Illinois Senate passes last-minute bill to keep Bears stadium in Illinois, but House adjourns with no vote

The Illinois Senate passed a bill early Monday morning geared toward keeping the Chicago Bears in-state, but the Illinois House of Representatives adjourned without voting on the measure.

Illinois state Sen. Bill Cunningham (D-Chicago) introduced the bill late Sunday night after a separate property tax incentive failed to move forward. The new bill looked like it could have opened the door for a plan for the Bears to build their new stadium within Chicago — albeit only a little bit.

The legislation would allow local municipalities in Cook County with a population of more than 70,000 to set up their own stadium authorities. Arlington Heights and Chicago both meet that threshold.

The Bears would put up the cash to build the stadium but would then lease it — thus avoiding property taxes altogether.

"This, as I said, would give the Bears what they want. They said that they can build and will build their own stadium with private finances. They can do that," Cunningham said. "What they can also do is enter into an agreement with a municipality, with a stadium district which would make the building publicly owned. As we know, publicly owned buildings do not pay property taxes, so that is exactly what the Bears have asked for."

If the Bears built on the Arlington Heights site that the team purchased for $197 million in February of 2023, Cunningham explained, the team would "essentially turn that property over to the stadium authority, it would become publicly owned."

Cunningham said the proposal was modeled after a stadium authority already created in Northwest Indiana.

"This, as I would remind you, is the exact same mechanic set up in Northwest Indiana," Cunningham said. "The Indiana state legislature created a northwest Indiana Stadium authority for this exact purpose."

Supporters said the plan could give the Bears the property tax certainty the Bears have been seeking for years.

But while the state Senate passed the bill, the state House adjourned without voting on the Municipal Stadium Authority Act.

The Bears said they are still evaluating Arlington Heights and Hammond, Indiana, as sites for their news stadium and are on track to make a decision by the early summer. They have said keeping the team in Chicago proper is not on the table.

"Well, my door's always open," Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said. "As has been reported we're still in conversations as recently as a month ago, a month and a half ago, and now it's June."

When asked, Johnson did not say whether the team was still setting up meetings with his office.

"The only viable plan for the Bears was proposed by my administration," he said. 

Hope to keep the Bears in Illinois had hinged on the so-called "megaprojects bill" that would have facilitated the construction of a new stadium in Arlington Heights. This bill would have allowed megaproject developers to freeze property tax assessments for 25 to 45 years, and rather than paying higher property tax bills that would come with rising assessments, developers would have been allowed to negotiate long-term Payments in Lieu of Taxes, or PILOT, with local taxing bodies.

The megaprojects failed to garner enough support from lawmakers on Saturday, and was taken off the table.

"There was no appetite at all to provide public dollars to a $10 billion sports franchise, as much as we love the Bears," said Illinois Senate President Don Harmon.

"Making sure we weren't doing something like paying for a privately owned stadium for a billionaire-owned team, that didn't make any sense to me and I said from the very beginning we weren't going to do that," Gov. JB Pritzker said Monday. "We were focused on only providing what was necessary in order to create infrastructure, as we have for other businesses in the state of Illinois, so they can do business in the state."

The mayor of Arlington Heights called the last-minute voting "clearly a fumble for the State of Illinois."

Afterward, the Municipal Stadium Authority Act was introduced in the state Senate as an alternative and passed in the early-morning hours by a vote of 37-17.

"I have never seen anything like this," said Marc Ganis, president and cofounder of Sportscorp Ltd. "Everything in Illinois seems to happen close to midnight on May 31st, is just not a healthy way to go about these things, and is very atypical."

Ganis, a stadium expert with years of experience in negotiating on projects, said Arlington Heights remains the best stadium site for the Bears — if property tax breaks are guaranteed.

"This deal is much closer to the structure of most NFL stadiums," said Ganis. "It's a very dysfunctional operation and the bears stadium saga highlights the dysfunction that is Chicago and Illinois government."

But this new bill not being passed doesn't mean it's the end of the road for keeping the Bears in Illinois.

"You could be looking at a special session at some point this summer when this was all ready to go," Illinois Senate Republican Leader John Curran (R-Downers Grove) said Sunday. "If this can't be pulled together today, or if the Bears timeline permits, you're talking about the fall veto session in November."

Meet Chicago Northwest, the local tourism office that promotes Arlington Heights and other northwest suburbs, issued a statement late Sunday before the House adjourned with no vote on a bill.

The statement read: "We remain hopeful that the legislators and bears will come to a mutually acceptable agreement to keep the bears stadium in Illinois — with all its positive economic impact for the state and its residents."

In a statement Monday morning, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson endorsed the idea of a municipal stadium financing authority and publicly owned sports stadiums, and reiterated his contention that the new Bears stadium should be built in the city.

"Chicago's 2024 plan relied on the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority and its existing 2% hotel tax to fund public infrastructure, a model that reflects the same principles the legislature ultimately centered in its framework," Mayor Johnson said in the statement. "Chicago continues to offer the strongest opportunity to retain the Bears. We have a publicly owned site the team has already vetted and approved, an existing sports authority with a dedicated revenue stream, and a framework for moving a deal forward."

Meanwhile, the Village of Arlington Heights expressed disappointment that no legislation to facilitate a new Bears stadium had passed. The village said they are still looking forward to future "redevelopment opportunities" at the former Arlington International Racecourse site that the Bears own and have been considering for a new stadium.

"The Village of Arlington Heights has spent the past five years working diligently to prepare for the redevelopment of Arlington Park. We are truly disappointed with the outcome from the spring legislative session yet again," Arlington Heights Mayor Jim Tinaglia siad in a statement. "Although we recognize that these discussions are complex and involve many stakeholders, this is clearly a fumble for the State of Illinois. My commitment to the residents and businesses of Arlington Heights is unwavering, and we will continue to represent the interests of our community as future opportunities and next steps are considered."

Several Illinois lawmakers said Sunday that the team has continued talking with leaders at Chicago's City Hall too. But the Bears recently said a plan to keep the team in the city is not going to happen.