Just when Chicago Bears fans think the new stadium situation couldn't get any messier, it just did.
A new report from NBC Chicago has come out with Illinois State Senator Bill Cunningham, a co-sponsor of the “PILOT” (payment in lieu of taxes) bill that the state has for the stadium and the Bears to stay in Illinois, shared that the franchise and the city of Chicago have had conversations in recent weeks that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson thought was supposed to be conversation hypothetical conversations regarding building a new stadium if one of the finalists, Arlington Heights, does not work out. It turns out, those conversations did not go well, and the city of Chicago is ready to shut down the bill.
“One of the problems that we’ve run into is that some of the outreach the Bears have done to the city of Chicago as late as four weeks ago has breathed new life into the mayor’s opposition to the bill,” Senator Cunningham said via NBC Chicago's Mary Ann Ahern. “We learned that there was contact between the Bears and the city sometime in late April when they talked hypothetically about looking back at the lakefront if the Arlington Heights site did not work out. And that has given the mayor the opportunity to point to that as a hope that a lakefront stadium is still possible. And that increased opposition among Chicago members.”
Chicago is not sabatoging Illinois from keeping the Bears in the state
Ahern also reported that sources told her the previous conversations between the Bears and Chicago were more about the Soldier Field lease. It had nothing to do with the Bears' potential to stay in the city.
This is now getting worse than imaginable as Mayor Johnson appears to be doing whatever he can to slow the process down and keep the Bears from staying in the city. While Bears fans would prefer the team to be in Chicago, it's getting a bit childish to say it's better for the state to have the franchise in the state than in Hammond, Indiana, the other possible location.
An important date mentioned in the NBC Chicago report is May 31, when the legislative session will take place, and Senator Cunningham warned that nothing may happen with talks on the stadium bill.
“May 31 may come and go without a final answer on all of this. That’s a possibility,” he told NBC Chicago.
Read more: Austin Booker said what Bears fans wanted to hear about playing Packers
The possibility of Hammond, Indiana, becoming the new home of the Bears is more real than it ever has been, and it's only the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago's fault if it happens.
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