* Daily Herald…

Chicago Bears President/CEO Kevin Warren said the NFL club is performing due diligence for a potential stadium in Northwest Indiana, but at an event in Lake Forest Thursday night, he didn’t close the door on Arlington Heights either.

The Bears president hasn’t spoken publicly since he and members of the organization’s board of directors voted June 4 to advance a stadium development project in Hammond, Indiana, days after the Illinois legislature punted on legislation for a stadium in Arlington Heights. […]

“I think we’ve been very clear, I mean, always, you have to have property tax certainty. The numbers are too big if you don’t have it, and it’s too uncertain,” Warren told interviewer David Sweet. “You have to have a commitment from an infrastructure dollar standpoint. You have to have a really good partner, because regardless of where you build, there are always going to be complications. Things happen.” […]

Warren didn’t offer many specifics about the team’s ongoing due diligence process in Indiana, besides noting geotechnical studies are underway. Nor did he mention the behind-the-scenes political process in Illinois in the ensuing weeks since the General Assembly adjourned its spring session June 1.

[From Rich: Just saying, but they could’ve had property tax certainty at Soldier Field because they don’t pay any property taxes at Soldier Field.]

* Related…

* Northwest Indiana Times | Northwest Indiana unions vow to oppose politicians who don’t back Bears stadium food tax: Randy Palmateer, who serves as business manager and executive director of the Northwest Indiana Building and Construction Trades Council, said the 31 different trade unions that he represents and their thousands of members will not back any elected officials who do not back the food and beverage tax that would cost an extra $1 on a $100 restaurant tab — or any other aspects of the Bears stadium financing plan. […] “I just want to be clear that we’re not supporting any of those Porter County political candidates if they don’t support the Bears stadium or the food and beverage tax,” he said. “It’s just ridiculous some of the pushback we’re getting over there. We have thousands of members in Porter County. Building the stadium would mean jobs for them.”

* Tribune | Can Indiana pay for a Bears stadium? Analysts ask how it will pay its debt as some residents balk at new taxes: In February, Indiana lawmakers approved a plan to spend up to $1 billion to build an enclosed stadium in Hammond for the Chicago Bears. The team pledged to pay $2 billion toward building the stadium, and would then lease the site but collect all of the operating revenue. But whether the planned taxes in the legislation would be enough to pay off the construction cost is highly uncertain, some analysts say. Just as whether the Bears will move to Indiana depends on whether Illinois will make a better offer, the financing of the Hammond site depends on a lot of unknowns. Chief among them, Propheter said, is the ultimate cost of buying land, building and maintaining a stadium and the lost opportunity of what else could be done with the money if it didn’t go toward the stadium.

* NBC Chicago | Indiana officials confident in Bears’ stadium bid as focus moves to new site: Soil samples have been taken from the area and are being analyzed, and officials are hopeful that environmental issues encountered at other locations in Hammond will be addressed by shifting the project closer to the state line, with that site just 19 miles from downtown Chicago. Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, who signed the bill earlier this year aimed at luring the Bears to the state, is continuing to publicly express confidence in the chances of getting the deal finalized.