Gov. JB Pritzker said he is open to calling a special session if lawmakers bring him a stadium bill that would keep the Chicago Bears in Illinois.
Illinois is not giving up on the Bears just yet, even after they announced plans to build a new stadium complex in Hammond, Indiana. The Bears also purchased property in Arlington Heights in 2023.
“We think we are as close as anybody as far as getting the stadium, I don’t think Indiana is any closer than we are,” Pritzker said Tuesday. “It’s up to the Bears on where they want to be.”
The governor said the state has offered infrastructure support, but there is no appetite for raising taxes or using public money to build the stadium. He said the Bears have lobbyists that can hammer out a compromise between the House and Senate voters in Springfield.
Pritzker’s comments came amid questions about whether there’s support in Indiana for new taxes to fund the stadium.
The team announced three weeks ago that they planned to move ahead with their Hammond stadium plans, but Crain’s Chicago Business reports cracks in that plan are already beginning to show, specifically around the amount of state funding promised to the Bears.
The bill passed by Indiana lawmakers calls for $1 billion in taxpayer money to be put toward infrastructure around the stadium, which officials said would support plans for retail, restaurants and residential units to be built around the stadium complex.
That money is meant to come from a mix of new local taxes in Lake and Porter Counties, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle, as well as an as-yet undetermined amount from a $700 million fund from the Indiana Toll Road’s private operator.
The Chronicle reports there’s already a fracture between lawmakers in Lake and Porter counties, with Porter County officials having little appetite to implement new taxes, like a 1% restaurant tax, or raising existing taxes to raise money for a stadium that won’t even be in their jurisdiction.
And Craig Kenworthy, the defeated Porter County Council President Andy Vasque in their recent Republican primary, has made “No new taxes for Lake County projects!” a prominent campaign message on his social media pages.
Speaking on The Score Tuesday, State Rep. Kam Buckner said the “entire cadence” of the Bears stadium deals “has been off,” and said “everyone has to own a little bit of this.”
He said Illinois lawmakers need to hear more from the Bears on the specifics of what they want.
