Illinois taxpayers are still in debt for renovations to Soldier Field, somewhere between $467 - $534 million. Also, taxpayers shelled out $191 million to build the new Comiskey Park, today called Guaranteed Rate Field, opened in 1991. Some $50 million is still owed (35 years later!); this has been paid down with hotel taxes.
Illinois taxpayers have very little stomach for more taxes to support stadiums. With good reason.
However, this is only part of the reason the Bears appear to be moving to Indiana. The Bears own property in Arlington Heights, Illinois. They bought it about three years ago. They didn't confirm beforehand that they would get some kind of property tax certainty, and were stunned to find out the proposed property tax would be hundreds of millions per year. Illinois lawmakers have been trying to pass a law ensuring a property tax break, and Chicago members of the Illinois legislature - at the alleged instruction of Chicago's mayor, Brandon Johnson - have sabotaged that bill to try and force the Bears to stay within the city of Chicago.
So thanks to the mayor of Chicago, the state of Illinois is probably going to lose the Bears. The team was not looking for public funding of anything beyond infrastructure improvements to Arlington Heights (which are necessary and pretty doggone hefty at roughly a billion dollars). They were insisting on confirming they wouldn't be paying some $53 million every year in property taxes. The McCaskey family, owners of the Bears, don't have any other businesses. The team is worth over six billion but they don't make a tenth of that every season. I think fans should understand the Bears aren't the bad guys here. The NFL salary cap is designed so each team pays roughly half its revenue to the players, and the other half goes to the team. That salary cap just went above $300 million per season. Therefore, the Chicago Bears aren't earning billions every year. They simply can't afford a property tax hit like this.
Now, the state of Indiana has plans for massive tax increases to pay for a stadium, at a location which also needs about a billion in infrastructure. The Bears wouldn't be smart businesspeople if they didn't listen. I think Indiana taxpayers will rue the day it happens.
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