Pritzker: State will not build stadium for Bears

By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker says the state will not build a stadium for the Chicago Bears.

Pritzker spoke to reporters at Illinois State University in Normal on Tuesday and said building a stadium is about what’s best for the taxpayers.

“We’re not gonna build a stadium for the Chicago Bears. Again, they’re a private business. We have offered to do a number of things, still talking as we always do with the Bears about how best to meet their needs,” the governor said.

Pritzker reiterated he is open to state funding of infrastructure for a Bears stadium and said there have been ongoing conversations.

The governor suggested local governments could work on property tax relief the team has been seeking.

“That’s not something the state controls,” Pritzker said.

Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren announced Dec. 17 that the NFL team had expanded its search for a new stadium site to include Northwest Indiana.

Former Illinois state Rep. Mark Batinick said Indiana officials could use their state’s tax structure to attract the Bears.

“They may be able to work within something that’s closer to their regular tax structure and not necessarily give away the store, like they did in Kansas City, to lure the Bears across the state line,” Batinick told TCS.

Last month, the Kansas City Chiefs announced plans to leave Missouri for a future stadium in Kansas. The move was fueled in part by sales tax and revenue bonds and the Kansas legislature’s creation of the Attracting Professional Sports to Kansas Fund.

Batinick released a white paper Tuesday saying the Bears stadium debate has been mishandled for three quarters, but there is a path forward that protects taxpayers.

The former GOP lawmaker said Cook County is the only county in the nation with a two-tiered property tax system.

“They charge two-and-a-half times more for commercial property taxes than they do for residential property taxes, and that’s what makes the property tax bill so sky high,” Batinick said.

Batinick said a balance could be struck to avoid having another large commercial real estate project flee Cook County.

“If we don’t build here, if we don’t do something in Illinois and they do escape across the border, we’re going to get 100% of zero dollars,” Batinick said.

Batinick said, without any negotiation with government, a $3 billion stadium in Arlington Heights would have an annual property tax bill of more than $200 million.

The Bears currently pay about $3.6 million per year in property taxes for the Arlington Heights site the team bought in 2023.

Batinick said the Bears’ current home, Soldier Field, and the White Sox’ home, Rate Field, pay nothing in property taxes. The Cubs’ home, Wrigley Field, has an annual tax bill of $2.7 million and the Blackhawks’ and Bulls’ home, United Center, has a $6.1 million yearly bill.

Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch said talking about a new Bears stadium when the current one is not even 25 years old is insensitive when people are going through cost-of-living issues.

“I don’t know anyone that has knocked on a door and someone has said anything about the Chicago Bears,” Welch told the City Club of Chicago last week.

Soldier Field was renovated in 2003 with a reported price tag of $632 million.

John Mozena, president of The Center for Economic Accountability, argued against infrastructure spending for the Bears facility.

“Both the stadium and those hundreds of millions of dollars worth of infrastructure will be sitting there not used or deeply underutilized, and that’s money that could be spent on infrastructure that people are actually going to be using every day,” Mozena told TCS last fall.

###