* The Bears appear to be trying to play DuPage against Cook. NBC 5…

With tax woes at the center of the Chicago Bears’ decision to explore new options for a stadium outside of Arlington Heights, Cook County’s tax assessor said “the facts speak for themselves.”

“Our office’s mission is to assess property based on market value,” a spokesperson for the Cook County Assessor’s office said Friday. “The 2022 assessment of the former Arlington Racecourse site is consistent with both the 2023 purchase price of the property and the price per square foot of other similarly sized land in the area. The facts speak for themselves.” […]

“The stadium-based project remains broadly popular in Arlington Heights, Chicagoland and the state. However, the property’s original assessment at five times the 2021 tax value, and the recent settlement with Churchill Downs for 2022 being three times higher, fails to reflect the property is not operational and not commercially viable in its current state,” the Bears said in a statement to NBC Chicago. “We will continue the ongoing demolition activity and work toward a path forward in Arlington Heights, but it is no longer our singular focus. It is our responsibility to listen to other municipalities in Chicagoland about potential locations that can deliver on this transformational opportunity for our fans, our club and the State of Illinois.”

* Rep. Marty Moylan (D-Des Plaines), who is sponsoring a bill to help the Bears move, said this to WTTW…

“Remember that Cook County won’t get any sales tax if it (the team) moves to Naperville. (Cook County Board) President (Toni) Preckwinkle’s going to be saying ‘where’s mine?’ if all of a sudden it’s going to Naperville,” Moylan said. “Rockford threw their hat in the ring, and other cities are going to be throwing their hat in the ring. Because this is a multi-billion dollar proposal. A domed stadium. We can have Super Bowls here.”

Moylan said he knows Rockford is making a pitch, though he has not seen the offer.

Rockford?

…Adding… A Rockford-area legislator said there was “no pitch” from the city. “I told Marty we would love to have the Bears if they can’t make a deal with anyone else. That’s it.”

Marty gonna Marty.

* More on the play…

Most were quick to say this was nothing more than a negotiating tactic by the franchise. However, not everybody thinks it is a total bluff. Marc Ganis is widely regarded as one of the best stadium experts in the business. He’s consulted on several projects during his career and knows the politics involved. He explained the situation on Mully & Haugh for 670 The Score. It comes down to the Bears being trapped in the bureaucratic mess that is Cook County.

“This is unfortunately what happens in Cook County and Illinois with our political system, our wonderful politicians, far too frequently. What you have is a bunch of parties that are trying to make their bones on the backs of the Bears politically. They’re saying, ‘Well, if the Bears wants this we’re going to charge them through the nose for that and we’re going to take the property taxes and this thing that Churchill Downs was paying a couple million dollars a year for and they’re going to have to pay double-digit millions.’ And that’s just to start. That is before they put a $2-3 billion stadium in the ground and before they put any of the ancillary development in the ground, which they will never be able to move.” […]

“They’re really…I won’t say destroying it but they are reducing it dramatically to the point where all those great advantages that Arlington Heights has had, they’ve reduced to the point where the Bears are going to talk to other communities like Naperville, which is in a different county jurisdiction.”

* The superintendents of three area public schools didn’t seem bluffable last month in a letter to the Bears…

On May 1, our attorneys extended an offer in which the school districts might agree to support an assessment based on a market value of $95 million. This offer, as all our prior offers have been, is subject to and conditioned on final approval or consent of our individual boards of education. It is our firm belief that this offer provides the clarity and fairness CBFC Development needs, while maintaining the integrity of the property tax system on which school districts depend and protecting the other taxpayers within our communities who do not receive such large reductions in their assessments. Given the substantial gulf between our positions, we do not see the need to make a counteroffer at this time. Instead, we intend to proceed to resolution of the 2022 tax year on its own. A resolution of the 2022 assessment will help to inform both us and CBFC Development on an appropriate assessment for tax years 2023 and 2024, the tax years when CBFC Development will take responsibility for the property taxes.

* Meanwhile, I read this Crain’s piece a couple of times and it looked to me at first like Rep. Buckner was just spit-balling…

With a Bears move to Arlington Heights facing new uncertainty, a state legislator whose district includes Soldier Field is urging the city to make a new pitch to keep the team somewhere in Chicago. And there is some indication the team might at least talk about it.

In a phone interview, state Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, said he believes a path to get Chicago back in the game may have opened in the wake of the team’s announcement that it no longer is focusing strictly on Arlington Heights and has talked to Naperville about building a new stadium complex there.

“I think so. It’s possible,” Buckner said in a phone interview. “I’ve said from the beginning that Arlington Heights was not a foregone conclusion. Mayor (Brandon) Johnson deserves a chance to broker a deal that I think makes sense for the team and the city.”

Buckner, who serves on Johnson’s transition team, said he doesn’t know if the administration is refining an offer former Mayor Lori Lightfoot put on the table last year to potentially dome Soldier Field. But the city should be “proactive” now, given the Bears’ statement, he said. And it perhaps ought to consider other Chicago locations beyond Soldier Field, such as the former USX property on the Southeast Side, Buckner said.

Fox 32 followed up with Rep. Buckner…

Q: I know you know the mayor pretty well. I have a two-part question. Number one: Do you think there has been a conversation about this topic at city hall in the last three or four days? And number two: What’s your instinct about Mayor Johnson and his willingness to make a serious proposal?

Buckner: I’m not sure if that talk has happened yet. But my assumption is that if it has not, it is coming very quickly.

So, Buckner claimed to have no specific inside information. More Buckner…

I also know that the mayor’s been very clear about the fact that he wanted a chance to reset the conversation, to have conversations with the McCaskey family about the future of the franchise. And I truly think that he deserves that. So hopefully, this is a push of the reset button so the proper folks can come to the table and talk about what this looks like.

* But here’s WTTW…

Johnson’s office didn’t return a call on Monday seeking comment, nor did the Bears.

But a source with knowledge of the situation says a talk between the two sides is likely to take place in the next several days.

We’ll see.

* And let’s go back to Marc Ganis‘ comments on 670 The Score…

“I just heard from somebody at the league that they’re going to have a sit-down meeting with the mayor as well, the new mayor, Mayor (Brandon) Johnson, about if there’s possibly another site in the city of Chicago that he may want to propose. Not Soldier Field. That’s gone. That’s been gone for a long time.”

Could just be gossip “from somebody at the league.” Could be more. Ganis predicted almost a year ago that the Bears would move to Arlington Heights.

Anyway, your thoughts?

…Adding… Forgot to post this one…

The Bears’ flirtation with Naperville last Friday made all the headlines and captured the city’s attention. That was surely the intended effect new president and CEO Kevin Warren had in mind when he agreed to meet with the municipality and released the statement that Arlington Heights was no longer the “singular focus” for the Bears’ new stadium pursuit.

The Bears will hope to get the same effect, if not multiplied, should they meet with new Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson about finding a way to stay in the city.

That’s all well and good. The Bears’ search for leverage has many paths, but a sole goal: To bend Arlington Heights and the surrounding municipalities to their will.

That last bit ties this all together. Leverage everywhere you look. But their sunken costs at AH are pretty darned high to move again.