As Bears Near Indiana Deal, Arrows Out for Team President Kevin Warren
Chicago Bears President Kevin Warren.
The Wednesday Governor JB Pritzker gives his annual State of the State and budget address is one of the busiest days of the year for Deputy Governor Andy Manar. Manar, who leads Pritzker’s budget negotiations, spends hours on speech day briefing lawmakers and advocates and the media on what is about to come. It’s a big day in his year.
But Manar was pulled away from some of his usual duties on State of the State day for a three hour meeting Wednesday with top officials from the Chicago Bears, trying to hammer out an agreement on a “mega projects” development bill that would provide the team with property tax certainty if it builds a new stadium in Arlington Heights.
Multiple sources say both sides were happy with the progress on the bill, known as the Payment In Lieu of Taxes, or PILOT, bill and were planning to draft an amendment to a similar bill scheduled to be heard in a House committee Thursday morning.
“Illinois was ready to move this bill forward,” Matt Hill, Pritzker’s spokesman, posted on Twitter Thursday morning. “After a productive three hour meeting [Wednesday], the Bears leaders requested the [General Assembly] pause the hearing to make further tweaks to the bill. [Thursday] morning, we were surprised to see a statement lauding Indiana and ignoring Illinois.”
Late Wednesday evening, word started to leak out that the Indiana House of Representatives planned to move its stadium construction bill in the Ways & Means committee, a move Republican House Speaker Todd Huston said he wasn’t ready to make until the team had committed to Indiana.
That bill moved Thursday morning in Indiana, passing unanimously through the Ways and Means committee with rhetoric from Indiana politicians that the deal with the Bears was all but done.
“We are committed to finishing the remaining site-specific necessary due diligence to support our vision to build a world-class stadium near the Wolf Lake area in Hammond, Indiana,” the Bears said in a statement released during the hearing in Indianapolis.
It left top leaders in Springfield “blindsided,” we’re told, and there is conflicting information as to whether the Bears gave the Governor’s office a heads up about the pending action in Indiana Thursday morning.
“It was a surprise to us,” Governor JB Pritzker said at an unrelated event in downstate Collinsville Thursday. “I’m surprised, dismayed, very disappointed at what I saw in the statement. Again, the Bears post [releasing their statement] have said, well, we didn’t really mean that they’re moving to Indiana, which is kind of the implication of it. But it’s apparently not true.”
Multiple sources say Pritzker was “furious” at the Bears, and specifically Team President Kevin Warren, who did not participate in the long haul discussion on the PILOT bill Wednesday. Warren has apparently been in Milan, Italy supporting his great niece, Sarah Warren, a speedskater for Team USA.
“[Kevin] Warren chose not to be in that meeting,” Pritzker said. “We had eight people in that discussion involving the legislators, involving the Governor’s office, involving the Bears and their representatives. And lots of progress. But a surprise this morning to wake up and see that statement.”
It has led to some speculation among statehouse insiders that the relationship between the state and team is irrevocably broken.
“Right now, there is nobody in [Illinois] state government that trusts Kevin Warren,” one source said.
The Bears did not respond to a question about Warren’s role in the discussions in recent weeks.
“There were signs over the last few weeks that the two sides had sort of started to repair their relationship and make some real progress on the PILOT bill,” said one legislative insider. “That all kind of went up in smoke [yesterday].”
“There’s a feeling among a lot of people at the table that the Bears haven’t, and may still not be, negotiating in good faith,” a legislative source said. “That makes it hard to trust each other.”
We asked Pritzker Friday if he trusts Warren. He did not answer directly.
“Look, I think the Bears have chosen their representatives. He’s not the only representative of the Bears that sits in these meetings,” Pritzker said. “When you’re doing a deal, you have representatives sitting at a table and you have to develop rapport and a level of trust. In order to get something done, that’s how you get it done.”
But sources close to the team say they aren’t trying to “play” Illinois officials, but are trying to make the best deal possible.
“From a Bears perspective, Hammond is being treated like just another suburb. It just happens to be across a state line,” the source said. “Hammond is closer to Soldier Field than Arlington Park and, in effect, it doesn’t matter if it’s in Illinois or Indiana. We’re just finding who is willing to put a bill together in two months and who lets the issue hang over the state for four years.”
“There’s still a path back for Illinois and to Arlington Heights,” a Bears source said. “But the question is how serious Illinois is going to be in making a deal happen.”
There are some sources close to the organization that believe the team’s patience with Illinois officials is running out.
“The Governor and the General Assembly can get this done, but it certainly feels like they can’t get out of their own way long enough to make a deal,” a source said. “They didn’t get serious about this until it was way too late, and now they’re ‘dismayed’ that the Bears are dancing with someone else? Give me a break.”
“This is not a bluff. It is way more than a leverage play,” another source said. “The Bears are willing to move to Indiana and [Thursday] should have made it clear to everyone how serious the team is.”
Now, it seems, it will come down to what sort of deal the team is able to negotiate with either state.
“I find it hard to believe Illinois will come up with a better deal than we’re offering the Bears,” said one Indiana legislative source. “Why would the Bears pass up the better offer?”
“The Bears are willing to go,” a Bears source said. “It’s time for Governor Pritzker to put up or shut up. Because there’s nothing the team is asking for that the Governor and the legislature can’t do.”
It still isn’t clear if the PILOT bill, even if agreed to by Pritzker, the Bears, local governments, and legislative leaders, can even attract enough Democratic votes to pass on the House and Senate floors.
“It’s not a done deal [with Indiana],” a source said. “But it’s close.”
