That’s the way the cookie crumbles
Wednesday, Mar 4, 2026 - Posted by Rich Miller
* NewsRadio 780…
Gov. J.B. Pritzker has signaled his support for state contribution to road and other infrastructure improvements around an Arlington Heights stadium. However, the mayor told reporters the city has not received the same backing.
“The city of Chicago never received the type of partnership we’ve seen … with other proposals,” Mayor Johnson said Monday after speaking during Pulaski Day observances at the Polish American Museum, 984 N. Milwaukee Ave. “The city of Chicago has never been guaranteed $950 million for infrastructure. That type of investment can unlock the greater capacity that the Museum Campus has.”
The mayor again recalled the presentation he and Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren made in 2024 to remake the Museum Campus around a publicly-owned domed football stadium, and suggested it was still the most viable plan for the team’s new home: “I have not seen a proposal that matches the gravity and the significance of the thousands of jobs and opportunities that would manifest as a result of this investment.”
Last I checked, the capital plan the Bears want for Arlington Heights is down to a bit more than $700 million, not the $950 million that the mayor claimed.
* As we all remember, no state-level negotiations took place before the mayor unveiled a plan that relied heavily on state funding. Tough to have a partnership with somebody who didn’t negotiate. And the plan was presented only a month before spring session adjourned…
Speaker Welch told reporters today what he said he told the Bears privately last week: “If we were to put this issue on the board for a vote right now, it would fail and it would fail miserably. There’s no environment for something like this today. Now in Springfield environments change. Will that environment change within the next 30 days? I think that’s highly unlikely.”
* To the costs…
That’s $1.5 billion.
And…
The [infrastructure] costs are all on top of the $900 million in state bonds backed by hotel tax revenues that the team needs to convince state lawmakers to agree to for the $3.2 billion stadium itself.
That plan would’ve frozen out the White Sox and all other sports teams. Too many opponents with money, not enough proponents in the legislature and the governor’s office…
A top Pritzker administration official says the Bears “have no risk under this scenario. The risk is 100% on the state.”
And…
City officials said Johnson’s office won’t ask the City Council to chip in for the infrastructure upgrades.
* However, there may have been a path to a Chicago deal. For instance, the capital projects tab could have been lower…
“We would be excited if all three phases happened. We need Phase 1 to happen for our project specifically,” [Bears executive vice president of stadium development Karen Murphy] said.
Assuming the Bears would’ve actually settled for it, that was just $325 million.
A deal might’ve also been cut on the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority bond funding.
But Bears ownership had already paid $200 million for a big patch of land in Arlington Heights the year before. So, the Chicago thing could’ve just been for show. The fact that talks went nowhere kinda proves it.
And then along came Indiana. By then, Chicago had long been cut out of the picture by the Bears. The team wanted to focus on Arlington Heights.
* Woulda, coulda, shoulda, here we are now.
I hate this whole thing.
- Move Along - Wednesday, Mar 4, 26 @ 9:35 am:
Let them leave. It has already happened in plenty of other places. It is the way of the world. Besides, NW Indiana is part of Chicagoland anyway. At this point politically invested people would be best advised to start making the case that this just isn’t a big deal. Everybody move along. Nothing to see here.
- Skokie Man - Wednesday, Mar 4, 26 @ 9:41 am:
I think if the Bears move to Indiana most folks will eventually see it like they saw the failed bid for Chicago to host the Olympics. Anger and sadness initially, and then relief once the true cost of doing business becomes clear.
Conservative estimates put the price tag at one billion dollars when selective tax giveaways are included. That’s a transfer of wealth to the McCaskey family at a scale we’ve rarely seen, and we still have the White Sox, Bulls, Blackhawks, Cubs, Sky, Fire, Red Stars…
https://www.fieldofschemes.com/2026/02/27/23752/friday-roundup-bears-face-choice-which-states-1b-in-cash-to-accept-rays-stadium-plans-face-growing-questions/
- Three Dimensional Checkers - Wednesday, Mar 4, 26 @ 9:51 am:
The White Sox bought some land in the suburbs in the 90s before the state built New Comiskey. I think Arlington makes sense for the Bears, but they might get cold feet and try Soldiers Field again, maybe with a new Mayor. I think they were serious when they said they want to stay at Soldiers until the lease ends in 2033. With due respect to Hammond, nah. I would think there are a lot of north shore season ticket holders that do not want to drive down to Indiana eight times a year.
- Down and Out - Wednesday, Mar 4, 26 @ 9:56 am:
How about everyone just appreciates Soldier Field for what it is, realizes its just football (which should be played outdoors anyway), and moves on with their lives.
- Oklahoma - Wednesday, Mar 4, 26 @ 9:56 am:
It also was a key pivotal point in MBJ’s tenure. In addition to the well-documented politically tone deaf approach of negotiating with other people’s money, it was also seen as a publicly tone deaf decision to spend all of his time on the Bears while ignoring or doing nothing for all the other critical issues that his office should have been addressing. And so quickly abandoning his and CTU’s stated “principles.”
