convince the team to build a stadium within the suburb located just west of Chicago.
“We want them to stay in Illinois. It’s an Illinois team,” he said. “It’s not an Indiana team. I don’t think the Bears want to go to Indiana…deep down I think that the Bears want to stay in Illinois, and we’re one path to keep them here.”
According to Carr’s proposal, the Bears could build their stadium on a 150-acre site located near the corner of 55th Street and East Avenue. The location, a former quarry site, is being filled in and is operated by Vulcan Materials Company, and the mayor says the village is seeking a number of potential options to occupy the site, and a Bears stadium would be an ideal fit.
“The Chicago Bears would definitely fit in well there,” he said.
Carr has told multiple publications the city would give the Bears the land for free and charge them $1 a year in rent, and that the city would cover property taxes if the Bears build the stadium at the site.
The proposed stadium site is located just west of the McCook Reservoir and the Des Plaines River. There are multiple exits off the Stevenson Expressway near the location, including the Stevenson’s interchange with the Tri-State Tollway. The Metra BNSF line runs to the north of the site, and the Heritage Corridor runs to the east and south, with the mayor touting multiple access points to the area.
Carr said his consultant dropped plans with the Bears last week, but he has not heard back from the team. Still, he says the community has plenty to offer to the Bears.
“We’re the closest suburb to Chicago without being in Chicago,” he said. “When the bill got fumbled in Springfield, and they weren’t able to put a deal together to keep it in Arlington Heights, my team put together a plan to try to keep them in Illinois and move them to McCook.”
There’s no word on whether the Bears would entertain the idea of building a stadium at the 150-acre site, which is less than half the size of the 325-acre parcel the team purchased in suburban Arlington Heights with the intent of building a stadium at the location.
Another site in Chicago?
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has insisted that Chicago is the only place in Illinois with a “plan to keep the Bears” in the state. Johnson has also said the city’s proposal is the “only viable plan for a publicly owned stadium.”
The latest proposal to keep the Bears in the city comes from South Side state rep Curtis Tarver, who pitched the land at 85th and Lake Shore Drive near Crown Park. The site is near an old U.S. Steelworks property, where an Advocate Hospital and a quantum computing campus are being built.
Tarver said he has spoken to Bears’ CEO Kevin Warren about the pitch.
“He certainly did not tell me that’s the worst idea I’ve seen in my life,” Tarver told NBC Chicago. Tarver added that Mayor Johnson’s office has been difficult to get in touch with about the deal.
The latest on sites in Arlington Heights, Indiana
After the Illinois General Assembly failed to pass a bill to provide the Bears with property tax certainty and infrastructure subsidies at the Arlington Heights site, the team announced that its focus in stadium talks was in finding a suitable site in northwest Indiana. There, Indiana officials passed a bill that would provide the Bears with funding to facilitate a stadium construction project, funded through a variety of tax increases and toll increases.
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