The Illinois legislature worked late into the night on Sunday and into the early morning hours of Monday on bills that would be passed this session. Among those was consideration of the Amendment to House Bill 958 (the Chicago Bears Stadium Authority Bill) that would establish the tax and stadium financing structure the Bears had insisted on to continue their plans to construct a new stadium in Arlington Heights.
But this morning, after passing through the Senate, the Illinois House adjourned without
passing the bill.
This means that unless a special session is called this summer (which seems possible), Illinois lawmakers won’t be back until November.
“This morning was the end of session,” State Representative Kam Buckner shared this morning, “It was not the end of the conversation.
The Chicago Bears issued a statement on Monday morning:
“We will finalize our evaluation of both Arlington Heights and Hammond, and remain on the late spring/early summer timeline that we have previously communicated. We will provide an update when we have a decision to share.”
“Early summer” could mean they are optimistic that a special session will be called, but with the way this entire thing has gone, who really knows?
Things looked promising for a while.
Throughout Sunday, there was a great deal of strum und drang regarding the structure of the legislation, and much skepticism about whether any form of the legislation would pass at all. There was some optimism when it was reported that the Bears’ legislative language had been stripped out of the failed “megaproject” bill and would permit cities of appropriate size (which would have included Chicago and Arlington Heights) to give the Bears the tax relief that they sought.
However, as we approached the session deadline, there was some hope the Bears might get their bill after all:
But as midnight passed, no legislation that reflected the specifics of the Bears’ stadium interests had been called to the floor:
Ultimately, a “compromise bill” was passed by the Illinois Senate, designed to keep the possibility of the Bears staying in Illinois, either in Chicago or at the Arlington Heights location, on the board.
The Illinois Senate filed legislation late Sunday night that would allow municipalities within the geographical territory of Cook County, and with populations in excess of 70,000 (which would include Arlington Heights and Chicago), to create their own stadium authority that could strike a deal with the Bears to build a stadium at their location.
However, this bill would still involve a publicly owned stadium, as Senator Bill Cunningham made clear: “They’d have to enter into a lease agreement, a public use agreement, a public benefit agreement, and then the locality would own the stadium.” This is at odds with the Bears’ stated desire to finance and own the stadium themselves.
Whatever the merits of the legislation, the midnight deadline passed without the Illinois legislature passing the bill. While further action is still possible, getting the measure implemented by July 2026 would now require securing a three-fifths majority, however a “simple majority would delay the law from taking effect until July 2027.” Which would be fine given the project’s timeline.
The sheer fact that the Bears are still waiting on Illinois, even though a deal is ready to go in Indiana, sure feels like they want to stay in Illinois.
But who really knows?
Editor: If you want the details on what happened on Sunday, there are a few solid accounts on Twitter you can check out, but my go-to during this whole ordeal has been Brenden Moore (@brendenmoore13), who is an Illinois government and politics reporter for Capitol News Illinois.
You can also read over the Amendment to House Bill 958 right here.
