Proposed Chicago Bears stadium on the lakefront. | ChicagoBears.com There will be no action on a new Bears stadium at this time. Chicago Bears President Kevin Warren made a push for the Illinois legislature to act on funding for a new Bears stadium this spring, saying that it could allow the team to open the new venue in time for the 2028 season. Well, if fans (and Warren) were hoping for that, they received some bad news over the weekend. The Illinois legislature won’t act on anything Bears stadium related until this fall at the earliest, if at all. The Chicago Tribune dropped a report on Saturday night that noted there is still very little support in Springfield among lawmakers for publicly funding the Bears’ proposed stadium project. The Bears have asked for more than $2 Billion in public money to fund such a project. The Tribune report cited several high ranking Democratic lawmakers, including Sen. Bill Cunningham and State Rep. Kam Buckner, both of Chicago. “It’s fair to say that there won’t be any Bears action … in this legislative session, which I think is fine,” Buckner said Saturday (via the Tribune). “I think a proposal of this magnitude deserves sunlight and scrutiny. And very often what has happened in this building is that things get rammed through at the last minute without much public input or transparency. So I welcome conversations that will probably begin to happen once we’re done here.” The current session in Springfield has already run longer than expected. Debates over the Illinois state budget, which were supposed to end on Friday, have continued on. The Bears aren’t the only team looking for public money from the state. The Chicago White Sox continue to explore building a new stadium at The 78. The Chicago Red Stars women’s soccer team are also in the market for upgrading, and state lawmakers have said that equity among men’s and women’s sports clubs needs to be at the forefront of these discussions. Per the Tribune, legislation was introduced in early May that would authorize bond authority on a women’s stadium project, though it has gone nowhere so far. To recap, the Bears assert that their stadium project will cost $3.2 Billion. The Bears plan to privately finance, with some assistance from the NFL, $2.3 Billion of that. They want the state of Illinois to issue $900 million in bonds to cover the remaining cost. Additionally, the team wants the Illinois Sports Facility Authority (ISFA) to refinance $430 million in outstanding stadium debt, as well as borrow $160 million for a liquidity fund in case of future shortfalls with hotel tax revenue. This amounts to $1.5 Billion total in stadium funding. That total would translate to about $4.8 Billion when considering interest payments over the 40 years that it is projected to take for the funding to be paid off. And that’s not all. The Bears have also asked for $1.5 Billion from the state for infrastructure improvement on the lakefront itself. The Bears will have at least this summer (and maybe longer) to think further and possibly modify the lakefront project to try to garner more support. Plus, they still own the Arlington Heights site and could potentially pivot back to a focus there. One thing is for certain, though: that 2028 timeline appears to be lost. How are the 2030s looking? https://www.windycitygridiron.com/2024/ ... dier-field
