Chicago Bears ask city officials to explore lakefront return

The Chicago Bears’ stadium search has widened again in public, even as the team says it has not changed course. Recent contacts between the Bears and Chicago officials have revived talk of a return to the city’s lakefront, according to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office and state lawmakers. The renewed chatter has complicated an Illinois bill meant to support a move to Arlington Heights. The Bears said Thursday that Chicago “is not a viable site” and that only Arlington Heights and Hammond, Indiana, remain under consideration. ### Why are people talking about the lakefront again? Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office said the Bears recently met with Chicago’s Corporation Counsel about terms for a new lakefront stadium, ABC7 Chicago reported on May 21. Johnson has spent weeks arguing that Chicago should not be ruled out, and his senior adviser Jason Lee told the Chicago Sun-Times on May 15 that problems at both Arlington Heights and Hammond could force a “pivot” back to Chicago. (chicago.suntimes.com) State Sen. Bill Cunningham, a sponsor of the Illinois legislation tied to Arlington Heights, said the Bears’ outreach to the city happened as recently as late April. Cunningham told NBC Chicago that the contacts were hypothetical and were framed around a possible return to the lakefront if the Arlington Heights site did not work out. He said those discussions gave Johnson new grounds to resist the suburban package in Springfield. (abc7chicago.com) ### What do the Bears say those meetings were about? The Chicago Bears said Thursday that they had “exhausted every opportunity to stay in Chicago” and that “there is not a viable site in the city,” according to statements reported by ABC7 Chicago and the Sun-Times. The team said any exchanges with the city were limited to counsel-to-counsel discussions and did not involve team management. It added that “no substantive changes resulted” from those talks. (nbcchicago.com) A source close to the negotiations told the Sun-Times that the team’s meetings with city attorneys were about lease parameters at Soldier Field, not a revived lakefront project. A source in the mayor’s office disputed that account and told the newspaper the discussions had expanded beyond the lease and had evolved into a new lakefront stadium conversation. (abc7chicago.com) ### How is this affecting the Arlington Heights bill? The Illinois General Assembly is working against a May 31 adjournment deadline for its spring session, and Cunningham has said the Bears consider the bill essential if Arlington Heights is to remain competitive with Indiana. The measure would help clear the way for the team to negotiate discounted property tax payments and would pair that with roughly $855 million in infrastructure support, according to the Sun-Times and Johnson adviser Jason Lee. (chicago.suntimes.com) Cunningham told NBC Chicago that the Bears’ contacts with Chicago “breathed new life” into opposition from city lawmakers. He said Johnson has asked Chicago-area legislators to slow the process, while Johnson continues to argue that the city remains the best home for the franchise. ### Where do Arlington Heights and Hammond stand now? (chicago.suntimes.com) Arlington Heights remains the focus of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and state lawmakers, according to the Sun-Times. But the proposal still faces questions over traffic and over how a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes system would affect local property taxpayers. (nbcchicago.com) Hammond remains the out-of-state alternative with the clearest legal framework in place. Indiana Senate Bill 27 created a stadium authority and financing structure for a potential project in northwest Indiana, and Gov. Mike Braun signed it on Feb. 26 after the bill passed the Indiana House 95-4 and the Senate 45-4. Braun’s office said in February that the state had identified a site near Wolf Lake in Hammond and was advancing a framework tied to a possible partnership with the Bears. (chicago.suntimes.com) ### What happens next in the stadium fight? May 31 is the next hard date in Illinois, because that is when lawmakers are scheduled to adjourn their spring session, according to the Sun-Times. The Bears have said a decision between Arlington Heights and Hammond is expected later this spring or early summer, while continuing to say publicly that Chicago is out. (iga.in.gov) Bill Cunningham, Brandon Johnson, Gov. JB Pritzker and Indiana officials are the named participants in the next phase. Their immediate test is whether Springfield advances the Arlington Heights package before adjournment, while the Bears continue parallel positioning between suburban Cook County and Hammond. (chicago.suntimes.com)