You have to give credit to the Chicago Bears.
They don’t take no for an answer.
For the last four years Illinois residents and politicians have been telling the Bears they would not help them build a new stadium with taxpayer assistance. The Bears would not listen.
What to know about the Chicago Bears’ possible move from Soldier Field
Renderings were released. Job-creation stats were projected. Charts were made. The possibility of a Chicago Super Bowl was dangled as if it were a done deal.
“Little help here?” is all the McCaskey family was saying, like a kid asking their next-door neighbor to retrieve a ball that landed in their yard.
But the “noes” kept coming.
No, we have more pressing problems than helping you get richer, and no, even if we did need a new Bears stadium, we already helped you jerry-rig a new one inside your old stadium, and outside of the suite level it’s almost as outdated as the old one some 20-odd years later.
Still, the Bears persevered, like Monsters of the Midway often do, and even made a few audibles along the way. They announced a plan to build a new stadium on the Arlington Park site in Arlington Heights in 2021, then switched back to the lakefront, then back to Arlington Heights again.
No, no and no.
They’d build it themselves, by gum, but hey, how about a little help on infrastructure and with the property taxes?
“This project does not represent us leaving, it represents us expanding,” President and CEO Kevin Warren wrote in a letter sent to season ticket holders on Sept. 8. “The Bears draw fans from all over Illinois, and over 50 percent of our season ticket holders live within 25 miles of the Arlington Heights site.”
But the answer, once again, was no.
Then, out of the blue, the unthinkable happened. The Bears dramatically improved under a new coach and are in first place with a 10-4 record heading into Saturday’s showdown against the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field. A win over the Packers likely would seal a playoff spot and offer hope that the suffering under the reigns of Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Love was finally over.
To the Bears owners, this seemed like the logical time to finally say “OK, we took the hint and we’re changing our minds and open to moving to northwest Indiana.” So Warren revealed the team’s plan to look at alternative sites in an interview with the Chicago Tribune and sent another letter to fans to let them know their hands were tied by the lack of legislative help, forcing the Bears to “expand our search” to other communities, including Northwest Indiana.
“From a TV, media, radio-rights standpoint and our fan base, it’s an extension of Chicago,” he told the Tribune. “It seems like it would provide a viable opportunity.”
Warren wrote to fans “this is not about leverage.” There was no angry-face emoji added to the letter, but the tone was clear: We are serious, people. If you don’t believe us, just watch.
The politicians acted accordingly. Gov. Pritzker’s office called the Indiana plan a “startling slap in the face” to all Bears fans, presumably including his own. Mayor Brandon Johnson, after many hours spent coming up with the right response, offered this gem: “Is my face straight? All right, keeping a straight face here. The Bears belong in the city of Chicago. The Chicago Bears belong in the city of Chicago, right?”
No one cracks up Brandon Johnson like Brandon Johnson, who at least refrained from threatening to sue the team over using the name Chicago if they moved to Indiana, as the late Mayor Richard J. Daley threatened to do 50 years ago. That was when former owner George Halas, the beloved patriarch of the unbeloved family that currently owns the team, announced the Bears were leaving for a new stadium in Arlington Heights that would be financed through revenue bonds issued by the suburb.
“The area is just a natural,” said George Halas Jr., the team’s president and son of Papa Bear, at the announcement of the plan. “With all the existing highways, it’s accessible to Wisconsin, Indiana, and the north, west and south sides of Chicago.”
That never happened, and neither did any of the other threats to leave in the ensuing 50 years, though the Bears did secure public funding for the Crash-Landing Spaceship By the Lake renovation of 2003.
Meanwhile, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun and various Indiana politicians began shouting about how great the Hoosier State is and how they’d love to have the Bears call it home. The idea of the Bears playing in Krazy Kaplans Fireworks Stadium near an oil refinery off the Skyway was suddenly a reality.
These are heady times for Indiana, a border state our ancestors once crossed only to buy cheap cigarettes, fireworks and maybe an anniversary dinner at Phil Smidt’s or Al Knapp’s. Even if the “Hell is Real” billboard off I-65 suggests otherwise, it’s a new era for our Hoosier friends.
The perennially awful Indiana University heads into the College Football Playoff unbeaten and the No. 1 seed. Republican state legislators earned applause from blue-bleeding Democrats for standing up to President Donald Trump’s gerrymandering demands.
Indiana wants your money and has been successful in luring Illinois residents across the border for a less taxing life and a lower tax burden. It’s a short hike down Route 41 from Hegewisch to Hammond, and you can’t really tell the difference. So it makes sense they also would want to lure the Bears to create jobs and revenues and put their names on a map like Arlington, Texas, or East Rutherford, N.J.
While everyone speculates about whether the Bears would dare to move to a different state, Bears fans are preparing for the biggest game in years on what should be a raw and raucous night at Soldier Field. The names of Papa Bear and Vince Lombardi will be invoked again, along with Butkus and Sayers, Favre and Rodgers and other legends of sports’ greatest rivalry.
Back in 1975 when the Bears first threatened to move to their domed stadium, the original Mayor Daley was asked whether it was really needed. “What the hell, you don’t need a closed stadium in Chicago,” he barked. “We’re robust people, sturdy people, in the Midwest. We like to sit out in October and November and inhale that fine breeze and pure air from Chicago.”
If I know Bears fans, they’ll be inhaling a lot more than a fine breeze and pure Chicago air Saturday while tailgating in the Soldier Field parking lot. It’ll no doubt be a much different atmosphere in 2033 when the Bears and Packers play inside Krazy Kaplans Fireworks Stadium in beautiful Hammond.
Enjoy it while you can.