Daily Herald opinion: Enough with the political blame: Lawmakers must summon urgency and leadership or lose the Bears
The most disappointing, and most useless, thing about the reaction among Illinois leaders to the Chicago Bears’ statement Friday that the franchise is advancing its plans to move to Hammond, Indiana, is that it was all about blame and nothing about what to do.
In various statements, Republicans blamed Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker for lack of leadership and Democrats in general for indifference to the needs and interests of business.
Pritzker blamed the Bears for seeming to toy with political leaders by frequently “shifting their position on a stadium location.”
Chicago Democratic mayoral candidate Susana Mendoza blamed Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson for “an ongoing Blizzard of Incompetence.”
Senators blamed the House for approving a plan that could give a tax break to an $8 billion franchise. Representatives blamed the city contingent in the Senate for risking loss of the team altogether rather than accommodate a move to the suburbs.
None of them suggested what might be done now to woo the frustrated NFL franchise back toward Illinois beyond vague promises like that of Pritzker to remain “open to a sensible solution that protects taxpayers.”
There is of course plenty of blame to go around several times over for this fiasco, but blame is the last thing needed if Illinois leaders truly care about keeping the Bears in the state. What’s needed is a leader to rise to the moment.
The most likely candidate for that role would be the governor, but Pritzker has not shown much appetite so far for assuming it.
For the most part, he has sat on the sidelines throughout the months and years of negotiations spouting a mix of appreciation for the team and concerns for taxpayer interests while offering faint support both for the megaprojects legislation that passed the House but got no vote in the Senate and for Senate’s stadium authority proposal that burst to life in the scheduled last hour of the General Assembly session and failed to get a vote in the House.
If he really wants to keep the team in Illinois, he — and both political parties, for that matter — might take a cue from the state that now appears to be sitting in the driver’s seat of the negotiations. When Bears officials grumbled last December that they were tired of Illinois legislative dithering and might just test the mood in Hammond, it took the Indiana state Senate barely a month to approve, 46-2, a bill promising to invest $1 billion through various taxes to support the project. Within another month, the state’s House supported the bill, 95-4, and an hour later Republican Gov. Mike Braun signed it.
Political leaders in Illinois surely can have no doubts about what will appeal to the team; they’ve been talking back and forth literally for years. The Bears even acknowledged last week that they’ve continued to talking to Chicago leaders behind the scenes. There can be little doubt that the franchise has been courting all sides in pursuit of the best possible financial arrangement. Their nod to Indiana last winter achieved the goal of appearing to get the legislature’s attention, but somehow couldn’t secure its sense of urgency. This new assertion could well be just another feint, for it is hard to imagine that a move to Hammond is anything but a backup plan, but it must be obvious that the team is more than ready to take it if Illinois leaders won’t get their act together.
Indiana did it within a matter of weeks. Illinois has been palavering for years. The Senate came up with a plan in a matter of hours. No one should be wasting a minute more at this point.
Interestingly, Mayor Jim Tinaglia noted that the Bears’ withdrawal would not be devastating for Arlington Heights.
“The Arlington Park property is just one element of what makes our Village so special, and we remain focused on the many priorities that contribute to Arlington Heights’ ongoing success,” he said in a statement. And he has a point. Getting the Bears franchise would be a transformative move, but the village will still have great options if the transformation happens an hour south of Chicago.
Illinois does not have that luxury. Losing the revenues in various forms that come with a premier NFL franchise will have a material impact on the economic health of the state. State officials better stop casting about for blame and political gain and act soon or we all are going to find out just how painful that impact will be.