Bears stadium package has ‘positive
momentum’ in Springfield, but not in end zone
[February 18, 2026]
By Brenden Moore
SPRINGFIELD — Legislation that would assist the Chicago Bears’
stalled effort to move from the lakefront to a new domed stadium in
Arlington Heights has “positive momentum” after languishing for
years at the bottom of Springfield’s priority list.
But the emerging package hasn’t reached the end zone, lawmakers
involved in negotiations say, as key details — including concessions
necessary to win enough votes among Chicago legislators — are still
being worked out behind the scenes.
“You can’t score a touchdown unless you’re first in the huddle,
right? And we’re in the huddle now,” state Rep. Kam Buckner,
D-Chicago, told Capitol News Illinois. “We’re calling plays and
we’re figuring out what’s going to work, and then we’ll break at
some point and try to execute.”
The renewed push comes as Hoosier legislators work this week to meet
a key deadline on a competing package meant to entice the Bears over
the state line.
The Indiana legislation creating a stadium authority like the
Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, which owns Rate Field and
issued bonds to pay for Soldier Field renovations, passed that
state’s Senate last month and faces a deadline to pass out of a
House committee this week. Indiana’s legislature is scheduled to
adjourn Feb. 27.
As the bill progresses in Indiana, Illinois leaders have shown new
urgency.
Gov. JB Pritzker’s office has convened discussions among the team,
lawmakers, local officials and other stakeholders around a package
that could include tax measures and more than $850 million in
infrastructure commitments long sought by the Bears.
As of this week, it’s been three years since the team closed on the
purchase of the 326-acre former Arlington Park site for nearly $200
million. While the former racetrack has been razed, the promised
“shovels in the ground” on a new stadium have yet to manifest.
PILOT bill takes off
To build their long-desired suburban football palace, the team has
insisted on legislation that would provide long-term tax certainty —
and likely result in the team paying a smaller bill than under
Illinois’ existing arcane property tax system.
House Bill 2789 — the so-called megaprojects bill — would freeze the
Bears’ property tax assessment and allow the organization to
negotiate a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes with local taxing bodies for up
to forty years. The team said this will offer tax certainty
necessary before committing billions of dollars to the project.
The bill was recently kicked out of the gatekeeping House Rules
committee to the House Revenue Committee, which has a hearing
scheduled for Thursday morning. But it remains unclear if the bill
will be called while negotiations continue.
“There have been really great conversations almost daily,” state
Rep. Mary Beth Canty, D-Arlington Heights, the bill’s sponsor, told
Capitol News Illinois last week. “I’ve been involved in a number of
those. We’ve got key stakeholders from the legislature involved and
the Bears’ and the governor’s team, so I think we’re headed in the
right direction.”
Indiana Bears?
The payment-in-lieu-of-taxes languished. What’s changed?
Indiana’s entry into the fray, for one.
In an open letter to fans in December, Bears President Kevin Warren
said the team would expand its search for a new home, including to
Northwest Indiana, after their efforts to land in Arlington Heights
were “met with no legislative partnership” in Springfield.
Indiana Gov. Mike Braun quickly announced his support for luring the
Bears to The Region and state lawmakers began crafting legislation
creating a state stadium authority with the power to acquire land,
issue long-term bonds and finance the construction of a stadium and
related facilities. The Bears have eyed a site near Wolf Lake in
Hammond while Gary, Portage and other cities have pitched their own
proposals.
“It just raised the priority to get something done,” state Sen. Mark
Walker, D-Arlington Heights, said of Indiana’s maneuvering. “So
yeah, it was a lever in that sense.”
But even as Hoosier legislators make their own play to intercept the
Bears, Illinois lawmakers won’t be rushed as they run through their
call sheet.
“We obviously don’t want to see the Bears move to Indiana, but at
the same time, we’re not going to get into a bidding war using
taxpayer dollars,” state Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, said.
“We’re just not going to do that.”
Asked earlier this month if he thought the Bears were serious about
moving to Indiana, Pritzker — a noted card player — said he “never
take(s) anything as if it’s a bluff.” But, he reiterated that his
office has been in “consistent conversation” with the team for
upwards of two years.
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A conceptual image of a domed Chicago Bears stadium in Arlington
Heights. (Courtesy of the Chicago Bears)
The governor met with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell twice in
January to discuss the matter, according to Pritzker’s calendar,
obtained by CNI via a public records request.
Let’s make a deal
Players in Springfield say there’s a nonzero chance the Bears leave
for Northwest Indiana, and acknowledge that the possibility helped
kickstart discussions.
Other factors have also helped move once-nonexistent negotiations
along.
It was hard to pin the Bears down on details, lawmakers said, as the
team focused first on a privately funded Arlington Heights stadium
before shifting to a lakefront stadium that’d require some public
funding and then back to Arlington Heights. But that’s changed,
Buckner said.
“This is a ‘devil is in the details’ situation,” Buckner said. “And
we didn’t have any of the details, right? I think in the early days,
the Bears expected for us just to say ‘yes,’ without any
specificity.”
Progress has been made on the Bears’ infrastructure requests — an
aspect of the project to which state leaders have always signaled
openness.
And the fine details are being worked through on the PILOT
legislation. Though cautioning that no final deal has been struck,
Cunningham said the property tax break would likely be narrowed in
scope, applying to the stadium and closely related features, such as
a team hall of fame, but not to an adjacent entertainment district
or mixed-use development planned for the massive site.
The Chicago factor
But there remains a major obstacle: getting enough Chicago
legislators to vote for a bill that makes it easier for the team to
leave the city, especially with more than a half-billion dollars
remaining to be paid on the bonds that financed the renovation of
Soldier Field in 2003. The Bears’ lease at the Chicago Park
District-owned facility runs through 2033.
More than three dozen state lawmakers have Chicago addresses, nearly
all of them Democrats. And House Speaker Chris Welch, D-Hillside,
has an unofficial role that no bill will receive a floor vote unless
it has at least 60 Democratic votes.
The Bears are not there yet, though they’ve shown a willingness to
address this basic math problem, Cunningham said.
“The question is, can they do it in a way that satisfies enough
Chicago legislators to get them to vote for the bill? And that’s
something that’s just hard to determine right now,” Cunningham said.
“That’s, I think, one of the reasons why it’s difficult to imagine a
bill under any kind of circumstances moving forward in February.
There’s just a lot more to do there.”
If the Bears break their lease at Soldier Field, they will have to
pay a penalty. A Chicago Tribune review of the team’s lease in 2021
found that they’d owe $84 million if they left in 2026. If they left
in 2029, it would be closer to $55 million, the Sun-Times reported.
But in separate interviews, Buckner and Cunningham brought up the
Cleveland Browns, who are similarly bolting a publicly owned
lakefront stadium in downtown Cleveland for a new domed stadium in
the suburbs. After some legal skirmishes, the team agreed to pay the
city of Cleveland $100 million, including costs of stadium
demolition.
“Not saying that we should use that as a litmus test, but it’s hard
not to pay attention to that,” Buckner said, noting that Cleveland
is a far smaller market than Chicago.
“The Bears do not have an obligation” to help pay the debt, said
Buckner, whose legislative district includes Soldier Field. “I’ve
always said it’s not a contractual obligation, but it’s an
obligation of context because there would be no Soldier Field
renovation without them demanding one. So we can’t undo the past,
but I think we can stabilize the future.”
Lawmakers are in the huddle. But what yard line are they on?
“That remains to be seen,” Buckner said.
Capitol News Illinois is
a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state
government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is
funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R.
McCormick Foundation.
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