‘This was not some inflection point’: Officials in Illinois play defense now that Indiana Bears bill is in motion

The day after Indiana made a major play to lure the Bears, officials involved in negotiations with the team on this side of the state line played defense saying the team still is very much interested in Arlington Heights.

“Let me start by saying I am a Chicago Illinois Bears fan and I think that the Chicago Illinois Bears would like to be in Illinois too,” Gov. JB Pritzker said at a news conference in Oak Park Friday morning.

An Indiana House committee on Thursday advanced a bill to acquire land in Hammond, issue bonds, build a stadium and lease it to the Bears. The vote took place at the same time a Springfield hearing on competing Illinois legislation for an Arlington Heights stadium had been scheduled but was abruptly canceled.

“That meeting that was canceled on Thursday was not out of a lack of productivity or a lack of progress in our discussions,” said Arlington Heights Village Manager Randy Recklaus, who was in the room with state leaders and Bears brass for a three-hour negotiation session Wednesday. “Obviously, it reinforces the need for a sense of urgency in Illinois, but the Bears assured us that that does not mean they are shifting their focus to Indiana. They are doing both at the same time.

“This was not some inflection point.”

Pritzker on Friday gave his most public endorsement yet of a Bears relocation to the suburbs; the Chicago resident months ago said he preferred the team stay in the city.

Now — amid the political and legislative movement in Indiana — where the team ends up appears to be a binary choice between Arlington Heights and Hammond.

“The property that they have in Arlington, which has gone unused and just sitting there for some time — that location I think is a much better location for development than anywhere that’s been proposed in the state of Indiana, in fact better than all of the state of Indiana, if you ask me,” Pritzker said.

He went a step further when asked how reluctant Chicago legislators could get on board with stalled megaproject legislation, which would give the Bears a big property tax break at the 326-acre Arlington Park property and effectively clear the way to a departure from the Chicago lakefront.

“They gave it the old college try, so to speak, to try to find a place in the city of Chicago, and they couldn’t,” said Pritzker, noting the difficulty of locating large acreage. “So I think now there’s a common understanding by most of the General Assembly that they’re not going to be able to build in the city of Chicago.”

The long-stalled megaproject bill was scheduled for its first committee hearing in three years in Springfield Thursday morning.

Following closed-door talks Wednesday, Pritzker said the Bears asked General Assembly leaders to delay the hearing. The next morning after the Indiana committee vote, the team released a statement saying it is “committed to finishing the remaining site-specific necessary due diligence” on a location near Wolf Lake in Hammond, while then telling officials in Illinois they didn’t ask for the hearing to be canceled in Springfield, according to Pritzker.

“It’s a choice by the Bears about whether or not they want to be in the state of Illinois,” Pritzker said. “I get that they want to ‘keep hope alive,’ as they say, for another location, but they should have told us they were putting out a statement like that.”

Recklaus acknowledged some in Springfield were taken aback by the timing of the Bears’ announcement, “but it doesn’t mean that the (Wednesday) meeting wasn’t good.”

He said he had multiple conversations with the Bears throughout the day Thursday about the legislation and infrastructure planning, and confirmed the Bears had several calls with legislative leaders.

Those talks continue — including ways to fund the Bears’ $850 million ask for infrastructure funds around Arlington Park — with all parties “full speed ahead on this,” Recklaus said.

Indiana’s legislature is set to adjourn Friday, Feb. 27, following expected votes of the full House and Senate on the stadium authority bill.

The next Illinois House Revenue and Finance Committee meeting — with the megaproject bill on the docket — is scheduled for 8 a.m. Thursday.