Indiana is ready for the Bears. The Bears may soon be ready for Indiana.
Arlington Heights Mayor Jim Tinaglia believes the Bears will strike a deal with Indiana if Illinois doesn’t act decisively by the end of March.
The Illinois legislature will debate this week a tax break and other potential incentives to keep the Bears. Via Christopher Placek of the Arlington Heights Daily Herald, Tinaglia said Thursday that it’s a “big, big, big” week.
“Waiting until the end of May, I think, is a no-go for the Bears,” Tinaglia said during the first “state of the village” address since he took office last year. “They’ve already been through the [wringer] too many times.”
And while the Bears claim their Indiana flirtation isn’t about leverage, it apparently has gotten the powers-that-be in Illinois to emerge from hibernation on the issue of finding a way to facilitate construction of a new stadium in Arlington Heights.
“The Bears aren’t just kidding around,” Tinaglia said. “Maybe they would consider going to Indiana. Since that happened, it’s been a whole different tone.”
Tinaglia believes the Bears prefer Arlington Heights to an out-of-state move. After Indiana finalized the law that would help pay for a stadium there, the Bears said only that they’re making progress with Illinois.
Either way, the Bears seem to be on track to leave the downtown area for a suburban site. That’s not ideal, for any team. But it’s an ongoing trend as teams with stadiums in city limits look for new homes. Years ago, the Giants and Jets left New York for New Jersey. The Dolphins aren’t in Miami. The 49ers ditched San Francisco for Santa Clara. The Cowboys left Dallas for Arlington. The Browns will be leaving Cleveland.
The only team reversing that trend is the Commanders, who’ll be heading from Maryland back to D.C.
Until the new stadium is built, Soldier Field will continue to be the team’s home. But just as the clock is ticking on the site of a new facility, the final sands are slipping away on the team’s 55-year stay in the only place they’ve played other than Wrigley Field.
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