Hoge is 100% right. This is yet another example of state leaders egos outweighing reality. They’ll be the Chicago Bears in NW Indiana, or even (gasp) SE Wisconsin. The Bears have options, Illinois does not. It’s not like another NFL team is moving to Illinois after seeing this behavior by the state. It’s time for the state to take fast action, or lose one of their historic brands to the Hoosier state. And Indiana would love to take in those new tax dollars from fans.

“Why include that sentence in the letter? Because the threat to move to Indiana is about more than leverage.”

It just seems like a prebuttal. It’s standard to anticipate the most likely response and try to argue against it in advance.

To even contemplate the possibility that this is serious, there are a few things that would have to be explained.

1. What’s the point of building a “world class stadium” capable of hosting concerts and major events during the offseason if you then build this stadium so far from the city (and airport) that it no longer attracts these events?

2. A key part of the Arlington Heights project is the real estate side of their investment. Basically it’s a way for the McCaskey family to build some wealth that isn’t purely tied into the valuation of the team that they aren’t going to sell. Are they really going to forgo that to move to Indiana? Maybe they can buy land there too, but they’d just stand to make so much less money than in Arlington Heights. When you do the math, I wonder just how much they’d lose vs the amount they are getting in these tax breaks.

3. In addition to losing the real estate part of this, are they really going to move Halas Hall? Make all of the employees and players sell their houses and move?

Putting aside the underwhelming graphic renderings of the stadium that Kevin Warren put out, the issue seems to be that he’s just bad at the politics here while also in charge of the effort. He comes across as a political neophyte trying to walk into Springfield and get what he wants. From the very start he overestimated what he could get from the state government and overpromised while consistently underdelivering. It’s been a joke. This being released during Bears-Packers week just seems like another joke and is impossible to be taken seriously. Having some deal in the works with Mike Braun shortly after his failed attempt to redistrict the state of Indiana seems to be an easy way to not be taken seriously by Pritzker and Springfield. It’s almost like Kevin Warren doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing and just shoots himself in the foot. They will simply make a lot less money in Indiana and Illinois knows this.

It’s been reported by CHGO that Kevin Warren is very ambitious and wants to become commissioner one day. At the very least use this as a stepping stone to something bigger. Moving the Bears to Indiana would be a humiliating failure for him. There’s just no way this is real.

I’m not saying the team doesn’t deserve the tax breaks or what not. That’s a separate conversation. But the more likely explanation is that the bears were given a number that was too high for them and so they are trying to create leverage out of thin air and Warren is inept and thought this would help. They are hoping this will get bears fans to call their reps and that this will move them and again, Warren doesn’t get how Springfield works.

Yeah. All the writers just don’t want to go to see the Chesterton Bears. I won’t either. We should be squeezing these corps for anything we can get including infrastructure. The NFL is a beast. Also, Cleveland is leaving the city. Boo hoo.

Hoge,

Excellent article and I agree both the city and state have plenty of blame to share with the team. I also don’t care where the Bears end up. What I care about is calling out more PR BS from the Bears.

I’m challenging your source: I simply do not believe the Bears that financing is contingent on “tax certainty” (translation: taxes so low it screws the kids and schools). Stadiums have been built and corporate loans have existed for over a century without local property tax certainty.

I understand why the Bears want guaranteed low taxes so badly that they’d leave the state to get it — and lie about it — but let’s not let them off the hook for the their greed. Please investigate further. They’re a private company and free to move for lower taxes, but that’s their choice.

Thanks!
Scott

Very insightful. Excellent column, Hoge. It’s a great point that Indiana gives the Bears an opportunity to do things in the opposite order – already having the legislation needed and then buying land.