The Chicago Bears are back at the table with Illinois lawmakers, meeting with legislative leaders in Chicago this week alongside NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell even as the team keeps vetting stadium sites in Hammond, Indiana.
Owner George McCaskey and team president and CEO Kevin Warren joined Goodell and other league officials for the session. Participants agreed to keep working toward legislation that could lead the club to build its new stadium in Arlington Heights, Illinois, or possibly within Chicago itself.
In a statement Friday, the Bears said they welcomed the recent outreach from Illinois leaders on a bill and expected productive conversations with officials from both states over the coming weeks. The team said it has an obligation to weigh every option open to it.
Indiana remains firmly in the picture. The club said it is still collaborating with Indiana officials and is wrapping up due diligence on two potential sites near Wolf Lake in Hammond.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said this week that a Bears bill is coming and predicted lawmakers would take it up during the veto session in mid-November and early December. His job, he said, is to produce a measure the team can accept, with the final location left to the Bears.
Legislators are due back in Springfield Nov. 17-19 and Dec. 1-3, when they could consider a reworked version of a stadium measure that stalled in the spring.
How Indiana got ahead
That earlier failure to deliver the tax and infrastructure certainty the team wanted is what drove the franchise toward Hammond. Its board voted June 5 to advance the Indiana project, and in August Warren called Hammond the team's sole focus and praised Indiana's offer as an excellent deal.
Indiana lawmakers locked in their package in March. Senate Enrolled Act 27 would set up a Hammond stadium authority to construct and run a publicly owned venue for the team, paid for by letting the county raise taxes on restaurant meals, hotel stays and admissions.
The Bears are looking to leave Soldier Field, their aging home on Chicago's Lake Michigan lakefront.
