* Bloomberg…
The Chicago Bears will now have to wait until the new year for a chance to get enough support to build their $3 billion suburban stadium.
The football team, which has been trying to move to a new stadium for about four years, is leaving the Illinois fall legislative session empty-handed. Without the funds and support it needs from the state, the dream of a new home is delayed until at least the first half of 2026, when lawmakers will be back in session.
The setback underscores how the Bears’ high-stakes effort to move out of Soldier Field — the National Football League’s oldest stadium, which opened in 1924 — has stumbled at nearly every turn. It also leaves one of the league’s founding franchises and the third-largest media market stuck with an outdated stadium and fans longing for a new football coliseum.
* Their offer of pocket change for pork projects didn’t move the needle at all this week. Sun-Times…
Representatives for the Chicago Bears were poised to leave Springfield Thursday yet again without any help from state lawmakers in their drive for a new stadium in Arlington Heights.
Not even a proposed $25 million payment from the team to benefit the city of Chicago was enough to get them past midfield as the clock wound down on the Illinois General Assembly’s fall veto session. […]
Sources close to the team’s lobbying effort said the $25 million — which would be given to the state for lawmakers to parcel out for projects in Chicago — wasn’t intended to meet Gov. JB Pritzker’s suggestion that the team should find a way to pay off the $534 million in public debt that’s still outstanding from Soldier Field’s 2003 renovation.
In the letter, the team asserted it “has paid its contractual share toward the 2003 stadium renovations and has no obligation to repay” the state bonds that are backed by a 2% hotel tax.
- Oklahoma - Friday, Oct 31, 25 @ 2:20 pm:
I’m not really sure there was a single member that even thought about the Bears this week, other than an under bet.
- Harrison - Friday, Oct 31, 25 @ 2:30 pm:
Why doesn’t the Governor make a serious counter proposal, instead of the ludicrous demand the Bears retire 534 million in public debt on Soldier Field.
If they did that would they own Soldier Field?
Of course not that is why it is an unserious proposal but he gets to look tough.
I guess there are plenty of other multi billion dollar construction projects more important than this on the horizon for organized labor.
- Sox Fan - Friday, Oct 31, 25 @ 2:34 pm:
==Without the funds and support it needs from the state==
Interesting choice of words. Big difference between a “need” and a “want”. An $8B company doesn’t really “need” anything that they can’t pay for themselves .
- Charles Edward Cheese - Friday, Oct 31, 25 @ 2:43 pm:
@Harrison
Why don’t the billionaires who own a multi-billion dollar asset use their untapped billions to pay for their own personal billion dollar toy?
- Tammy - Friday, Oct 31, 25 @ 2:46 pm:
== Why doesn’t the Governor make a serious counter proposal ==
I would start by insisting the Bears actually honor their lease and stay at Soldier Field through the 2033 — that’s when the tax supported debt will be retired. Only then would I entertain public support for another stadium.
- low level - Friday, Oct 31, 25 @ 2:46 pm:
==Why doesn’t the Governor make a serious counter proposal, instead of the ludicrous demand the Bears retire 534 million in public debt on Soldier Field.==
He has made a serious counter proposal. The Bears can pay for their own stadium.
The Bears are privately owned. They can privately finance their privately held stadium.
His counteroffer is … nothing. That was easy.
- Norseman - Friday, Oct 31, 25 @ 2:54 pm:
When pols talk about $534 million in public debt and the Bears offer $25 million, check their diplomas to see if they’re from Trump University. In football vernacular, 4th quarter and the Bears fumble.
- Pundent - Friday, Oct 31, 25 @ 2:55 pm:
=Why doesn’t the Governor make a serious counter proposal=
I think the counter proposal is that they achieve their stadium dreams the same way the Ricketts did with the Cubs. The taxpayers owe the Bears nothing. And why would we want to give them more money after already handing out north of $500B for the stadium they’re currently playing in?
- Cheesy Beef with Peppers - Friday, Oct 31, 25 @ 3:04 pm:
Any new stadium should be in the City on the Lakefront, not in the suburbs.
- DuPage Saint - Friday, Oct 31, 25 @ 3:05 pm:
Does this mean that the Bears will not have a shovel in the ground this year? That cannot be right because that is what Kevin Warren said
- Jerry - Friday, Oct 31, 25 @ 3:13 pm:
Agree with the headline. What part of “No” doesn’t President Warren understand? Its all about “Tax Fairness” for the residents of the State of Illinois.
- Demoralized - Friday, Oct 31, 25 @ 3:14 pm:
==In the letter, the team asserted it “has paid its contractual share toward the 2003 stadium renovations and has no obligation to repay” the state bonds==
Nope, not their “obligation.” But, if they want state help to build their stadium then it becomes their “obligation.” It’s called a negotiation.
- Demoralized - Friday, Oct 31, 25 @ 3:15 pm:
@Harrison:
For a guy who constantly complains about pretty much everything to do with the State of Illinois government you sure are first in line to give the Bears billions of dollars. You seem to be a bit all over the place.
- Excitable Boy - Friday, Oct 31, 25 @ 3:27 pm:
- In the letter, the team asserted it “has paid its contractual share toward the 2003 stadium renovations and has no obligation to repay” the state bonds that are backed by a 2% hotel tax. -
LOL, ok then, stick around a while.
- Homebody - Friday, Oct 31, 25 @ 3:35 pm:
Literally nothing is stopping the Bears from building a stadium under the current tax laws.
- JoanP - Friday, Oct 31, 25 @ 3:53 pm:
= Any new stadium should be in the City on the Lakefront =
No. Not on the lakefront.
- Homer - Friday, Oct 31, 25 @ 3:53 pm:
No $$ for the Arlington Heights Bears. Time for a new team in Chicago.
- G'Kar - Friday, Oct 31, 25 @ 4:29 pm:
== fans longing for a new football coliseum==
Really? Who and where are these fans?
- Rich Miller - Friday, Oct 31, 25 @ 4:31 pm:
===Really? ===
That Chicago Bloomberg crew is really subpar.
- The Farm Grad - Friday, Oct 31, 25 @ 4:36 pm:
“Soldier Field — the National Football League’s oldest stadium, which opened in 1924″
It’s a new stadium as of 2003.
Also, the Bears are a 9B enterprise whose value is growing at 14% a year. Ballmer has said that there is no safer asset available than a sports franchise in the USA. If the Bears wanted, they could borrow money below the federal government’s 4.09% for 10-year money