Bears: March 31 Wasn't "Deadline" for State Action on Stadium
Bears President Kevin Warren
Chicago Bears President & CEO Kevin Warren did an interview Monday with the national “Pro Football Talk” television show and reiterated our reporting from last week that the Bears did not put a March 31 “deadline” on the state of Illinois to pass a legislative package to keep the team in the state.
“We don’t have a set deadline, but I am confident that sometime this spring [or] summer, we’ll know,” Warren said. “I mean, we have to know because we would have completed the due diligence in Indiana and we’ll see what happens in Illinois.”
Warren continued to present Indiana as a potential landing spot for the franchise.
“We have the legislation passed in Indiana and they’ve been a great partner to work with. We are going through legitimate due diligence,” Warren said. “We have been working through traffic and construction items and transportation and all those different things now. It’s progressing right on pace.”
The “Payment in Lieu of Taxes” or PILOT legislation the Bears are seeking in Illinois to help them reduce a potential $180 million per year property tax bill on a potential Arlington Heights stadium is still facing pushback from legislative Democrats and the state has yet to address infrastructure needs or what to do with the existing $500 million in debt that remains from the 2002 renovation at Soldier Field.
