By Tom Davies
Indiana Capital Chronicle
The countdown clock is ticking louder for a potential deal locating the new Chicago Bears stadium in northwest Indiana.
Indiana General Assembly leaders say they expect any financial agreement for a football stadium project will need to be finalized ahead of the scheduled Feb. 27 adjournment of this year’s legislative session.
“I think I made it pretty clear,” Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston said Thursday. “If this is going to happen, we need to get done before we leave. That is the deadline.”
That declaration comes as the House Ways and Means Committee faces a Feb. 19 deadline to advance Senate Bill 27 that would create the Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority enabling state involvement in the project.
Legislative leaders have said Gov. Mike Braun’s administration is taking the lead on negotiations with the Bears and are revealing little about the status of those talks.
Neither the governor’s office nor a Bears spokesman replied Friday to messages from the Capital Chronicle seeking comment.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said this week that his administration was making progress in negotiations for a new Bears stadium in the northwestern Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights.
No details on Indiana offer
Indiana Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray told reporters Thursday that the negotiations were “dictated by the timing of this legislative session.”
Bray said state officials are “not really taking a look at what Illinois is providing and trying to be in an open competition with them.”
“We just think we have an offer and a template that we’ve used down here in Indianapolis that’s really competitive and an attractive offer, that works both for the taxpayers of Indiana and, maybe, for the Chicago Bears and is a great benefit to northwest Indiana,” Bray said.
Public financing covered most of the $720 million cost of building Lucas Oil Stadium that opened in 2008 for the Indianapolis Colts, with the team contributing about $100 million. The public money comes from a variety of taxes that include food and beverage sales taxes in Indianapolis and its surrounding counties.
Arlington Heights Mayor Jim Tinaglia said during a Wednesday event that he was confident Illinois officials are “wide awake right now” in responding to the possibility of the Bears reaching an Indiana stadium deal.
Tinaglia said he believed the “Bears want to come to Arlington Heights.”
“That is, in my opinion, in my heart of hearts, that’s truth,” Tinaglia said. “They didn’t buy 326 acres because they thought it was a great idea to just hang on to an investment. They have wanted to come here for 40 years.”
Indiana’s bid “totally worth the effort”
The pending Indiana legislation would give the new stadium authority the power to acquire land, issue long-term bonds and finance the construction of a stadium and related facilities.
The bill, however, does not specify how much taxpayer money would go toward the project and which local taxes might be tapped. It also doesn’t include details of what, if anything, the Bears would contribute to the new stadium.
Bears officials have not specified the Indiana sites they are considering. Leaders of Hammond, Gary and Portage have all pitched locations in their cities.
Huston said he was “optimistic” about an Indiana deal with the Bears and brushed aside apprehension that the team’s ownership was using Indiana to gain leverage for a better Illinois agreement.
“We pursue a lot of different businesses on a daily basis,” Huston said. “So there’s always effort, especially one of these types of high profile (projects.) These are long discussions and those types of things, but totally worth the effort.”