It was a “THAT’S what you have been working on??” moment.
- Friendly Bob Adams - Wednesday, Mar 4, 26 @ 9:58 am:
I want this to be over. A tiny percentage of fans go to the live games. For everyone else it’s just a TV show. What difference does it make where they play??
- Roman - Wednesday, Mar 4, 26 @ 9:59 am:
The mayor did a press conference (a rather bizarre one, at that) with Kevin Warren on the Soldier Field parking lot plan two years ago and then disappeared. He didn’t go to Springfield to lobby for it and didn’t try to rally the Chicago delegation to back it. When it became clear that the proposal was dead, he never pivoted to a Plan B. Some tried to shift a Chicago effort towards the Michael Reese hospital site, but that was lead by Toni Preckwinkle, not Johnson. You’d think he’d at least be using his bully pulpit to remind the public the Bears still have seven years left on the Soldier Field lease and the taxpayers still own a half billion on the renovation construction bonds. That would help bog down the Arlington Heights move and maybe give the city a chance to get back in the game. Instead he’s been mostly silent.
Setting aside whether or not building a new stadium is a good idea, it’s hard to imagine any of Johnson’s predecessors being this passive — essential AWOL — on such a high-profile matter.
- Rudy’s teeth - Wednesday, Mar 4, 26 @ 10:14 am:
In Chicago, the fans have the Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Bulls, Chicago Fire, Sky, and Red Stars.
If the Bears move to Indiana, let the taxpayers in Indiana enrich the McCaskeys…not the Illinois taxpayers.
- StarLineChicago - Wednesday, Mar 4, 26 @ 10:17 am:
I think a better question for the Mayor is whether a dome on the lakefront makes any sense in the first place. A dome, by design, can be anywhere; if an attendee’s only view of the skyline is through a window, plenty of other places available with the same experience. A savvier play for the city could have involved a new outdoor baseball stadium closer to downtown and/or on the lakefront (at The 78 or Michael Reese Hospital site, for instance) to open up Sox Park and its associated surface parking lots for a domed football stadium that’s still in the heart of the city and well-connected to transit and transportation. Orchestrating those kinds of site logistics and land swaps are an important component and one of the most valuable things the public sector can offer, even without directly “paying for” a new stadium.
But at the end of the day, the Bears are already $200 million into Arlington Heights, and it was always going to be a very uphill climb for any cash-strapped unit of government. If Indiana taxpayers want to be the ones to buy the Bears out of that sunk cost, so be it, but as soon as the Bears bought the horsetrack I think the writing was on the wall for the city.
- Remember the Alamo II - Wednesday, Mar 4, 26 @ 10:20 am:
They should have taken a second look at the South Suburbs.
- Homebody - Wednesday, Mar 4, 26 @ 10:27 am:
Ignore the Bears words, look at their actions. They spent 9 figures on the AH property. They were always going to leave the city. Only way they stayed would be if they were gifted a sweetheart mega deal.
Johnson is just as way in over his head on this stuff as Warren is, arguably more.
- Just wow - Wednesday, Mar 4, 26 @ 10:28 am:
The biggest winner for decades in the Chicago cluster? Indianapolis.
While the Chicagoland area fumbles around with the Bears, builds their newest basketball arena in the wrong neighborhood, et. al. Indy has a modern new domed football stadium, newer basketball arena, with hotels, bars, restaurants, shopping all in between within walking distance.
A fans dream scenario while Indy hosts Final Fours, Super Bowls, big 10 football championships, etc.
A member of the Indy Sports Authority told me personally that the gift that keeps on giving for Indy is the perpetual incoherent planning and buffoonish implementation of the City of Chicago as it relates to the Windy City as a sports destination.
Oof.
- Save Ferris - Wednesday, Mar 4, 26 @ 10:32 am:
They are not moving to Indiana. Now that the taxes required by Indiana are public, it’s creating opposition. AFP has come out against it (the Koch Brothers group). And that’s only just in a week.
Until there’s a Century21 sign saying “326 ACRES AVAILABLE” all this is bluster. You have dumb management (Kevin Warren) trying to help out an owner who doesn’t have the liquidity to build.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/indiana-citizens-share-frustration-over-140000234.html
- Lincoln Lad - Wednesday, Mar 4, 26 @ 10:44 am:
Dominos start to fall - Bears to Indiana (still Chicagoland, and a sweet deal for the team). White Sox to Arlington Heights, with the McCaskeys, Pat Ryan and Ishbia collaborating on a ballpark and surrounding development of condos and retail. Jerry and family sells out to Ishbia, and also invests as a minority investor in the AH development. Bezos opens a Whole Foods in the development, and buys the Daily Herald (only to fire all reporters). Elon commits to high speed underground rail that gets you to downtown Chicago in 15 minutes, and extends to O’Hare. Unions start new apprentice programs to fill all the jobs created by it all, with Bezos offering organic sandwiches to union members for lunch - all delivered by drones. Feels good to dream…